We've all sneaked the odd five minutes here or there playing the latest Flash game that someone sent round the office, but creating those games is trickier than it looks. The aim of Foundation Game Design with Flash is to take you, even if you've minimal multimedia or programming experience, through a series of step-by-step examples and detailed case studies to the point where you'll have the skills to independently design any conceivable 2D game using Flash and ActionScript. The book is a non-technical one-stop-shop for all the most important skills and techniques a beginner game designer needs to build games with Flash from scratch. Whether you're creating quick blasts of viral amusement, or more in-depth action or adventure titles, this book is for you.

* Focused and friendly introduction to designing games with Flash and ActionScript

* 5 detailed case studies of Flash games

* Essential techniques for building games, with each chapter gently building on the skills of preceding chapters

What you'll learn

* Learn how to build interactive movies and objects with Flash

* Get a thorough grounding in ActionScript 3.0 and good programming practices, with minimal prior programming experience required

* Discover how to build Interactive Storybooks, Space-Shooter, Adventure and Drag and Drop games.

* Master collision detection, Enemy AI systems, player control, managing game data, basic physics and trigonometry.

* Make use of Design Patterns and Object Oriented Programming techniques to build robust games.

* Understand the strategies for making games fun to play and easy to build.

Who is this book for?

This book is for a non-technical creative person who wants to learn the art of videogame design, but has no idea where to start or where to look for help. It is a lucid, friendly and step-by-step guide though all the technical and creative issues involved in game design with Flash and ActionScript. The book treats the art of programming as a creative artistic tool, and will help anyone who may be afraid of programming to love the subject as much as the author does. The techniques in the book are comprehensive enough to form the basis of career as a game designer, and form a solid foundation for continued study of programming and ActionScript. This book is the missing link that will guide and inspire any curious and creative person turn a good game idea into a reality.