Building Games in Flash 5 Tutorial: (includes source files)

At the end of these three tutorials you will have built a basic flash arcade game. A simple scrolling space shooting game which could be the basis for a scramble or defender clone.

Building Games in Flash 5: part 1
This tutorial covers player movement and fire. It also covers 'Clip Events, keyboard control, array style referencing and duplicating movie clips.

Building Games in Flash 5: part 2
This tutorial builds on tutorial 1. It covers scrolling backgrounds. The tutorial also covers the KeyUp clipEvent and parallax scrolling.

Building Games in Flash 5: part 3
This tutorial builds on tutorials 1 and 2. It covers enemy movement and collision detection. The tutorial also covers functions, for loops, random numbers, scoring and hitTest.

A printer friendly version of the three tutorials is available (as one big page).

A version of the tutorials in Estonian.

How to ensure that the flash file has the focus
For keyboard controlled games you need to ensure that the flash file has the focus, otherwise the keypresses wont be detected. This tutorial explains two techniques.

How do I?.....
I get a lot of emails from people asking for help - if Ive got some free time I try an answer and help but if Im busy I may ignore your email - Im sorry about that but I cant really afford to provide 24hr free help. However Ive put together a FAQ and sample fla that answers some of the more common questions.