As referred to in the Master Plan my goal is to create Flash based games and then try to monetize them for profit.
Well Adobe Flash is expensive, in fact really expensive it weights in t about $800 USD the last time I looked. Since that equates to about 2.5 times the cost of my car I don't see my self buying a copy any time soon. So I will exercise my right as a consumer to not buy it and go with an alternative, cheaper product.
Enter FlashDevelop. FlashDevelop is a free Flash/ActionScript IDE it lets you program Flash projects. I have recently downloaded it and been trying it out and from a programmers point of view it is brilliant. If you have to do any ActionScript programming I suggest giving it a try. Also with a cost of $0 it fits my budget fine.
Installing FlashDevelop on Windows was painless. I followed the instructions I found on GamePoetry, "Make Flash Games For Free" and it all just worked fine. Just make sure you get the developer/debug Flash player. This way you can get the trace() function to work.
So FlashDevelop covers my Flash coding needs. While I learn Flash I think this will be able to carry me quite a way. Still there are quite a lot of things such as animations and tweens that are easier to do in a Adobe Flash editor style interface than code. To cover these needs I have been taking a look at a product called SWiSH Max2. At around $150 it is a lot cheaper than the Adobe version. True it does not do all the things the Adobe version does but the price is right for my budget. Since I am not a hardcore graphics guy and plan to outsource as much of my art needs as possible, I think it will be able to help me bash out any stop gap programmer art and animations I need to prototype my games.
So there you go, how to create Flash games on a small budget!
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