The quantity and quality of content and demos created by the Flash community never ceases to amaze me.There is certainly no shortage of sites I could have highlighted here and it was difficult to just limit the list to a handful but each of these sites, in my opinion, is uniquely deserving of recognition for all the work they did during the past year to share their knowledge with the rest of the community and push the limits of Flash’s ability. Thanks to all of you!
Flash and Math - Flash and Math is a site that shows the power of team blogging as it was one of the most consistent resources for Flash tutorials and samples throughout 2011. The site is the work of Barbara Kaskosz, Doug Ensley and Dan Gries who are all university professors in mathematics. Oftentimes the tutorials focus on a mathematical problem, though many times they are simply focused on showing how to use new features, but in every case they are useful for anyone interested in developing games, developing for mobile or simple learning to code ActionScript.
Twitter: @flashandmath
Examples:
- Zoom In on a Point in an Image and Pan with Gestures - AIR Mobile Tutorial
- Perlin Lines - A Generative Art Effect in AS3 Flash
- AIR for Android PeekAMaze Game - Complete Source Code
Jackson Dunston - If you are looking for tips and techniques for optimizing the performance of your ActionScript code or want to learn advanced ActionScript coding, then you need to follow Jackson Dunstan’s blog. He regularly posts the results of various performance tests examining the results of various ways of squeezing the best performance out of Flash applications. He also dives into complex coding topics like his recent ongoing multi-part series on AGAL.
Examples:
- Introduction to AGAL: Part 1
- AS3 vs. JavaScript Performance Followup (November 2011)
- Composing BitmapData Scenes
Emanuele Feronato - I simply don’t know how a single person can write so many detailed and useful game development tutorials. It seemed like every week I would feature at least a few outstanding posts by Emanuele showing how to recreate classic games using Flash - and that’s that I didn’t include every post. If you want to learn how to develop games, both 2D and 3D though to a lesser degree, you must follow Emanuele’s blog.
Twitter: @triqui
Examples:
- Create REAL explosions with Box2D
- Develop a Flash game like Angry Birds using Box2D – Following bird with the camera and skinning crates
- Create a terrain like the one in Tiny Wings with Flash and Box2D
Ville Koskela - Ville Koskela didn’t start blogging until late in 2011 but made up for it with some outstanding posts mostly covering using Flash 11 and Stage3D with the Starling framework. Ville shared some of his experiences and optimizations using the framework to build a Flash version of Angry Birds for his employer, Rovio. If you are interested in doing serious 2D game development for Flash, this is a blog to watch.
Twitter: @villekoskelaorg
Examples:
- Starling gets wings
- Handling rendering ”device loss” with Starling
- Passing the Starling Image count limit
Marco Scabia - Since the addition of Stage3D to Flash Player there has been huge interest in developing 3D games in Flash and no site, in my opinion, has been a better resource than Marco Scabia’s. He has offered full detailed tutorials as well as impressive samples throughout the year of what Stage3D is capable of.
Twitter: @marxillo
Examples:
Bill Sanders - Bill Sanders is the author of the ActionScript 3 Design Patterns blog which lives up to its name by consistently delivering outstanding examples and explanations of various programming design patterns implemented in ActionScript. Bill always gives detailed breakdowns of the pattern, usually with flow charts for further clarity, and always provides example source. A must-read for any ActionScript programmer.
Twitter: @williebegoode
Examples:
- Speed Tweaks: Reuse Objects
- ActionScript 3.0 Flash Builder App in Apple iOS: Decorator and State
- Beginning Mobile ActionScript 3.0 Design Patterns with Flash
Christopher Caleb - Chris’ site often focused on gaming, as with many of the above, and often on developing for iOS. It was also a fantastic resource for keeping up with announcements and new developments within the Flash community and gaining some insights into how this affects the day to day work of an ActionScript and Flash developer.
Twitter: @chriscaleb
Examples:
Labs by Hook - Another example of the merits of team blogging comes from the team at Hook. While their blog was not the most prolific, the posts that were made were all excellent and detailed and the source code contributions, such as the Ogg Vorbus library, were solutions to complex problems that you wouldn’t likely find elsewhere.
Examples:
Petri Leskinen a.k.a. Pixelero - If you want samples and source code for complex visualizations in Flash, then this is the site for you. Petri posted consistently throughout the year often giving multiple examples of different visualizations and always including the downloadable source and links to more info - an outstanding resource.
Twitter: @pixelero
Examples:
- Laplacian Growth, flash demo
- Pixel Bender: SplineAlignedImage – the Implicit Approach
- Pixel Bender: Complex Circle Pattern
Yasunobu Ikeda a.k.a. Clockmaker - Last but certainly not least, this site, like the one above, is filled and constantly updated with impressive demos and source code especially focused on Stage3D including frameworks like Away3D, Alternative3D and Starling.
Twitter: @clockmaker_en
Examples: