For students

This page is for students learning As3 and using the Spawn Engine. Here I have links to blog posts so you get the correct order when getting to know the Spawn Engine. I also have links to other articles that teach important concepts.

Learn Basics of AS3

Before you start working with the Spawn Engine it is vitally important that you know the basics of AS3. There are several ways to do this (like attending my classes!) but if you’ve missed some classes then these are some resources I suggest you look at.

AS3 Avoider Game Tutorial. A twelve step tutorial, by Michael James Williams, that talks about the basics and takes you all the way through the necessery steps in making a game.

AS3 101 at active tuts+ is a whole serie of tutorials on the basics of AS3. The first five are really important:

1. Variables
2. Functions
3. Branching, explains the if statement
4. Arrays
5. Loops, explains the for loop and the while loop

How to Use a Document Class in Flash (by Michael James Williams at active tuts+)

Get to know the Engine

Download the source code and get started! Always start with version 0.1 and work your way up the releases. Each new release will show you something important to learn. As you notice when you try out v 0.1 you see that there is plenty of room for improvements. Try and make these improvements yourself before looking at the next release. Each new release will help you learn better and better coding practices.

• Release of the Spawn Engine version 0.1 (CS3)
• Release of the Spawn Engine version 0.1.1 (CS5)
  • Updating newEnemy using variables instead of numbers
• Release of the Spawn Engine version 0.1.2 (CS5)
• future releases… (removing code on the time line, removing the use of frames on the stage etc)

Tutorials for the Engine

Students and teachers working with the Engine has designed and coded different add-ons. These add-ons all have their separate tutorials in this blog. Read up on them!

• How to add more class files
• Zigzag moving enemies
• Connect your animation to code
• 2×2 pickups in each spawn using for loops
• Add enemies to the stage in Flash instead of using code

• Improved Collision Detection by Leo Cederwall

These are not tutorials for the Engine but rather tutorials with good knowledge when working with the Engine.

• Playing Sounds in ActionScript 3.0 (video by Gary Rosenzweig, Flash Game University)