Section Part One:. What s in This Book?

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Part One: What's in This Book?

This book will cover a lot of groundenough for you to take off on your own. There will also be a few (advanced) chapters that will open new doors and lead you to continue expanding your knowledge of ActionScript. This section briefly outlines what's to be found in each chapter.

Part One: The Essentials

Everybody needs to start at the beginningthis first part of the book will ensure that you gain a solid foundation and that you're on the right track. These first five chapters will introduce you to the world of Flash and will prepare you for further advancement.

• Chapter 1 , The Flash Interface: Getting Acquainted. This chapter will start off with some Flash history, and then discuss what Flash is today. All major Flash components and shortcuts will be discussed and you will learn enough start comfortably using the application.

• Chapter 2 , Programming and Design: Concept to Production. This chapter starts off by explaining what ActionScript is and how it came to be. I'll answer common questions regarding interpreted, scripted and compiled languages. Also this chapter will also introduce the concepts of ActionScript game design and explain the steps necessary for building any project in ActionScript.

• Chapter 3 , The Fundamentals: Variables, Conditionals and Loops. This chapter will introduce the concept of variables, conditionals and loops . The chapter will begin by showing you how to create variables and introduce the operators that change a variable's contents, and then you'll move on to conditional statements that affect the program flow.

• Chapter 4 , Movie Clips and Buttons: Methods and Properties. I'll introduce movie clips and buttons in this chapter, as well as the concept of scope . I will also talk about methods and properties of movie clips and show you how to add custom properties to movie clips.

• Chapter 5 , Arrays and Objects . In this chapter, I will introduce arrays and show how they are used in practical situations. Once you understand arrays, you will move onto custom objects.

Part Two: The Intermediate

Things get a little trickier hereyou will learn how to prepare special types of movie clips that will allow you to have complete control from within your scripts. You will also explore possibilities that will help the players of your games enjoy their game playing experiences!

• Chapter 6 , Dynamic Movie Clips. ActionScript has the capability to reproduce objects that you have created in the project's librarythis is where all your symbols are stored. ActionScript can also duplicate an object that is currently in the scene. I will explain all of these subjects and show you demos that demonstrate how to use them in practical situations.

• Chapter 7 , Drawing with a Script. Empty Movie Clips will come alive within this chapter. They allow you to draw within them from ActionScript with a special set of commands. I'll show you really cool demos that demonstrate the power of this built-in tool, and will explain all of the drawing commands in detail.

Part Three: Interactivity and Sound

What's a game without any controls or sound? In this section, you will learn how to take keyboard and mouse input and use it to make your games complete. Everything from creating your own mouse cursor to detecting the arrow keys to transforming your own sound effects will be explored.

• Chapter 8 , User Interactivity: The Keyboard. Everything from button shortcuts to installing keyboard listeners will be discussed in this chapter. This chapter will allow you to make your programs come alive.

• Chapter 9 , More Interaction: The Mouse. The infamous drag n' drop will be introduced in this chapter. The mouse's cursor position will be detected and the chapter will demonstrate how you can use this to your advantage.

• Chapter 10 , Sound Effects and Music. In this chapter, we get to the really good stuff. This one will start off by rigging a movie clip in order to forcefully use sound within a script. After you master this, you'll learn how to properly load sounds dynamically. You'll learn tips and tricks to include music within a game. Special effects, such as panning, volume adjusting and other transformations, will also be introduced.

Part Four: The Math

Plain and simpleyou need to know your math if you want to get anywhere in the world of game programming. This chapter is a light introduction to advanced topics that will take you to the next level when it comes to realism .

• Chapter 11 , Trigonometry Made Easy. Trigonometric functions are thoroughly explained in a fun, not-too-scary way in this chapter. The unit circle is introduced, and the demos will show off how cool trigonometry really is.

• Chapter 12 , The Physics: Making It Feel Real. I'll keep physics relatively simple by explaining the concepts through the use of many demos. You'll learn about speed, velocity, acceleration, gravity, wind and friction forces, as well as an overview of vector and scalar quantities will be explained in this chapter.

Part Five: Advanced Topics

Communicating with the rest of the world has never been easier with Flash. In this section you will learn how to manage your memory and also learn how to send and receive information. Web components will also help you exchange information with your users.

• Chapter 13 , Server and CGI Communications. This chapter will start off with an explanation of what CGI is and how the browser communicates with the server. In turn , I will end up discussing how Flash communicates with the browser and server and vice versa. High score and save-state concepts will be explained.

• Chapter 14 , Memory and Web Management. In this chapter, I'll introduce very neat techniques for adding load-bars and organizing memory for optimal Web performance. Demos will be broken down and all the dissected pieces will be thoroughly explained.

• Chapter 15 , Advanced Interaction with Components. Components really come in handy when you want fancy controls in your movie or game. I'll introduce Flash components and show them in practical situations.

• Chapter 16 , Debugging and Avoiding Common Programming Pitfalls. You'll use the Flash debugger extensively in this chapter, and all of its panes will be thoroughly dissected. I'll also discuss ways to optimize code.

• Chapter 17 , Matridia II: The Project. Everything you've learned in this book will be reviewed and seen in action in this full-blown demo. I'll dissect the demo to ensure that you understand how everything is put together. You'll be encouraged to modify and improve the program in the chapter's exercises.

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