Chapter 14. Word Search

Game Overview

Game Logic

Points to Remember

Word games are one of the most popular types of casual games on the Internet. Word Search is a word game that has you search for words hidden among what appears to be a random pool of letters.

While a very simple-looking game, Word Search requires some complicated ActionScript. If you have read through most of this book, then there shouldn't be any surprises in the code that pulls this game together. However, if you have just turned to this chapter, you'll probably need an intermediate-or-higher grasp of ActionScript to fully understand what is done here.

Prerequisites

Chapter 7, "Tile-Based Worlds." Word Search is not a tile-based world; however, you should be familiar with the tiling technique for adding movie clips to the stage in a grid using nested loops. Also, you should be familiar with the simple math trick used to determine which tile a point is over.

Strong familiarity with two-dimensional arrays and using objects to store data.

Appendix D, "XML Basics in Flash." The word lists for this game are loaded from an external XML file.