Mr Sun Studios - All about Design, Programming and Game Development.

Step 1: Programming the Character

Today, we’re going to make a classic vertical shooter game in ActionScript 2. I hope you learn from it! Let us begin.

The first thing that I’m going to do is make the background of my game black, so it looks more retro. Then, we’re going to have to make the frame rate faster, mine will be 24 fps. Also, this will be a vertical shooter, so we probably should make the playing screen more narrow. My new dimensions are at 300×400 pixels.

Next, we’re going to draw a character. Mine will be simple, just a triangle pointing upwards.

The dimensions for it are 30×35 pixels.

Then, we’re going to turn it into a symbol. After that, we’re going to give it an instance name of mcMain for main character. We will need this so we can reference the guy later. Now we’re ready to code this sucker. Make a new layer called “actions” and add the following code:

var mainSpeed:Number = 5;//how fast the main guy can move
 
onEnterFrame = function(){ //this function will run every frame (needed for moving the character
	if(Key.isDown(37) || Key.isDown(65)){ //if the "A" key or Left Arrow Key is Down
		mcMain._x -= mainSpeed;//then the move the guy left
	}
	if (Key.isDown(38) || Key.isDown(87)){//if the "W" key or Up Arrow Key is Down
		mcMain._y -= mainSpeed; //then move the guy up
	}
	if(Key.isDown(39) || Key.isDown(68)){//if the "D" key or Right Arrow Key is Down
		mcMain._x += mainSpeed; //then move the guy to the right
	}
	if(Key.isDown(40) || Key.isDown(83)){//if the "S" key or Down Arrow Key is Down
		mcMain._y += mainSpeed; //then move the guy down
	}
 
	//keeping the main character within bounds
	if(mcMain._x <= 0){
		mcMain._x += mainSpeed;
	}
	if(mcMain._y <= 0){
		mcMain._y += mainSpeed;
	}
	if(mcMain._x >= Stage.width - mcMain._width){
		mcMain._x -= mainSpeed;
	}
	if(mcMain._y >= Stage.height - mcMain._height){
		mcMain._y -= mainSpeed;
	}
}

This is actually all we need for this chapter. Pretty easy, right? Next time, we’ll make him shoot!

Final Product

Source .fla File

You all those games, the kind that usually aren’t particularly good but are still somehow very popular. Those are what are know as viral games. Some are created to advertise a product or event. Others are just made to be funny. But, they all have some aspects that are special to these kind of games. I’m going to tell you the components of games like these.

A collection of the best links I find throughout the weeks, covering topics such as Flash, Flex, Game Development, Humor, and Web Design.

Table of Contents

Coding Paddle Movement
Programming the Ball
Setting Up the Bricks on Stage
Hit Testing the Bricks
Creating Levels
Finishing Touches

Step 6: Finishing Touches
Well, we’re almost done with our game, now we just have to add some finishing touches. I won’t make a menu system like you usually should in a game before releasing it. But, this is just [...]

Table of Contents

Coding Paddle Movement
Programming the Ball
Setting Up the Bricks on Stage
Hit Testing the Bricks
Creating Levels
Finishing Touches

Step 5: Creating Levels
Now that we’ve got the basic gameplay down, we can create some levels. Because we’re making only a simple game, we aren’t going to make that many. But before we even start making multiple levels, we [...]

Table of Contents

Coding Paddle Movement
Programming the Ball
Setting Up the Bricks on Stage
Hit Testing the Bricks
Creating Levels
Finishing Touches

Step 4: Hit Testing the Bricks
Now that we’ve actually made the bricks, we can now break them with our ball… Anyway, this will be pretty easy to accomplish. All you have to do is change this code in the [...]

Table of Contents

Coding Paddle Movement
Programming the Ball
Setting Up the Bricks on Stage
Hit Testing the Bricks
Creating Levels
Finishing Touches

Step 3: Setting Up the Bricks on Stage
Ok, we’ve got the paddle and the ball. Now, the only major thing left to program is the brick. This is also the hardest to program, so it will be split up [...]

Table of Contents

Coding Paddle Movement
Programming the Ball
Setting Up the Bricks on Stage
Hit Testing the Bricks
Creating Levels
Finishing Touches

Step 2: Programming the Ball
The next obvious step in creating a brick breaker game is making the ball. So, I’m just going to make a small 10×10 pixel white circle into the symbol, “mcBall”.

I’m also going to give my [...]

Table of Contents

Coding Paddle Movement
Programming the Ball
Setting Up the Bricks on Stage
Hit Testing the Bricks
Creating Levels
Finishing Touches

Step 1: Coding Paddle Movement
Alright, I’ve decided to make a tutorial for you guys on how to create a brick breaker game in ActionScript 2.0. It’ll be very similar to my one for AS3, except coded differently. So, here [...]

Basic Character Programming
Programming the “Bells”
Level Creation
Scoring
Finishing Touches

Step 5: Finishing Touches
This part of tutorial is where we add some bug fixes and special effects. Let’s get started.
The next bug we need to fix occurs after the mcFinalStats is shown on the screen. Whenever you click anywhere, mcMain can still jump. We can fix this no problem. [...]