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I'm new to flash and web development too. But I have some background in c#/c++/Qt/python. So, I want to know, what is the best toolchain for quickest dive into.

My task is to write a game for facebook.com/vkontakte.ru. I already have the design doc, great artist and game-designer, so, the coding is the only stumbling block we met. There are no significant obstacles at server-side, but, since we have not much time, I decided to ask some help on suitable toolchain definition.

I think, that web-services (maybe WCF) are perfect for the backend, so, some of them should transfer JSON-ed data from/to client, incapsulate game-logic, and... here is the place I stuck. What next, what should I learn, what tools/toolsets will provide learing/productivity curve that meat least action principle.

Maybe I'm on the wrong way and missing some basic and obvious (for web-devs) things... I do not know, so, any advices will be highly appreciated.

Yes, this is the copy of my question on SO, but it seems, that here is the really proper place to post it.

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What kinds of problems do you need to solve? Are you looking for a game engine? General AS3 libraries? – Iain Sep 7 '10 at 8:56
@Iain Yes, I'm looking for advices on usable frameworks and libraries too, but what I really need is flash social game developer ecosystem as a whole. I meen, if I'm .NET coder, then I'd buy VS, and I'm done. Architecture defining->coding->documenting->testing/debugging->deploying, all-inclusive. So, what should I use to organize work process in Flash? – Max Sep 7 '10 at 9:39

2 Answers

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Try using Flash Develop or if you are willing to spend some money Flash Builder. I have used both and would say they are comparable. Flash Builder is an Eclipse plug-in meaning it can integrate with the rest of your workflow a little better, but it is quite expensive. Another alternative is to download the Flex SDK (will likely need to do that for Flash Develop anyway) and use Vim. With the right Ant build file you can get pretty far with that.

To manage content, I would recommend using Flash CS to manage your art assets. Your artist should be able to create animations, sprites, buttons, etc and lay things out visually using that. When he's finished he can export the whole thing as a swc which can be easily incorporated into your game.

If you're coming from Visual Studio it might be worth ponying up for Flash Builder (try the 60 day trail first of course). It has unit testing integrated and through various plug-ins can support most other things.

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up vote 3 down vote

For developing a web game, i'd actually recommend learning HaXe. It has much friendlier syntax than ActionScript, as well as many more features you'll likely want (generics, automatic performance optimization, extra useful libraries, etc.). As Alex pointed out, FlashDevelop is a great tool to use and seems to be quite capable.

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I'd take a look on it, thanks! – Max Sep 9 '10 at 7:08

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