[casual_games] Re: PopCap developer needed urgently

[Andy Makely]

I work with Flash every day, so I though I'd add some info to the mix.

- As mentioned here previously, Flash handles bitmap images just fine.
Especially PNGs, which retain all of their transparency information.  You
can even write code to animate using your existing sprite graphics.

- Flash can achieve an acceptable frame rate if coded efficiently,
especially if you are working with a 640x480 screen.  It does get harder to
get good redraw speed from an 800x600 Flash canvas, especially if you have a
large number of animated sprites.  Recent changes have been made to the
Flash rendering code so that single-frame bitmap assets draw MUCH faster
than before.  Scrolling backgrounds, for example, are no longer a real
performance concern.

- Flash 8 (the most recent version) does not support MIDI playback of any
kind.  You can convert your MIDI files to MP3, at the expense of your file
size.  You might also be able to build a custom C++ wrapper that encloses
your Flash movie, and perhaps get MIDI playback working via the C++
libraries, but it's probably not worth the effort.

- You can get Joystick support via commercial Flash projector tools such as
mdm's Zinc.  Flash does support all keyboard and mouse input.


I definite understand the concern for not wanting to rebuild the game
again.  Flash may not be an option in this case, but many folks have found
that it is a viable casual game platform.

--
Andy Makely


On 2/8/06, Jeff Helfand <jeff at nevadainteractive.com> wrote:
>
>
> Also, we had considered Flash, however, for two
> reasons, it just didn't make sense.
>
> 1. All of our sprites and backgrounds were created in
> Photoshop.  Recreating them as vector graphics given
> our time frame and resources is not an option.
>
> 2. The new version of the game has two new worlds and
> nine different power ups.  The pace when reaching
> those levels is much faster.  According to benchmarks
> I have read, Flash will have performance issues.  It
> is also mouse driven.  I could be wrong, but can't
> risk it due to development time constraints.



--
andy makely
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