PSP Game Creation for Teens
- Length: 432 pages
- Edition: 1
- Language: English
- Publisher: Course Technology PTR
- Publication Date: 2010-12-20
- ISBN-10: 1435457846
- ISBN-13: 9781435457843
- Sales Rank: #11190217 (See Top 100 Books)
PSP GAME CREATION FOR TEENS shows teens and other beginners how to make awesome video games and cool cartoon animations for the Sony PlayStation Portable (PSP), the popular handheld game console, using Adobe Flash. This step-by-step guide provides all the tools and information readers need to get started making games and cartoons they can play and share with their friends.
Interview with Michael Duggan, author of PSP Game Creation for Teens
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Do you need a lot of experience or technical skill to create addictive games?
It is my personal belief that you don’t need a whole lot to make a game that plays well and is addictive. Even using Flash, you can craft a game where the player controls a dot that moves left and right, jumping across open pits, and with the right sort of artwork and particular timing, you can make it very enjoyable. This book, PSP Game Creation for Teens, shows you how to do that sort of game, among others. Then you can use your imagination and art skills to make your game as wild and enjoyable as you like.
Are there restrictions on playing Flash games on a PSP?
Anyone can play Flash games on their PSP (PlayStationPortable). It’s easy to set up. So, if you own or purchase the Flash application, you can make homebrew Flash games for the PSP. That is the whole idea behind PSP Game Creation for Teens. There’s no easier, cheaper way to build PSP games, not that I have found.
What should I consider before creating a Flash game for PSP?
Currently, for the PSP system, you have just a few requirements to have to think about when making a Flash game. The main one is screen resolution. You are making a game to fit the screen of the PSP. The next one is tidiness, because you have to make the game as concise as possible, which in this case means selecting the smallest-sized audio and graphic files to use in your game. You must also stick with ActionScript 2.0, which doesn’t require the sort of space ActionScript 3.0 uses.
Do these restrictions limit my creative abilities? Some really great games can be designed even within these restrictions. You can make a clone of a popular retro or classic video game, such as PacMan, Asteroids, and Brick Break-Out. Or you can create a QTE game along the lines of Dragon’s Lair, Space Ace, or–one I’ve done in Flash–Braindead 13. QTE stands for “quick time event” and represents a game interaction similar to Simon Says, where you have to press the right button at the right moment to continue the action of the game; fail to press the right button and the game ends. In the case of the QTE games above, your game doesn’t really end. Instead, you are shown a brief dramatic death sequence that is almost as rewarding as game continuance itself. The only way to correctly get to the end of the game is to press all the right buttons in succession as the narrative plays out on the screen. |
What are some ways to use Flash? When I recreated Dave Quesnelle’s game Braindead 13, I used embedded video in Flash. I chopped the video into multiple chapters and then placed those chapters into different Flash scenes. The only way for the player to go to the next scene was to press the right button within the time limit. The time limits usually ranged from six to 15 frames of the Flash movie, and I provided the player anywhere from one to four buttons to pick from at a time, with only one of them being the right one to press. If they pressed any of the wrong ones, or didn’t press any buttons at all, a tiny gotoAndPlay() script would divert the player to a death scene instead. The coding for the Flash version of Braindead 13 was effortless, yet the overall game was challenging and fun, if you like QTE-style games. What are some other examples of games that can be created for PSP? Besides sidescrolling platformers, you can also make dress-up games. The same scripting used for dress-up games can be used to make jigsaw puzzles and room decorating games. Other kinds of Flash games easy to make include the tunnel maze game and shooting gallery. These Flash games are demonstrated in PSP Game Creation for Teens, but what you’ll really take from the book is a deeper understanding of how games are made, how to design game artwork, and familiarity with ActionScript 2.0 programming. |
