Freelance Flash Games News

Vortix Games Studios has recently announced the release of their new Actionscript 3 framework called Bold Pixel Engine. The engine compiles a number of useful classes and coding tasks commonly used in game development to give developers a streamlined engine capable of efficient and effective game creation.

Already in use in two soon to be released games, Bold Pixel Engine integrates a variety of useful classes ranging from algorithms and data structures to input and sound control.It even has a fully functioning blit engine which allows you to easily add blitting, a technique that allows for extremely fast rendering by not using movieclips but by directly drawing to a bitmapdata object, to your game.

Designed to be aesthetically pleasing, Vlad of Vortix Games Studio comments “most of the decisions we did regarding the engine organization were tailored to be easy on the eye for developers. If you create a movieClip you’ll see A LOT of stuff there, functions, variables and so on. We coded BPE taking into consideration that less is more and that regardless of how complex it is, the only thing we as developers need to see is what was made public, all the rest is private or internal. This means that something as complex as the blit engine’s classes when being coded, only show a handful of methods and variables instead of a ton of stuff we don’t need or use.”

Here’s a quick rundown of feature for you:

• Collision Detection algorithm
• Path Finding algorithm for tiled maps
• Blit Engine
• Keycode Array
• Math classes such as Random and Geometry
• 2D Arrays
• States
• Clock control
• Toolkit which includes management for:
  • Music
  • Scenes
  • Input
  • Saves
  • Loops
  • Sound Effects

Best of all, Bold Pixel Engine is free! Vortix Games Studio designed it as part of their game development process and they’re now giving out access to their engine hoping they can help you with your game development process too. Go check it out.

Come2Play has done some great flash developer promotions in the past, and are at it again with another contest aimed at getting developers to incorporate their multiplayer based API. Called The Games that Challenge the World Competition, the contest calls for developers to create turn-based multiplayer games which pit players against one another in a head-to-head game using Come2Play’s multiplayer API.

Now for your favorite part, the prize money. Come2Play has teamed up with LinkedIn to offer a $5,000 grand prize for the 1st place winner. 2nd place will net you a nice $2,000 and 3rd place will get you a respectable $1,000 prize.

The best part about the competition? It’s non-exclusive. This means that you can still get your flash game sponsored, and can even submit already released games (as long as you implement their multiplayer API into the submitted version). They’ll even pay you to release a single-player game with their API incorporated into it. Come2Play is offering up to $3,0oo to convert flash games with over 100,000 plays and over a 3.5 score on Kongregate or Newgrounds.

Wondering how to get started and enter the competition? First head over to their website to check out their multiplayer API and see if it fits your needs. Here are a couple features that stuck out.

• It allows you to do away with server side script and use purely Actionscript to create your game. They even take care of the servers, connections, and hosting for you.
• Supports social media features such as leaderboards, chat systems, lobbies, tokens, and shops. This means you can use virtual currency (or microtransactions) within your game.
• Allows use of in-game ad systems such as MochiAds or CPM-Star and offers revenue share program.
• For distribution, games are launched as social network applications and automatically added to Come2Play’s network of partner sites.

To enter you must be a member of the Flash Developers Group on LinkedIn. Best get started soon if you’re interested as submissions are due by March 31, 2010. For full contest rules and submission guidelines head over to the official contest page.

Planning a flash game, but unsure of what time period to put it in? Look no further, I’ve compiled a massive list of times you can set your game in.

• Prehistoric
  • Individual cells.
  • Oceanic. Ancient Fish.
  • Early land dwellers. Spiders, scorpions, amphibians etc.
  • Dinosaurs. Tyrannosaurus, velociraptor, triceratops, etc.
  • Age of Extinction.
  • Ice Age.
  • Cavemen/Neanderthals
• Ancient History
  • Neolithic Era. Period in which humans domesticate plants and animals.
  • Egyptian Pharaohs. Period of pyramids and kings in Egypt.
  • Early Chinese Dynasties. Shang, Zhou, Yayoi, etc.
  • Bronze Age. Metal weapons and tools.
  • Greece. Spartans, Trojans, Athenians, etc.
  • Roman Empire. Soldiers and legions.
• Early to Middle Years
  • Mongol Empire. Horsemen.
  • Medieval. Knights and castles in England.
  • Samurai in Japan.
  • Ninjas in Japan.
  • Chinese dynasties. Sui, Tang, Song, Jin, and more.
  • Age of Discovery. Ships and explorers.
  • Age of Enlightenment. Knowledge, reason.
  • Spanish conquistadors in America. Spanish colonization of the Americas.
  • Native Americans in America.
• Modern Period
  • Industrial Revolution.
  • Machine Age
  • WWI
  • WWII
  • Cold War
  • Space Age
  • Steampunk. Alternate timeline with gears/steam/powered gadgets instead of electric.
• Present Day
• Future
  • Nano technology.
  • Robotics. Artificial Intelligence.
  • Mech Age. Operate mechanical suit of armor.
  • Alien exploration.
  • Nuclear Holocaust.
  • Post-Nuclear Holocaust.
  • Interplanetary travel.
  • Zombies.

Did I leave  your favorite time period out? Leave me a comment and I’ll be sure to add it for you.

With more and more developers turning to flash games as a viable source of income, the way flash games are being made is starting to change. With multiple contracts and limited time frames, most professional flash developers have within their arsenal a secret bag of tricks for getting their games finished more efficiently.  Today, I’m going to share some of them with you.

Streamline your Development

Work From the Ground Up

While it may be obvious, it’s a tip most flash developers will ignore. I know I’ve started quite a few games that never really got off the ground because I aimed my sights too high. Before you start going crazy developing awesome concept art and complex upgrade systems, code your game engine.

It’s really that simple. If your game engine is fun without all the upgrades and art, then you know you have an amazing game on your hand. If not, perhaps it’s back to the drawing board for some more tweaking.

Organize your Code

Although it may take some extra time while writing your code, organizing it will save you so much more time in the long run when you are searching through your code trying to find out why lever 38b wouldn’t close the hatch. Comment that code, name your variables with something memorable, and keep your code neat and tidy. You’ll thank yourself when you go back to it.

Reuse Code

Speaking of going back to code, get into the habit of reusing your actionscript. Build your game in pieces so that next time you have to create a game you can spend less time on the nuts and bolts of the game and more time focusing on what’s important: the gameplay. Create functions for common tasks such as character movement, enemy A.I. movement, firing objects, collision tests, and more.

Looking to create multiplayer games in AS3? A new service called Pulse has just come out offering flash developers a platform for creating multiplayer games.

Pulse allows developers to create multiplayer flash games without needing a knowledge of networking or server side coding. The object oriented coding platform can support both turn-based and real time multiplayer games, making it a good option for multiple game types.

One of the nice aspects of Pulse is the extensive number of built-in features it offers. Pulse offers developers room management, lobby management, a friends system, a private and public chat system, avatars, in-game registration, high scores, and more. While all of these features are built-in, an advanced user could customize each to his liking with the available source code.

Pulse has 4 main price models; single, full, professional, and enterprise, which range from $95 to $4,985. The differences between the models are subtle, as almost all of the features (such as unlimited games, rooms, players, databases and more) are available with the full price model. But if you want to the Pulse server SDK or a cluster of servers, then the professional or enterprise options may be for you. The lowest priced single version of pulse contains all the features as the full version except that it allows only one game to be deployed on the server, making it a great option for developers.

Developers that don’t want to deal with the hassle of setting up and maintaining servers can pay a $20 a month fee for hosting. However if you integrate the Andrograde microtransactions system into your game, besides being able to generate microtransaction revenue, you will be given hosting free of charge.

To check out examples of Pulse games in action, go visit their forums. If you’re interested in getting a copy of Pulse for yourself, head over to the site or pick up a free trial version of the multiplayer platform.