Ahrooga

An alternative to bitmap transparency in Flash

Will — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 12:59:04 +0000

When it comes to using transparent bitmap images in Flash often you will find using a PNG is your best option. However, a major caveat with using PNG images is the significant increase in file size compared to non-transparent image types such as JPEGs and (non-transparent) GIFs. This often becomes an issue when working on [...]

My new portfolio site – williamdady.com

Will — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 20:41:01 +0000

Over the last couple of weeks I have slowly been putting together my new portfolio site, williamdady.com, which has been long overdue. The site was developed in FlashDevelop and Flash CS4 using the PureMVC framework. I had a very specific design goal from the beginning to maintain a modular structure, something that PureMVC was a big [...]

PureMVC: Creating a short-hand Mediator

Will — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 17:34:56 +0000

99% of coding I do lately is built on top of the excellent PureMVC framework. Something that has been irking me for a while now is the way Mediators register and handle notifications dispatched from the View. Part of working with PureMVC requires extending from the Mediator base class (more specifically implementing IMediator) as this contains [...]

SWFObject 2.2 Out Now!

Will — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 00:47:20 +0000

Just got word that SWFObject 2.2 is now out and available for download. SWFObject is THE way to embedd Flash content in HTML and is a MUST have for any Flash user. What’s great about SWFObject is it’s ability to degrade gracefully across various browsers by either throwing up a Flash express install dialog or alternate [...]

Flash Ad Manager v1.0 Now Available

Will — Sun, 31 May 2009 00:13:39 +0000

Flash Ad Manager is now available to download as a 1.0 release from the Google Code project page. If you missed the previous posts about it, here’s the spiel: Flash Ad Manager lets developers remotely display custom or embedded ads during the preloading stage of a Flash application. My main motivation with this project is to give Flash [...]

Help fix Flash’s visible dimensions

Will — Wed, 27 May 2009 01:00:33 +0000

Colin Moock, author of the excellent book Essential Actionscript 3.0 has written an interesting blog post regarding an issue which Flash (still) has with finding the visible dimensions of a DisplayObject. The key word there being “visible” as the way Flash currently reports a DisplayObject’s size does not account for things which effect on-screen appearance [...]

Flash Ad Manager Update

Will — Sat, 23 May 2009 19:49:02 +0000

Just a quick update to let you know that the Flash Ad Manager class library I mentioned in a previous post is now hosted on Google Code. In fact, it’s been on there for a little while now. This is my first open source project and I’ve been having fun with it. There is information [...]

Flex Builder gets new name

Will — Mon, 18 May 2009 14:12:13 +0000

As expected Flex Builder has now been renamed to Flash Builder starting with version 4 due out later this year(?). Lee Brimlow broke the news and has answered a few questions people have regarding what this means for the future of the Flash IDE and how this may effect confusion between Flash & Flex. Ultimately we [...]

Flash Game Ad Manager – Coming Soon!

Will — Thu, 07 May 2009 23:02:30 +0000

In July of last year I wrote a post titled Monetizing your Flash game. Serving your own ads? In it I discussed ways Flash game developers could monetize their games through common methods such as sponsorship and ads. I also proposed a method of ’self serving’ ads in ones own games. I successfully implemented such [...]

Light Steam

Will — Fri, 01 May 2009 00:40:04 +0000

So it seems I’ve been neglecting this blog lately. I guess I’ve been a little busy now that I’m working full time again. Nonetheless I thought I’d throw up this little ‘light stream’ effect I’ve been working on. This is really just a re-imagining of a very similar effect I did for a banner ad [...]