Revell Orbis Cross-Platform Apps
In cooperation with xmachina I created three cross-platform apps for Revell GmbH. The apps are built with a single Flash / Adobe AIR codebase and could be played in desktop browsers and on iOS and Android devices. To get the games running smoothly on a wide range of devices I used the easy to handle Starling 2D framework.
Hexdump a ByteArray
Here is a class to hexdump a ByteArray to a string inspired by HxD…
Read more..
AssetsProtector – Protect SWF, JPEG and XML files
I’ve developed a little tool to protect files like SWFs, PNGs, JPEGs or XMLs from beeing decompiled or directly used. So e.g. if you don’t like to hear your sounds playing in another game or you don’t want to allow poking around in your code AssetsProtector could help.
Export Characters to Sprites with 3ds Max
One big issue of my last 2D and 2.5D game projects was to automate and optimize the character’s export process. For that I’ve developed a small exporter tool for 3ds Max written in MAXScript which could render your frames in a batch.
So, if you are working with 3ds Max and are building 2D or 2.5D (isometric) games e.g. with Starling or ND2D, than this script might be useful.
Read more..
28 Bratwursts Later – Zombie 2.5D Shooter Game
“23.12.2012: Scientists finally have interpreted the last icon of the dresden codex. It shows a bratwurst…”
Together with some mates I’m currently working in my spare time on a small fun zombie 2.5D shooter game with the fruity title “28 Bratwursts Later”.
It’s developed with Flash and uses the Stage3D framework ND2D and it has evolved far enough to show at least a short video.
ND2D – Advanced Camera with Parallax Layers
For my current game I’ve built an advanced camera to use with the ND2D framework.
It supports
- parallax layers depending on their z (depth) settings
- map / level boundaries constraints
- shaking with a given strength and duration
- focusing a target
- zooming out based on the target’s speed
To see a small demo please click the image below. Use the arrow keys to control the ship: cursor left / right for turning and cursor up/down for speed.
Press the “Shake” button to shake the screen.
ND2D – Adding Multiple “Alpha Masks”
For my current side project – a comic zombie shooter game – for which I utilize the ND2D framework - I wanted to add some atmosphere by putting a colored fog layer on top of all game layers, from which I could cut out multiple alpha masks to get something like search lights or illuminated auras. Read more..
Detecting the Cheat Engine’s Speedhack in AS3
Another cool feature of the Cheat Engine is the so called “Speedhack” which allows you to slow down or speed up the execution of your (Flash) game. Cheat Engine achieves this by replacing some commonly used functions in games (or the Flash Player) to keep the speed constant with its own routine that goes faster or slower.
One approach to detect the speedhack could be to periodically check the difference between the system’s (OS) time and the Flash Player’s time. If the difference is too big the speedhack might be active and a warning could be dispatched or the alleged cheater could be e.g. marked in a black list ;-) Read more..
Protecting your numbers against the Cheat Engine
Some time ago the highscore of one of my Flash based ad-game had some miraculous high values, which never could have been achieved through normal game-play. The game code itself had been obfuscated and protected as much as possible and the highscore data had been encrypted before it was send to the server. So the score must have been cheated with a tool like Cheat Engine (which is really incredibly powerful).
So I tried to develop a little AS3 class, which will make cheating a little bit harder at least for the lazy ones. Read more..
Debug Facebook Web Apps with FlashDevelop
I’ve been working on a Facebook web app using FlashDevelop and quickly found out that local testing won’t work as the URL specified in the Facebook app settings dialog doesn’t match the URL of your local SWF.
After doing some research I found an easy way yet to build and debug the project directly from FlashDevelop.
The basic idea is to directly publish the project’s SWF to the right folder on the web server and then test it at this place.
I’ve downloaded and installed SFTP NetDrive, a tool which allows you to work with the remote file system as if it is a local disk drive, given that the remote system supports SFTP protocol. Read more..
