Firefly Part 4: Layouting system

In our previous posts we created game project with basic navigation flow and texture management. Now time to a little bit more complicated things - layouting system. URL for showcase project is provided at the bottom of this post, you can download it and import as a project into your FlashBuilder.
When we were creating layouts we had in minds two things: it should be flexible, easy to use and works well across large variety of different screen resolutions.

Firefly Part 3: Vector textures

In our previous post we created game project and added basic navigation flow, so now we have skeleton of game and we need to load some textures to make it more attractive. We will use vector .fxg textures created in Adobe Illustrator (you can read more info here). First of all lets add textures into our splash screens, it will be pure flash vector. We do not need to rasterize it because at splash state we do not have Starling yet and we use flash sprites. For now we will not use any layouts so just hardcode sizes and positions of elements and later in next posts we will change it. URL for showcase project is provided at the bottom of this post, you can download it and import as a project into your FlashBuilder.

Firefly Part 2: Basic game flow with ViewNavigator

In our previous post we have created and set up project for game "Zombie: Rising Up". Now we need to make game navigation that you can accomplish by using ViewNavigator manager. This manager has ability to switch between views and load necessary textures. It also can plays different transition such as animated effect, shows loading indicator or advertisement while textures are loading. ViewNavigator reacts on activation/deactivation and lost context events loading dropped textures and showing special loading indicator.

URL for downloading showcase project is provided at the bottom of this post, you can download it and import as project into your FlashBuilder IDE. So now, it's time to add into our game main view that will be like container for other views and hold view navigator. The best place to add it - handler for Starling initialize event.

Firefly Part 1: Setting up game project

In this tutorial we will move through whole process of creating game called "Zombie: Rising Up". This game is available on Google Play and Apple Store. To set up game project you will need Flash Builder 4.7 and Firefly SDK, also we will use AIR SDK 3.6. If you don't know how to install AIR SDK into your Flash Builder you can find instruction here. First of all you need to create Action Script Mobile Project and uncheck "Automatically reorient" checkbox and check "Full screen" one in the bottom part of the dialog screen. In the root of the project create two directories - "libs" and "resources". In the first we will put .SWC libraries and .ANE extensions, in the second we will put .fxg textures, icons and bitmap fonts. Unpack Firefly SDK and put all files from bin directory into "libs" folder. So now we need to set up project to use these folders: open Project -> Properties -> ActionScript Build Path and in the Source path tab add folder "resources" like showed below.

Say hello to the in4ray Gaming SDK - Firefly

Dear flash community, we have been working with flash many years and we strongly believe that it is awesome platform especially in game development. We think that flash developers need to keep together, share knowledge, build our community and breathe new life into flash. We hope that our child "Firefly" will help you to create games powered by Starling framework. This SDK contains gaming framework and native extensions and it is fully open source, so you can download source code from GitHub.

Optimized FXG graphics in Adobe Illustrator - Part 2

In our previous post we described possibility of usage vector textures in FXG format and how to create optimized FXG graphics. That approach underlines vector textures management in Firefly framework. In this post we will go through the procedure of creating vector textures with appropriate aspect ratio.

Zombie: Rising Up game released

Stop zombie attack!

Defend your home from zombies. Use your fingers to tap on zombies and smash them. Eliminate them before they break down your door. Play addicting and entertaining zombie smasher for FREE!

Let’s GO smash zombies!
Game was powered by Adobe AIR and Firefly SDK.