Flash

Visit Adobe's Shockwave Player website (adobe.com).

Click to select your operating system with the drop-down menu; Adobe Shockwave is compatible with Windows and Mac OS X.

Click to select either a "Full" or "Slim" installation. The "Full" installer provides support and compatibility for older players, while the "Slim" installer only works with the most recent players.

Review the "System Requirements" to ensure that your computer's operating system and hardware are compatible with the installation. Review the "Software License Agreement."

Click "Agree and Install" to confirm that you agree with the terms and conditions of the software license and to begin downloading Adobe Shockwave.

Visit Adobe Shockwave Player's official homepage. Click the "Agree and Install Now" link displayed. Select "Save" from the subsequent dialog to store the installation file on your computer, such as the main desktop. Alternatively, click "Open" or "Run" to launch the installation immediately after the download completes.

Provide access to the installation file by clicking "Yes" on the User Account Control dialog displayed or by typing in your Windows account credentials.

Allow the installation to finish, as all files are automatically copied to your computer. Click "Close" once the installation wizard displays the "Successfully Completed" message.

Open your web browser and surf to http://www.emanueleferonato.com/2007/05/15/create-a-flash-racing-game-tutorial (also see References).

Peruse the tutorial on creating your own Flash-based car racing game by scrolling down the page and reading each lesson. Clear instructions and explanations are offered for every step of the coding process.

Test your new Flash creation and make tweaks and adjustments following the guidelines in the tutorial.

Open your web browser and surf to http://www.webzo.org/tutorials/flash/space-shooter.php (see References).

Peruse the lessons listed on the first page of the tutorial, then begin the lessons by clicking on "movies clip and movement," "shooting," "enemies," "lives and scores" or "game pause and sound."

Follow the step-by-step instructions in each lesson to methodically build your Flash space shooter game, then play and test it for mistakes and needed tweaks.

Open your browser and surf to http://www.strille.net/tutorials/snake/index.php (see References).

Read the introduction to the tutorial, the follow the step-by-step instructions to create your own Flash snake game.

Play your game and fix any errors using the tutorial as a reference.

Choose a genre of game to create. Simpler types of games include classic Pac-Man-esque games, shooter games or "snake" games. If you feel a bit more daring, go with a more complex game style, such as an RPG (role-playing game) or a racing game.

Design your hero. If you want to maintain simplicity, make your character symmetrical. This way, you do not need to deal with turning it: a blue circle looks the same whichever way it is facing. For a classic "space shooter" like Space Invaders or Galaga, your character should be a ship that moves back and forth. Again, if you want simplicity, have the ship constantly face the direction from which enemies will be coming.

Build an environment. For a game like Pac-Man or a simple RPG, make a maze of walls through which your character can roam. For a space shooter game, a starfield background will suffice.

Design enemies. These can be just as simple or as complex as your hero. If your RPG hero is a blue circle, for instance, you can make enemies that are green squares. Fun enemies in space shooter games often look like insects or crustaceans.

Make effects. Projectiles and explosions are absolutely vital for space shooter games. Put flashes of light in your RPGs to show defeated enemies or damage taken to the hero. Just about every game needs "power-ups," such as the fruit in Pac-Man or flowers and mushrooms in Mario Brothers. These should appear randomly throughout the game and lend positive attributes to the hero, such as improved speed or temporary invincibility.

Write a story board. Every game needs a story board, even if it is only the text introducing a new level of difficulty. An RPG requires an intensive story board, while a space shooter requires only a simple story board.

Open your actions panel and put a "stop()" action on the first keyframe. Lock this first layer to keep yourself from accidentally putting anything on it in the future.

Insert a new layer and type out instructions for how to use your tutorial on the stage. You can include graphics if you wish to spruce things up. This is just an "introductory" page.

Insert a new keyframe on your second layer. The best Flash game tutorials give the viewer a sample of what they will be creating early on, which you should do on this frame, if possible. If you are teaching how to create a side-scrolling background or running man for the game, include a functioning, interactive version of it here. You also will want to include text explaining what the viewer is seeing.

Insert a third keyframe on your second layer. Here is where you will begin your actual instruction, and be careful to present information in small chunks. On this single frame, you will present instructions to the viewer, and an input text box to present any code they will need so they can select it.

Continue adding keyframes on the 2nd layer, with each one offering more information on how to create the game (remember, small chunks!) until the lesson is complete.

Create a navigation bar as a series of buttons numbered one through however many keyframes you have. This bar should be small and out of the way, probably centered at the bottom of your screen.

Give each of your individual navigation buttons unique instance names so that you can reference them in ActionScript.

On the first keyframe in the actions panel, use and repeat the following code to make each of your buttons work, changing the button names and numbers as needed:

myButton1.onRelease = release;

function release(){
gotoAndStop(1)
}

Create electronic flash cards on a website, such as scholastic.com, flashcardexchange.com, or create electronic flash cards in Microsoft Word.

Upload the flash cards you've created to a memory card. If your child has a gaming device, such as a Nintendo DS, upload the flash cards to allow him to review the study cards no matter his location.

Use an iPhone to view the flash cards you have created. Flashcardexchange.com offers a way for you to sync the flash cards you have created to an iPhone, making studying available anywhere.

Log into scholastic.com to create basic flash cards for vocabulary and basic math, such as addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. Enter the information needed on the flash cards into the template available on the website. Select "Study" or "Review Flash Cards." Rotate through the flash cards and flip them over to see the results.

Engage students to spend their down time in class using the electronic flash cards. If you are a teacher you can create flash cards online. Allow the children to access the cards for whatever chapter you are studying to help students review and retain any important information for a test. Flashcardexchange.com allows a teacher to create a file to save or share online for anyone to access.

Download created flash cards to a memory card, CD or any other compatible electronic device. Teachers or parents can create flash cards and download them. Children can take the cards home to review them from the comfort of their own home.

Create electronic flash cards in a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation to easily review in class or to download for children without access to the Internet

Design your game. Using either a pencil and paper or graphic design software if you wish, create a design for your game. List the functions that you want the game to have, and come up with a set of requirements for it. Think about what you want a player of the game to experience, and come up with a design for the user interface based on this. Even a rough design is better than nothing.

Use the drawing tools in Flash to create the design elements for your game. With reference to your design and requirements, create each element in turn using the drawing tools and optionally components within Flash. Flash has a variety of existing components you can use if they suit the purpose of your game, and you can also create your own Movie Clip, Button and Graphic Symbols.

Write ActionScript to implement the logic of your game. Using ActionScript functions, add interactivity to your Flash movie. As well as defining what should happen when the user interacts with the various controls in the game, you will need to reflect the overall logic of your game within the ActionScript code. This may include score keeping and defining what happens at each stage in the game.

Use data to build a dynamic level into your game. Depending on the type of game you're creating, you may want to consider using a data source. If your game is going to be played over the Web, you can use a MySQL database and PHP code to connect the data to your Flash work. You can also model the data for your game using your own ActionScript Classes, but this does require programming knowledge.

Bring the elements in your game together and set up the Flash movie for game-play. When your game is launched, your code will typically have to carry out setup or initialization tasks. This will include assigning Event Handlers to the various interactive controls and initializing variables so that you can keep track of the player's progress. Make sure you test the function of the game thoroughly, and try it in different Web browsers if it's going to be played online.

Open Flash and click "File," then "New" and then click "Flash File (ActionScript 3.0)" from the pullout menu. Save your file by clicking on "File," on the main menu and then "Save As" and type in the name "card_match" and then click "Save."

Create a movie clip by clicking on "Insert" on the main menu and then "New Symbol." Click the "Movie Clip" type radio button and type in "cards" for the name.

Click on the "Rectangle" tool from the tool bar and place your mouse in the lower right corner of the registration point (looks like a cross), click and while holding down your mouse, drag across the stage to draw a rectangle.

Add a keyframe to frames "1-9" by right clicking on the frame and then click "Insert Keyframe" from the pullout menu. Add color to rectangles by clicking on the keyframe and then click on the paint bucket "FillColor" on the tool bar. Choose different colors for each frames making keyframe "9" your default color. Save your file by clicking on "File" and then "Save" on the main menu.

Right click on the cards movie clip in the library and click on "linkage," type in "cards" for the class and click on the check box for "Export for ActionScript" and "Export in first frame."

Open a Flash Action Script file by clicking "File," on the main menu, click "New" and then click "ActionScript File" from the pullout menu. Save your file by clicking on "File," on the main menu and then "Save As" and type in the name "card_match," then click "Save."

Connect your Action Script file to ActionScript 3.0 by Clicking "Window" from the main menu of your ActionScript 3.0 file and then click "Properties" and "Properties" again from the pullout menu. Type in "card_match" for the "Document Class" value.

Copy and paste the following code and then test your file by click by pressing "Ctrl + Enter" on your keyboard.

package {

import flash.display.Sprite;

import flash.events.MouseEvent;

import flash.events.TimerEvent;

import flash.utils.Timer;

public class card_match extends Sprite {

private var first_tile:cards;

private var second_tile:cards;

private var pause_timer:Timer;

var carddeck:Array = new Array(1,1,2,2,3,3,4,4,5,5,6,6,7,7,8,8);

public function card_match() {

for (x=1; x

Open Flash and click "File," then "New" and then click "Flash File (ActionScript 2.0)" from the pullout menu.

Create images to represent your synonyms by using your preferred graphic software, such as Photoshop, Paint or Corel.

Import your images by clicking on "File," "Import" and "Import to Library." Browse to where your images are stored and click "Open."

Open the drag and drop movie clip by clicking on "Window," "Common Libraries," then "Learning Interactions" and drag the "Drag and Drop" movie clip to the stage.

Align the movie clip so the directions are off the stage areas. Replace the default images with your images by double clicking on the default image and dragging the new image from the library. Align as needed and delete the default image. Click "Scene 1" to return to the main timeline.

Open the Flash movie (.fla) file in which you want to create a scrollable text box, or create a new movie: Click the "File" menu and choose "New" to open the New Document dialog box. Choose "ActionScript 3.0," and then click "Open."

Go to the frame and layer in the Timeline panel where you want to create a scrollable text box, right-click the frame, then choose "Insert Keyframe" from the pop-up menu. Keyframes in Flash mark the beginning of new content. The new content displays the span of the timeline, or until Flash encounters a new keyframe marking new or changed content.

Select the "Text Tool," and then, making sure that you are working in the new keyframe you created in Step 2, hold the left mouse button and drag out a text box on the stage. Make the text box the size you want it to display in the final movie. You can resize the text box precisely with the width (W:) and height (H:) fields in the "Position" and "Size" section of the Properties panel.

Click the "Window" menu and choose "Components." This opens the Components panel.

Double-click the "User Interface" folder to open it.

Drag the "UIScrollBar" component to the stage and drop it just inside the right edge of the text box. Flash resizes the component to the size of the text box and snaps it to the box's outer edge. Right now, the scrollbar displays as an empty rectangle. You can't see the scrollbar until you test or export and play the movie.

Go to the "Paragraph" section of the Properties panel, click the "Behavior" drop-down menu and choose "Multiline." This tells Flash to wrap the text in the text box, creating a multiline text block. If you don't set the box to Multiline, the text displays as one long, continuous text string.

Fill the text box with text. You can either type or copy and paste the text from a word processor or text editing program. In order to make the text box scrollable, the text block must be longer than the text box.

Click the "Control" menu and choose "Test Scene" to test the movie. The text box should display with a working scrollbar beside it.

Download the latest copy of the Web site page you're planning on adding the Flash code to.

Create a back-up copy of the page prior to adding your Flash file.

Locate the Flash file you're going to add to your site.

Add the following code to your Web page. Make sure that you change the EMBED SRC = your file name.swf

Save the file now that you've modified it.

Upload the modified file along with your .swf file to your site.

Log in to wix.com and click "My Account" from the main menu.

Click the website that you want to edit. If you don't have one, click "Create" from the main menu and select a template.

Roll over the "My Files" icon in the left toolbar with your cursor and select "Pics" from the menu. You can also roll over the "Add" icon and select "Pics."

Click the yellow "Upload" button. Search for a photo on your hard drive and click "Open." Your photo automatically appears in the "My Pics" gallery.

Click the "From URL" button if you want to upload photos from another website. Paste a Web address into box, then click "Add."

Create a screen print of the Flash image. Press the "Prnt Scrn" key on your keyboard one time when the image you want to save appears onscreen to create a snapshot of your screen's contents.

Open your photo editing program. Fully-featured programs such as Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Photoshop Elements or Corel PaintShop Pro are suitable for this step; so is the simple Paint program included with all copies of Microsoft Windows. This tutorial uses Paint, but similar programs provide the same functionality and operate in a nearly identical way.

Create a new document. Click "File" in the menu near the top of your screen and click "New." Paste your screen print onto the new document by clicking "Edit" in the top menu and selecting "Paste."

Crop the picture from your screen print. Click the "Selection" tool icon, represented by a square with a dashed-line border. Click and hold on the top-left corner of the image you captured from the Flash presentation. Drag your click to the bottom-right corner of the image and release to select the image. Click "Edit" in the top menu and select "Copy."

Create a new document to hold the cropped image by clicking "File" and selecting "New," without saving your original image when prompted to do so. Click "Edit" and select "Paste" to add the cropped image.

Save your image in a web-appropriate format. Click "File" in the top menu and select "Save." Give your file a name and choose your desired save location. Click the "Save as type" drop-down menu and select the JPEG option, then click the "Save" button.

Upload the image to your website. If your web host offers a web-based uploading tool, log into your account and use the tool to upload the image you saved in the previous step. If you need to upload the file using the File Transfer Protocol (FTP), open your FTP program (FileZilla and FTP Explorer are two popular free options) and supply your username and password to log into your account. Open your web root folder (most commonly named "public_html" or "www"), locate your image and upload it to the folder. The Flash image you captured in Step 1 is now ready to use on your website.