[casual_games] Question About Adobe/Macromedia Director as a Development Platform....

[Charles Parcell]

I did intend to send it to the whole group. I had started writing it as 
a response directly to you, but then decided to get the whole groups 
ideas and opinions on the top. I just never rewrote the opening 
sentence. There seem to be a lot of former and current Director 
developers on the list and this might be a rare chance to poll everyone 
on this topic.

Personally, I see a lot of parallel in your response and my own wish 
list for the potential future versions of Director. But I also wonder if 
all the features you listed truly fall under the "game development" 
umbrella. I can see several of the features as being used on a rare case 
within a game but not a "meat" feature in the game development realm.

Case in point would be the nested time line (akin to Flash). This is 
more of a workflow feature rather than anything else (in my mind).

Another one would be the improved Flash performance within Director. To 
what degree does everyone use Flash within Director? Is Director used 
more as a wrapper for Flash? Is Flash mostly an animation media within 
Director? Widgets? Other?  My thought on Flash within Director is that 
it is nice to have but at what point does developing in Flash become the 
more logical choice (in respect to utilizing Flash within Director)?  I 
think to real question at that point becomes, how can Director be 
enhanced so that Flash is no longer needed as an imported media type?

Charles P.


Robert Gordon wrote:

> Hey Charles,

>

> Wasn't sure if this was supposed to go to the list or not (your reply

> sounded more personally targeted)...so I'm replying on-list but I'm happy to

> move this offline.

>

> I guess any of us old-time Director users could complain about a number of

> missing or still-broken features...but if I had to whittle that down to a

> set of game-specific requests...might be something like:

>

> (in no particular order)

>

> - improved text engine

> - real-time effects (dropshadow, glow, etc.) as in Flash 8

> - continued support of the multiplayer xtra

> - something akin to Flash's nested timeline concept

> - something that would allow those super-fancy particle effects

> - a more modern script editor

> - obviously any bump in speed/performance is always a good thing

> - specific improvement to Flash performance when playing inside Director

> - pushing the shockwave plugin back into the limelight

> - playback engines for console, mobile, and other interesting devices

>

> I'm sure I'm missing some items of interest...those are off the top of my

> head. Truth is, I'm so very used to doing things a certain way that I don't

> often (enough) pause to wonder of there's a better way...

>

>

>   

>> From: Charles Parcell <cparcell at toxictoy.com>

>> Reply-To: IGDA Casual Games SIG Mailing List <casual_games at igda.org>

>> Date: Tue, 13 Feb 2007 15:21:40 -0500

>> To: IGDA Casual Games SIG Mailing List <casual_games at igda.org>

>> Subject: Re: [casual_games] Question About Adobe/Macromedia Director as a

>> Development Platform....

>>

>> Rob,

>>

>> I wanted to drop you a line and ask about your comment in your post. I

>> too think that a focus on game development would be a good think. I just

>> wanted to get your ideas as to what specific features, enhancements, etc

>> could be implemented to get the to this goal.

>>

>> Thanks,

>> Charles P.

>>

>>

>> Robert Gordon wrote:

>>     

>>> I too heard a rumour that there may be some focus on game development

>>> with the next version, but can't recall where. Would be very nice though!

>>>