Archive for the ‘FlashGameBlogs’ tag

GamesChart and the Mochi Version Control

Some days ago GamesChart Barry White brought to my attention a problem with Mochi’s version control system but there was a bit of a mystery around it since it only affected one of the possible implementations of GamesChart API: if it was implemented with the drag-and-drop component, it would not work, if it was added to a Flex project, it would.

Mochi’s Version Control works as a wrapper, which usually brings some issues related to accessing the stage property. I concluded that dragging and dropping the component to the stage was for sure the problem but couldn’t find a workaround to it. Has far as I could have thought, I couldn’t call the component the same way I did with a Flex SDK project.

Barry then showed me a work around that is just amazing for its simplicity. Robert Köhler (check his games here) didn’t drag the component to the stage but rather exported it as a class. In the timeline he wrote the setup code and it worked.

After a chat with Barry and Robert, it was obvious that it was the immediate access to the stage that created the problem with Mochi’s Version Control. With the Flex SDK implementation, the setup is made AFTER the stage is ready.

To make things simple for everyone, here’s a CS3 FLA showing how to do it, but the rule of thumb to use GamesChart with Flash IDE and Mochi’s Version Control is: don’t drag the component to the stage, call the setup method from the timeline or your code as long as you check if the stage is available.

All credit goes to Robert! We are just spreading the word.

Say hello to Servet

Hi all,

Some months ago I had the opportunity to meet Servet Ulas through FGL forums and chat where he is known by the username Pixelful.

So after an informal chat Servet showed interest in doing is internship with us, which naturally filled us with pride. But since it’s easier to be said than done, we waited for some news and when the news arrived it was official: everything was ready for the internship to start and he has been working on a project since last week.

I have an admiration for people that make things happen and Servet did that, he took care of everything so that he could do a project with us.

I’m glad and feel fortunate that developers want to work with us. I hope that this experience is a rich one for Servet and productive for us. First steps sure make it sound that way.

Cheers!

Protecting your work #2 – Initial Testing

Following the first post of the series (no need to click it’s not that interesting) I did some initial testing with some SWF encapsulation and obfuscation software. Let me remind you that the exact same testing many months ago wrecked our game, by that time Tech Wars.

What I want to achieve

For any of the software tested to pass this initial test the game I chose had to run without breaking anything. As a reminder I checked the previous testing and the problems were:

1. Sound not playing
2. Actions not being called (like opening a menu or something)
3. Problems with text

Assuming no new issues would arise I would keep an eye on these three.

Software and prerequisites

I downloaded the following demos (in alphabetic order in case you are wondering):

1. Amayeta SWF Encrypt 6.0
2. DComSoft SWF Protector 2
3. Kindisoft SecureSWF 3.4

One thing I recall was trying to get help to make Tech Wars work and found myself tunning preferences and stuff like that. So I decided that I wanted nothing of that! All my effort had to be minimum. I would install the demo software on my harddrive and throw an SWF at it, check for problems, try some minor things. I wanted no complications and no tunning.

Maybe I’m being to picky, but my know-how doesn’t include encryption, not to this extent. As a game developer there is so much stuff I have to learn every week, that software like this, while extremely important is just a tool. I just want it to work with minimal fuss.

Last but not least, the chosen game was Atomik Kaos 2. I did some small testing with a build of Hajime, but I guess that’s a perfect game for later testing, right now I needed something that I knew in and out, so AK2 it was.

Amayeta SWF Encrypt 6.0

Amayeta’s SWF Encrypt Interface looks easy and fine. Choosing and protecting the file was an easy job, but my problems with dynamic textfields emerged almost instantly and the game had a slight hicup when a level was finished. Apart from that all was fine. The hicup wasn’t serious, but I had to take a look at the textfield issue.

On the left SWF Encrypt, on the right the original SWF

Took a deep breath, looked at the options before me (not many, minimalist, just the way I like it) and I had a vague idea about encrypting names being an issue. So I decided not to encrypt names… it worked perfectly. A little tiny thing, but nothing serious.

DComSoft SWF Protector 2

Next on the list DComSoft’s SWF Protector 2 and I must say I’m really impressed. The interface is just perfect and it was begging for a drag and drop of the SWF, which I did and it worked wonders. I had to do nothing, absolutely nothing, just drag the file and click a button.

It was perfect! Just like I imagined it.

Kindisoft Secure SWF 3.4

Secure SWF doesn’t need installation, that’s a big plus in my book. The interface feels old though but it does the job. I tried to drag and drop the SWF and that also did the trick, cool! Time to protect the file and run it. A couple of severe problems happened. For starters as soon as the swf opened the player threw an error. The game went fine after that until I checked the achievements screen where dynamic textfields were messed up.

Flash debugger error

Problem with textfields, again left is protected SWF, right is original SWF

I returned to secureSWF to try a different approach. One fine thing is the protection presets it offers. Being my middle name “minimal” I enjoy not having to go through all the options trying to find out what it is and what it is not. So I chose the preset “Safe – less protection but will always generate working files” but the results were exactly the same, both for the starter error and the textfield issue.

I started to look at all the options, aiming for a custom solution, but I was overwhelmed by the amount of stuff I had to try on to eventually make it work. I gave up at this point.

Conclusions

I’ll give decompilers a shot next and see what happens, what can I see, extract and so on, but for now Amayeta’s SWF Encrypt and DComSoft SWF Protector 2 did the job although I’m very impressed with SWF Protector 2 because it just did its job and I did not have to worry about anything. If I recall correctly that was what I was not able to do with Tech Wars testing. If I had to make an early pick, I’d go SWF Protector 2.

There will be a lot of news in the upcoming days, stay tunned.

HAJIME!

FIGHT! no wait, it’s “GO!” is it? “Kick each other’s @ss!”, I don’t really know how its translated, but I know what it means. It’s an order to do your best and take out your opponent. And it’s the name we chose for our game, and we are happy with it.

So without further due, here is the logo for it and some combat screenshots.

Keep in mind though, the backgrounds need some work still! No time for everything!

So, here they are, in full glory, the first peak into the combats in Hajime.

Take care!

Marco

Bold Pixel Engine v2 Annoucement

Hi everyone, just a quick note to let you know of some stuff going on regarding Bold Pixel Engine.

Collaboration with Arne G. Strout

It really felt great to hear about a developer wanting to build on BPE to make it go further. That’s what I felt when I read Arne G. Strout blog post about BPE. Under the spirit of open-source, Arne offered a great deal of thought and ideas regarding our little framework.

In the meantime, v2 was already under way so we exchanged some ideas and I’m pleased to announce that Arne will be collaborating in v2 development.

Box2D integration…

Wrapping Box2D in a minimalist Bold Pixel Engine kind of package is no easy treat, but it’s done. It doesn’t offer the full potential of Box2D yet and it’s not integrated with blit, but it will and it’s working great.

Toolkit changes

Manager has been removed from the toolkit package and it is now the manager of all the engine. Again this is related to a minimalist approach. Box2D wrapping needed information about framerate and we could get it from the main movieclip that is passed to the manager. This also offers other possibilities like controlling mouse focus, quality, yada yada yada.

I’m cooking a Button manager. I know most developers don’t really like SimpleButtons, but I actually do! What I was lacking was a central point to control those… it’s being taken care of.

Scene and Music will now have transitions. This is possible mostly due to Greensock tweening library, which Vortix Games now officially supports by becoming a member of the Club Greensock.

And that’s it!

There won’t be many news in the next weeks, since we have a lot of work (remember that we kinda disappear when we are just starting up a contract project) and the rest of the bunch, like the Japan game, Bold Pixel Engine and so on.

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