Building a Flash Platformer

Question

I am basically making a game where the whole game is run in the onEnterFrame method. This is causing a delay in my code that makes debugging and testing difficult. Should programming an entire platformer in this method be efficient enough for me to run hundreds of lines of code?

Also, do variables in flash get updated immediately? Are there just lots of threads listening at the same time?

Here is the code...

stage.addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, onEnter);

function onEnter(e:Event):void
{
//Jumping

if (Yoshi.y > groundBaseLevel)
{
    dy = 0;
    canJump = true;
    onGround = true; //This line is not updated in time
}

if (Key.isDown(Key.UP) && canJump)
{
    dy = -10;
    canJump = false;
    onGround = false; //This line is not updated in time
}
if(!onGround)
{
    dy +=  gravity;
    Yoshi.y +=  dy;
}


//limit screen boundaries

//character movement
if (! Yoshi.hitTestObject(Platform)) //no collision detected
{
    if (Key.isDown(Key.RIGHT))
    {
        speed +=  4;
        speed *=  friction;
        Yoshi.x = Yoshi.x + movementIncrement + speed;
        Yoshi.scaleX = 1;
        Yoshi.gotoAndStop('Walking');

    }
    else if (Key.isDown(Key.LEFT))
    {
        speed -=  4;
        speed *=  friction;
        Yoshi.x = Yoshi.x - movementIncrement + speed;
        Yoshi.scaleX = -1;
        Yoshi.gotoAndStop('Walking');

    }
    else
    {
        speed *=  friction;
        Yoshi.x = Yoshi.x + speed;
        Yoshi.gotoAndStop('Still');
    }

}
else //bounce back collision detected
{
    if(Yoshi.hitTestPoint(Platform.x - Platform.width/2, Platform.y - Platform.height/2, false))
    {
        trace('collision left');
        Yoshi.x -=20;

    }
    if(Yoshi.hitTestPoint(Platform.x, Platform.y - Platform.height/2, false))
    {
        trace('collision top');
        onGround=true;  //This update is not happening in time
        speed = 0;

    }

}
}

Answer 1

I don't think that writing the entire game logic in one event in a single class is the best way. It's better to divide the game logic in several classes and follow the best practices of OOP. Like having some base classes, like Level, Player, Enemy, Weapon etc. that separate game logic, collision detection, input handling, event handling etc. on a more logical way.

For Flash, there's another engine for making games: FlashPunk. It is free, has a big community and good tutorials to get started. Here's one tutorial for platformers that can be useful to you.

The problem is that there are differences between the current and older versions of FlashPunk so watch out for dates and versions on the forums and blogs when you see code samples.

Answer 2

If you're making a platformer, maybe you can try with the Citrus Engine. http://citrusengine.com It's a game engine specifically made for platform games and it open source

Cheers!