Showing posts with label flash. Show all posts
Showing posts with label flash. Show all posts

End-to-End Game Development: Creating Independent Serious Games and Simulations from Start to Finish Review

End-to-End Game Development: Creating Independent Serious Games and Simulations from Start to Finish
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The way 'End-to-End Game Development: Creating Independent Serious Games and Simulations from Start to Finish' was written is simply not the way that I feel this book should have been undertaken. For subject matter such as this, an example project should have been devised, and the book should have gone through the steps to do exactly what the title says. Show the starting point of how an idea was created, and the steps it goes through to get from point A to point Z. Instead of doing this, the authors use a variety of examples throughout, with scattered content and scattered results.
This approach might work for talking about a programming language, but I really think it's haphazard way of doing things here.
I simply cannot recommend this book.
**

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You're part of a new venture, an independent gaming company, and you are about to undertake your first development project. The client wants a serious game, one with instructional goals and assessment metrics.Or you may be in a position to green light such a project yourself, believing that it can advance your organization's mission and goals. This book provides a proven process to take an independent game project from start to finish. In order to build a successful game, you need to wear many hats.There are graphic artists, software engineers, designers, producers, marketers - all take part in the process at various (coordinated) stages, and the end result is hopefully a successful game.Veteran game producers and writers (Iuppa and Borst) cover all of these areas for you, with step by step instructions and checklists to get the work done.The final section of the book offers a series of case studies from REAL indy games that have been developed and launched succesfully, and show exactly how the principles outlined in the book can be applied to real world products. The book's associated author web site offers ancillary materials & references as well as serious game demos and presentations.*Step-by-step no-nonsense approach to developing games from start to finish (graphic arts, software engineering, designing, producing, marketing all covered). Indy game developers will gain a clear understanding of what's involved.*Demonstrates a proven process for meshing gameplay and story to create an immersive experience for the player.*Even experienced game developers will benefit from some of the coverage, especially: setting curriculum goals, setting client expectations, and client management.*Authors are authorities in the field with decades of experience in designing and producing entertainment and educational media. Their games and other instructional designs have received numerous awards and accolades and they have held executive positions in training organizations at Fortune 500 companies. *Accompanying web site offers tools and helpful add-ons related to the book, including a serious game demo and presentation.

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Hacking Exposed Web 2.0: Web 2.0 Security Secrets and Solutions Review

Hacking Exposed Web 2.0: Web 2.0 Security Secrets and Solutions
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I'm still in the middle of the book, and I definitely will skim thru all the remaining pages (just because I paid for it), but I wouldn't recommend the book to anyone looking for serious and in-depth study on web security - the book just doesn't offer that. What it does is a list of possible attack vectors and sometimes offers "solutions" which can help to fight with the attacks. However, the attacks descriptions are shallow, solutions are very short and non-extensive and many of them go as far as telling a user to install NoScript extension for Firefox (huh? Web 2.0 doesn't work with no JavaScript).
There are also quadrillions of links to a security-related site (won't list it here) which offers a toolbar to checks your sites again the most common security problems. I don't have anything against links to useful tools of course, but THAT amount of links just makes this book look like an advertisement of the fore-mentioned site. Am not even talking about page space wasted to re-iterate "go to ...., install ...., click .... in order to test for ....." which usually take 0.5-1 pages. Users who read that sort of books can somehow figure out how to use a toolbar, I believe.
I'm not by any means a security expert, and this book did introduce me into the topic, but it didn't do anything beyond that. I still need to read some other book on the topic, and that book will probably contain the same info as the Hacking Web 2.0 Exposed (i.e. the very basic info on web expoits), so.. I actually just recommend to pass on this book at all, and look for something which covers the topic in greater depth.

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Lock down next-generation Web services

"This book concisely identifies the types of attacks which are faced daily by Web 2.0 sites, and the authors give solid, practical advice on how to identify and mitigate these threats." --Max Kelly, CISSP, CIPP, CFCE, Senior Director of Security, Facebook

Protect your Web 2.0 architecture against the latest wave of cybercrime using expert tactics from Internet security professionals. Hacking Exposed Web 2.0 shows how hackers perform reconnaissance, choose their entry point, and attack Web 2.0-based services, and reveals detailed countermeasures and defense techniques. You'll learn how to avoid injection and buffer overflow attacks, fix browser and plug-in flaws, and secure AJAX, Flash, and XML-driven applications. Real-world case studies illustrate social networking site weaknesses, cross-site attack methods, migration vulnerabilities, and IE7 shortcomings.

Plug security holes in Web 2.0 implementations the proven Hacking Exposed way
Learn how hackers target and abuse vulnerable Web 2.0 applications, browsers, plug-ins, online databases, user inputs, and HTML forms
Prevent Web 2.0-based SQL, XPath, XQuery, LDAP, and command injection attacks
Circumvent XXE, directory traversal, and buffer overflow exploits
Learn XSS and Cross-Site Request Forgery methods attackers use to bypass browser security controls
Fix vulnerabilities in Outlook Express and Acrobat Reader add-ons
Use input validators and XML classes to reinforce ASP and .NET security
Eliminate unintentional exposures in ASP.NET AJAX (Atlas), Direct Web Remoting, Sajax, and GWT Web applications
Mitigate ActiveX security exposures using SiteLock, code signing, and secure controls
Find and fix Adobe Flash vulnerabilities and DNS rebinding attacks

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Foundation ActionScript 3.0 for Flash and Flex (Foundations) Review

Foundation ActionScript 3.0 for Flash and Flex (Foundations)
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Anyone who wants to do anything really interesting with Adobe Flash or Flex will, sooner or later, have to do some coding. This is particularly true with 3D presentations, either natively within Flash, or with any of the 3D libraries such as Papervision3D. For maximum effect, not to mention ease of development, that coding will have to be done with Action Script 3 (or AS3 for short). This 566 page book is a good introduction to AS3, with a focus on the language's basics, and how it is used within Adobe's CS3/4 development and Flex Builder tool environments. To get the most from this book, readers should have reasonable proficiency with a compiled programming language, and an understanding of Object Oriented Programming design and implementation techniques.
An open standard programming language originally developed by Adobe for its Flash platform, AS3 is C-like and built from the ground up on a solid object model. While having basic functionality like more general purpose and object based programming languages, such as C#, Delphi and Java, AS3 has many specialized functions that are specific to the Flash platform that make programming easier and development faster.
Accordingly, the book's Chapters 2 through 6 introduce and cover the basic language constructs and syntax. Those proficient with other compiled programming languages should review these as some commands are specific to the Flash environment.
Chapters 7 through 12 detail by example how the basic elements are fashioned into more complex and useful components and applications.
Finally, chapters 13 and 14 show how ActionScript projects are managed using Adobe's Flex Builder.
Each chapter concludes with a summary of the material covered, and has working example code, in both Flash and Flex project formats, that can be downloaded from the publisher's web site. The introductory chapters, one (for CS3/4) and 12 (for Flex Builder), have step by step instructions on how the respective development tool is configured, including screen shots.
Perhaps the most important chapter is four, which describes the Display List, the root container for all objects displayed on and managed within the Stage. Understanding the display list is crucial to developing effective presentations for rich internet applications, regardless of whether they are browser based on running locally on a desktop or laptop.
Perhaps the weakest chapter is eleven, on XML processing. This is particularly important as more and more information is being exchanged in this format and knowing how to extract and process it has become nothing less than a necessity in today's information structures and services. Another weakness is not covering how AS3 programs can be tested and debugged in more detail beyond trace() statements.
An excellent book for those with novice to intermediate skill levels, as well as a light reference book.

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This is an update of Foundation ActionScript 3.0 for the new editions of Flash and Flex. Along with updating the book, we are also making it version neutral to extend the shelf-life now that we know that Adobe have no plans at the moment for ActionScript 4.0. By separating the ActionScript language from the Flash and Flex version, we will increase the sales potential of the title.

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Search Engine Optimization for Flash: Best Practices for Using Flash on the Web Review

Search Engine Optimization for Flash: Best Practices for Using Flash on the Web
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This book spends a lot of time explaining to users what SEO is and how search engines work and with some good info on how you can use HTML or PHP to add searchable text. But being a Flash book, it only touches very little actual techniques that would help advanced Flash developers. It talks about SWFObject and SWFAddress but fails to dive deeper in how you might address the biggest issue of searching multi-page (or deep-linkable) Flash sites and using other techniques like XHTML or Javascript to dynamically change the metadata or noFlash div content so search engines can search each "page" with the Flash sites.
Good for Flash developers just started to learn about SEO but there is noting much new for advanced Flash developers

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Some people believe that because search engines can't index all of the content in SWF files, Flash-based websites and Rich Internet Applications don't show up in web searches. This breakthrough book dispels that myth by demonstrating precisely what you can do to make your site fully searchable no matter how much Flash it contains. You'll learn best practices for using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to build sites with Flash that will stand tall in search rankings.Search Engine Optimization for Flash shows you how search engines work, what constitutes a search-engine-optimized (SEO) site, and what to watch out for in the way of SEO pitfalls. With this concise book, you will:



Know what content is searchable, and why metadata, keywords, and links are so important
Learn how to place HTML content in your Flash applications
Create an SEO website by connecting Flash to JavaScript and CSS
Work effectively with SWFObject by understanding its capabilities and limitations
Discover the advantages of using the Adobe Flex framework for SEO

The first and most authoritative book on how to optimize Flash content for search engines, Search Engine Optimization for Flash is an invaluable resource if you develop with Flash and want to be sure your audience can easily find your site.


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Flash Mobile: Developing Android and iOS Applications (Visualizing the Web) Review

Flash Mobile: Developing Android and iOS Applications (Visualizing the Web)
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I am a Flash developer for a well recognized Flash development firm. I am currently developing apps for the iPad using the iPhone packager. This book is the most basic one I have read from all three books that are out there in the market for IOS development using Flash. I think at the time the author wrote the book, he did not understand the underlying problems you face when trying to deploy AIR-based apps into the iOS environment. I believe you should buy the Dolce or Wagner books as they seem to know what the basic limitations are on the iPhone Packager for Flash.

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Build rich media applications for the iOS and Android platforms with this primer to Flash mobile development. You get all of the essentials-from setting up your development environment to publishing your apps to the Google Market Place/Apple iTunes App Store.

Develop elementary applications without coding; then realize the power of ActionScript 3 to add rich complexity to your applications. Step-by-step instruction is combined with practical tutorial lessons to deliver a working understanding of the development stages including:


*Rapid prototyping *Adding interactivity, audio, and video *Employing iOS and Android Interface Calls*Hardware optimization with AIR *Game development; game engines, controlling physics, and 3D *Designing for iPad, Android tablets, and Google TV *Code optimization, testing, and debugging


User interfaces are presented in full color to illustrate their nuances. The companion website, www.visualizetheweb/flashmobile, includes all of the AS3 code, project files, and a blog to keep you up to date with related news and developments.


*Publication within weeks of Adobe's release of the Android packaging utilities *Full-color illustrations of UI and design implementations *Companion website with tutorial media and author forum


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The ActionScript 3.0 Quick Reference Guide: For Developers and Designers Using Flash: For Developers and Designers Using Flash CS4 Professional (Adobe Developer Library) Review

The ActionScript 3.0 Quick Reference Guide: For Developers and Designers Using Flash: For Developers and Designers Using Flash CS4 Professional (Adobe Developer Library)
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I was browsing at Borders at Park Ave and 57th, where they had exactly one copy of this. I'd heard of this book but hadn't seen it yet--it was announced over the summer but O'Reilly kept delaying publication so the book could be current with Flash CS4. I looked up a few items in the ToC and index, and went straight to the checkout queue. I had to have this book right away! even if Amazon could sell it to me cheaper!
Okay, why is the book good? I've spent more time with it now. I'll give you my three biggest reasons:
1) It's readable. It really is. It's friendly and accessible. Did you ever enjoy those juvenile histories and biographies and How-and-Why science books that started out with something like, "Hi! This is a fun book, and we're going to take you on a fun journey, step-by-step. This is a great subject to be interested in! Aren't you happy? Well, we are!!!"?
Well, did you like books like that? I did, and I've always resented scholarly and technical books that didn't introduce themselves along those lines. So many of them are written like resentful documentation: "Go away. We hate you. This is only for ugly, squirrelly, socially backward people like US."
This book is overtly addressed to users of ActionScript 1.0 and 2.0, and those already using 3.0; to artists, designers, and developers of all stripes. It's all-inclusive. Like Rich Shupe's Learning ActionScript 3.0, it has a friendly, hand-holding attitude that goes through the length of the book.
2) A personal obsession: this book has a good section on how to write XML loaders that use HTML. This is a very poorly documented area of Flash. The ActionScript 3.0 Cookbook had a little bit on it, but the explanation was hard to follow and the code was buggy.
3) Another personal interest: SWF loaders and unloaders. This is the first book I've seen that tells you how to unload both the thing loaded and the "event listener" that keeps sitting there, using up processor time and space.
The book is also current with the less traditional Flash-related technologies, such as FlashDevelop and Flex.

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"No matter what your background, the pages that follow will provide you with some excellent knowledge, insight, and even a little bit of wisdom in the realm of Flash and ActionScript. Happy learning!" -- Branden Hall, from the Foreword Written by Flash insiders with extensive knowledge of the technology, this guide is designed specifically to help Flash designers and developers make the leap from ActionScript 2.0 to the new object-oriented ActionScript 3.0 quickly and painlessly. Formatted so you can find any topic easily, ActionScript 3.0 Quick Reference Guide explains:

Object-oriented programming (OOP) concepts, such as packages and classes
ActionScript 3.0 features and player enhancements that improve performance
Workflow differences between ActionScript 2.0 and ActionScript 3.0 including tools, code editing, component sets, and image and font rendering
Where did it go? A guide to help you find familiar features in ActionScript 3.0, such as global functions, operators, properties, and statements
How do I? Step-by-step solutions for performing tasks with ActionScript 3.0, including input, sound, video, display, events, text, and more

Also included are overviews of Flash and ActionScript features and workflows. ActionScript 3.0 is a huge upgrade to Flash's programming language -- and this guide helps you upgrade your skills to match it.


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