Forums → Programming Forum → TUTORIAL: Your First Game ( Learn The Basics )

This is a little Tutorial i made for any people who just got there hands on Flash and want to make a game. The Tutorial is divided into five parts. This will teach you the basics for Adobe Flash CS4

PART ONE

1. Go to top left corner of the screen and click on File

2. Lots of options will pour down, at the very top is " New... "

3. Now you can make a new document. Select "Flash File (ActionScript 2.0"


PART TWO

4. Now go at the top left corner of the screen and you'll see new, go a bit left and you'll find " Modify " click on " Modify "

5. At the top of those options is " Document... " click on that.

6.see the dimensions there at the top? now you can adjust the width and height of the document!! Put in " 700 px " for width and " 500 px " for height then press ok

7. Ta-da! you have now learnt how to make the size of your game.

PART THREE

8. Now on your right side ( maybe not but probably ) you'll see your selection of drawing tools. So draw something ( make sure it doesn't take up the entire screen!! ). I Drew a Red Square :P



9. Get your Section Tool ( black cursor in drawing tools )
( PRESS V FOR SHORTCUT! ) and select your entire drawing.

10. Go to Modify ( see step 4 if you get lost! ) and select " Convert to symbol ".

11. Name the Symbol "Drawing" And press OK.

PART FOUR

12. Now things get hard, Coding the game. Learning code is hard so i highly suggest you just copy and paste the code i show.

13. Select your drawing and you'll see it's " Properties ".

14. You'll see some changable text called " <Instance Name> " change that text to " Drawing "

15. Now select your drawing and press F9 to open it's actions, this is where the code is inputed

16. Enter paste the following code:

*************************************
onClipEvent (enterFrame) {
if (Key.isDown(Key.LEFT)) {
_x--;
}
if (Key.isDown(Key.RIGHT)) {
_x++;
}
if (Key.isDown(Key.UP)) {
_y--;
}
if (Key.isDown(Key.DOWN)) {
_y++;
}
}
*************************************


17. Great! Now press Ctrl + Enter
( like you should press Crtrl Alt Delete )

18. Now you can move your drawing around using the arrow keys!


PART FIVE ( OPTIONAL )

19. This is just an optional part for anyone who wants to learn a bit more helpful code....

20. Your Drawing is going too slow isn't it? Select your drawing, press F9 and enter in this code:

******************************
onClipEvent (load) {
power = 3;
}
onClipEvent (enterFrame) {
if (Key.isDown(Key.LEFT)) {
_x -= power;
}
if (Key.isDown(Key.RIGHT)) {
_x += power;
}
if (Key.isDown(Key.UP)) {
_y -= power;
}
if (Key.isDown(Key.DOWN)) {
_y += power;
}
}
******************************

21. Now press Ctrl + Enter and you'll see that your drawing is moving faster!! But how? At the top of the code i just gave you, you'll see i added a variable to input the speed of which the instance moves.

22. Now Change the power to 5, by replacing the 3 in the code i just gave you 2 steps ago.

23. Congratz you have now learnt how to mod the speed of your drawing. Try '20' for extreme speed



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Congratulations! You have passed this tutorial if you managed to complete all the steps! This was a tutorial made by an newbie flash game developer so dont think your a sucky at flash if you get confused or lost, it's my fault not yours!!

By finishing this tutorial you have learnt the raw basics which include:

* Making A New File
* Changing The Game Size Of Your Game
* Drawing Objects
* Converting Drawings into Symbols
* How To Name Objects
* How To Make Basic Movement Code
* How To Change The Speed In The Basic Movement Code ( if you did part 5 )

I hope this could help even 1 person who needed it. NOW GIVE ME FEEDBACK!!! :P

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