Looking for alternatives to Flash Pro CC, I found
FlashDevelop, a free and open source ActionScript3 editor.
I have to say that getting everything set up correctly was not straightforward. Most of the documentation I
was able to find, seemed a bit outdated.
But in the end, I got it running on both Windows7 & Windows8.
This is what I did (actually quite simple) :
- download & install jre 1.8.0_25 32-bit (FD requires the JRE 1.6+ 32-bit version)
- download & install FlashDevelop 4.6.4
- in FD : tools > install software > check 'air sdk + asc 2.0' > install
(asc 2.0 is the newest compiler)
- in FD : tools > install software > check 'Flash Player (SA)' > install
Notice the installation path displayed on top of the window.
In my case, it points to ...\AppData\Local\FlashDevelop\Apps.
- in FD : tools > program settings > FlashViewer > External Player Path >
make sure this points to the installation path from the previous step, and
find the flashplayer.exe file : ...\flashsa\15.0.0\flashplayer_15_sa_debug.exe.
- in FD : Project > new project > AS3 > choose a name & location, and make sure the 'create
directory' is checked.
FD creates the new project ... > press the blue arrow in the menu to
run the project in debug mode. You should see an 'Adobe Flash Player' popup window with a white background.
Close the player window to stop debugging. You can now start using the FD editor to
create AS3 projects.
Next, I started looking into some open source libraries for game development. This is what I found :
- FlashPunk : free AS3 library
for developing 2D Flash games.
- Starling : cross
platform game engine.
- Flixel : free AS3 game library.
- Away3D : open source, real time 3D engine for the Flash Platform.
I will try them out, & let you know what I think ...
