Under development: Byrdcraft

Back when I was teaching, I used to draw cartoons on post-its and give them out as extra credit coupons for my students. One of the more popular ones was a scene entitled World of Byrdcraft with a Birdley-esque wizard with a robe and a staff. The character has carried over into my after-work Flash projects, as I've been working on an adventure game based on this mystical character.

While the game is in the early stages, I can disclose this much: Byrdcraft is an adventure game with a non-linear, open environment, depicted with a 2D overhead view that immerses the character in a fantasy realm populated with friendly and not-so-friendly characters. There are items and magic spells to collect that stick with you over the long term and are critical to achieving the goals in the game.

The development experience thus far has definitely helped me to steadily learn new techniques in Flash. What once was relatively new to me prior to the project, such as creating multiple classes and storing game data in dynamic arrays, has become an every-day practice.

The most exciting moments have been when something puzzling suddently becomes possible, such as saving data between sessions, getting the character to transition between levels, and developing decent collision testing. Getting the characters to appear in front of each other and behind each other depending on where they are on the screen was also quite a breakthrough. Most of these turning points come after searching through books, forums, and blogs for new techniques, and adapting them to the existing engine.

One technique that has been most helpful has been versioning. I have a game folder that stores all my .fla, .swf, and .as class files. Every time I try something new and drastic, I duplicate my folder and save it as a new version. This helps with organization tremendously and allows me to revert to or borrow from earlier versions as needed.

More as it develops.