{ P I X E L W E L D E R S }

<Synopsis!>
First of all, a synopsis of this entry so you don’t have to read the whole thing. First, I’m going to reminisce in a slightly condescending tone. Then, I’m going to suddenly switch tacks and turn my reminiscence into a rather awkward metaphor about how Flex rocks. Then I’ll say something like “download Adobe Flex 3 here and try it for game development.” So if that’s enough to convince you, you can stop reading here. If not, read on! There’s another link to download the Flex trial at the bottom of this post.
</Synopsis!>

A few years ago, before my brilliant web career, I lived a very different life. I worked in a small studio in downstate Illinois as a songwriter and producer. This was not quite as awesome as it sounds. Usually it meant dealing with clients who were pretty convinced of their own brilliance, who brought me lyrics scratched on stained and wrinkled napkins. “It goes like this,” they would say, and hum me a series of unrelated notes.

My job was to take this stained napkin and these notes and, through a sort of studio alchemy, synthesize an actual song. I acted as an amplifier for the natural talent of the client. If she thought she might want some drums, I was the drummer. If this called for some keyboard or guitar, then that was my job too. If there was a note a client didn’t like or a harmony that didn’t seem to work, it was my job to suggest a better one. I became an extension of the client- the whole point of my employment being to make each artist sound better than they actually were.

Okay, now let’s make the awkward jump to the other side of this too-obvious metaphor. The hapless client is now the Flash developer. The studio is now the Flash player and development environment. And the producer, the guy who amplifies your strengths and fills in for your weaknesses… that producer is Flex 3.

Yes, it’s an awkward metaphor. I realize this. But it’s very important to me that I evangelize Flex as much as possible, and this particular comparison makes a lot of sense in my head. Actionscript 3 dropped a ton of new functionality in our laps- the Flash Player 9 API is like five times the size of Flash Player 8’s. In many ways, the AS2 expert, the Java developer, and the AS newbie are all in the same boat (to mix metaphors) when it comes to starting AS3. It’s a room full of powerful equipment and there’s no one to ask for help.

So that’s why I am evangelizing Flex 3. If you’ve been using the Flash CS3 compiler, you’re going to freak when you start using the Flex 3 compiler. Seriously, it’s that awesome. And Flex itself provides a ridiculous amount of help in the form of auto-completion and code hints. It’s like that producer. You say “I’d like to make a call to that BadGuy class I made three weeks ago.” Flex 3 says, “Awesome! You’ll need to send it the following five parameters, of these five types, in this order.” As soon as you mistype a variable name Flex is there with a friendly reminder: “Ahem. The ScoreKeeper class only accepts Numbers. I suggest you change your approach.” No more thirty-second compiles in Flash only to find that you have errors in your code. It’s instant- Flex checks your syntax and compiles every time you save.

Okay, I’m getting carried away here. I can’t help it- I’ve only recently started using Flex for game development, and it’s changed the way I code. I know you FlashDevelop and Eclipse folks have had these functions forever, but it’s new to me. I can get twice as much done in half the time, with a third of the frustration. Or something. So if you haven’t tried Flex for your game development, I suggest you give it a whirl. Adobe even gives you a 60-day trial here. Seriously, how can you lose?

Credits
The studio above is The Noisegate, in Pekin IL. It’s a beautiful studio, and Mike Layne (lead engineer) is a great guy. Tell ‘em I sent you.

It looks like I’m two to three weeks out from releasing OS Wars. Things are starting to fall into place, but there’s a lot left to do. Vehicles, for example. How difficult could it possibly be to design a monstrous six-turreted beast with independently tracking weapons? Answer: more difficult than it sounds, apparently, because it took a freaking week longer than it was supposed to.

Anyway, the point of this post is that I need some beta testers. I don’t want to just release this on an unsuspecting public, because it’s a ridiculously complex game engine. If it’s going to go haywire, I’d rather it do so when there are only fifty people playing it.

So if you are interested in beta testing, please drop by os-wars.com and click “Enlist!” to send me a nice little email. In a week or so, when the game’s a little more stable, I’ll send you a password and you can begin the merciless grind of beta testing.

Also, Fury Creative has given me a quick-and-dirty logo to use for promo. Not bad for a few minutes’ work…

Doug over at Fury Creative got me the first finalized tank today.  I’m pretty excited to see what he’s going to do with the big tanks- this one’s just a baby.  Looks pretty slick, though.

Two Emoticons and two Heavy Beam Cannons.  Sounds like a good time to me.

There was an age, long ago, when things were different.  People were simpler and less selfish, taking only what they needed from the land and giving back what they could.  The air was cleaner, the rivers were clearer, and small furry things cavorted with other small furry things.

However, all things must come to an end.  Today we look back upon this golden age, this Elysium, and we weep for what might have been.  We now live in a world filled with tiny transistors, a silicon hell.  Contrast our world with the one I speak of, a paradise filled with larger, hotter, and less efficient transistors, and also the Pentium.  I refer, of course, to the 1990s.

As much as things have changed from this fabled yesteryear, there are still some similarities.  For a short time in these “nineties,” there were two categories of games: games that were Real-Time Strategy, and games that were not Real-Time Strategy.  We have Dune II and Command & Conquer to thank for that short age of complete and ridiculous obsession on one genre.  Thankfully we’re beyond such tendencies today.

Which means, of course, that it’s time to revisit them!  I think it’s about time a decent web-based RTS was released.   I’ve seen some attempts, but none of them has really taken advantage of what Flash is capable of these days.  We have so many tools now: physics engines, 3D engines, particle engines, real-time communication between clients, &c.  So here is where the experiment begins- a Flash RTS.  Flash on a Core 2 should be able to handle anything that a 386 running Dune II could- and more.  Why not take advantage of it?

Man second from left is sure he’s heard of this “game” thing before.

After having worked on a few web games for some major corporations, I believe I have enough experience with the process to open its inner workings to those who might want to make their own. This is from a corporate point of view, but if a corporation can do it, anyone can.

The Process

1- Corporation notices that this “web game” thing is starting to catch on with “the target demographic.”

2- Corporation hires a design company- not necessarily a game design company- to build said game.

3- Design company assigns a “team” who then begins a series of “brainstorming sessions.”

4- Design company submits the fruit of these brainstorming sessions- a full storyboard- to corporation.

5- Corporation sits on said storyboards for two weeks, then reports back that minor changes have been requested, including but not limited to changing the entire basis of the game.  The design company will never know this, but the majority of the changes were suggested by Bill in Accounting, a project manager named Cindy, and the husband of someone in marketing.  None of them, it is important to note, have ever played a game in his or her life.

6- Steps 3 through 5 are repeated until the original idea has been transformed into a fine grey mush.

7- Game is released.

8- Game flops.  Executives at corporation think “well, games aren’t as popular as we thought.”