Emanuele Feronato [Emanuele Feronato] - Flash Game Development by Example

• Creating a Flash document
• Working with packages, classes, and functions
• Printing text
• Commenting your code
• Creating and managing variables and constants
• Creating and managing arrays
• Generating and rounding random numbers to simulate the shuffle of a deck of cards
• Repeating the execution of code a given amount of times with the for loop
• Creating Movie Clips to be added with AS3 and interacting with them on the fly
• Handling mouse clicks
• Dealing with timers

Once you start thinking about programming a game, you are already making it. You are in pre-production stage.

During this process, gameplay as well as storyline and environment begin to take shape. Before starting to code or even turning on the computer, it's very important to define the game design. This is the step in which you will decide how the game will work, the rules and the goals of the game, as well as the amount of options and features to include.

I know you just want to start coding, but underestimating the importance of game design is a very common error. Usually we think we have everything in mind, and we want to start coding at once. Moreover, a game like Concentration looks really simple, with just one basic rule (selected cards match/don't match) and, last but not least, we just have to copy an existing game, so why not start typing right now?

Even a basic project like a Concentration remake may give you some troubles if you skip an accurate game design. Here are a few questions you probably would not ask yourself about the game you are about to make:

Don't hesitate to ask yourself as many questions as you can. The more decisions you take now, the easier the game will be to make.

Making changes to basic mechanics when the game is on an advanced development stage can dramatically increase developing time. A good game design won't ensure you that you will never have to rewrite some parts of the code, but it reduces the probability of you having to do it.

Anyway, be realistic and know your limits. Questions like "Do I have to use a physics engine to add realism to card flipping, maybe introducing wind or different air resistance" are welcome since you don't want to start doing this and then realize it's not needed, but avoid thinking about features you know you aren't able to add or you will quickly turn a game you are about to publish into a game you'll never make.

At the end of this process, you must have at least a set of basic rules to define how a playable prototype should work.

So here are the decisions I made for the game we will create:

Defining the audience of a game is very important when you are about to fine-tune the game. Being a game for young children, we'll add some educational content in it. Parents love when their children play and learn at the same time.

You are about to create a Flash game, and like all Flash movies, it will have its stage size (width and height in pixels), frame rate (the number of frames per second) and a background color.