R&J

How to make a "torch" effect

2008-01-19T11:47:00.000-08:00

In this tutorial I'm explaining the most basic way of doing it.

What's on stage?

Only 2 layers, the mask and the masked.

In layer 1, the masked one, I have an image and in layer 2, the mask, a MovieClip instanced as "torch".

The actionScript there is:

startDrag("torch", true);
Mouse.hide();

And that's all. With startDrag we tell the movie to drag our MovieClip with the mouse and then we hide our mouse.

Here you can see it in action

Download the source code here

Shots in the Darkness

2008-01-18T14:27:00.000-08:00

After a week looking for a sponsor, I decided to release Shots in the Darkness with MochiAds. Yesterday I started promoting it and today I submitted it to Newgrounds. It has a 3.2 score, which I think it's pretty good. I'll keep you up to date with the MochiAds earning, so you can judge if they're useful.

Here you can play the game:

Looking for sponsor

2008-01-14T13:17:00.000-08:00

I haven't wrote anything in the last days because I was looking for a sponsor for my new game. I haven't found any yet, so I've made a decision: if on Friday I still haven't got a sponsor, I'll release it with mochiads.

Adding game

2008-01-08T12:37:00.000-08:00

Let me show you "Learn to Add Up", a game we made for young children that ended in failure. Why? Because pages that offer games for kids don't sponsor games, and pages that sponsor games don't want games for young children. Maybe I can use MochiAds and MochiBot, as a little experiment...

Play it

Flash "Find the differences" game creation tutorial - Part 2b

2008-01-03T06:25:00.000-08:00

Let's have a look at the actionscript in the "4 differences" game:

Frame 1:

Contains:
-1 button, instanced as playbutton (the red one with the "play the game!" text)

Actionscript:

stop();
playbutton.onRelease = function() {
gotoAndPlay(2);
}

Very easy: telling the game to stop at Frame1 (stop();) and telling it to go to Frame 2 if the "playbutton" is released.

Frame 2:

Contains:

1 - 2 similar images
2- 4 MovieClips, instanced as "Rect1", "Rect2", "Rect3", "Rect4"
3- A dinamic text instanced as "congrat"
4- 4 buttons instanced as "Df1", "Df2", "Df3", "Df4"
5- A MovieClip called Timebar, without instance name

*Remember we have the "cursor" MovieClip in our library, linked as "cursor"

Actionscript:

stop();
differences_left = 4;
//Setting a new variable, "differences_left" and setting it to 4
Mouse.hide();
attachMovie("cursor", "cursor", 1);
cursor.onEnterFrame = function() {
this._x = _xmouse;
this._y = _ymouse;
};
//Hidding the mouse and attaching the cursor MovieClip and telling it //to have the same _x and _y coordinates as the mouse.
Df1.onRelease = function() {
// If you click on the 1st difference...
differences_left -= 1;
// The variable "differences_left" is decreased by 1
_root.Rect1._x = this._x;
_root.Rect1._y = this._y;
// The "Rect1" MovieClip's _x and _y become the same as the "Df1" //button _x and _y
Df1._x = 1500;
// And then, the "Df1" button's _x becomes 1500, so you can't see or //click on it
if(_root.differences_left == 0){
gotoAndPlay(3);
}
// Checking if the variable "differences_left" is 0, if so telling the //game to go to Frame 3, the one with the "You win" text
_root.congrat.text = "You found a difference! Only " + differences_left + " more to go";
// Making the "congrat" text become "You found a difference! Only x //differences more to go", where x is the current value of the //variable "differences_left"
};
Df2.onRelease = function() {
differences_left -= 1;
_root.Rect2._x = this._x;
_root.Rect2._y = this._y;
Df2._x = 1500;
if(_root.differences_left == 0){
gotoAndPlay(3);
}
_root.congrat.text = "You found a difference! Only " + differences_left + " more to go";
};
// The same as in the "Df1" button
Df3.onRelease = function() {
differences_left -= 1;
_root.Rect2._x = this._x;
_root.Rect2._y = this._y;
Df3._x = 1500;
if(_root.differences_left == 0){
gotoAndPlay(3);
}
_root.congrat.text = "You found a difference! Only " + differences_left + " more to go";
};
// The same, too
Df4.onRelease = function() {
differences_left -= 1;
_root.Rect4._x = this._x;
_root.Rect4._y = this._y;
Df4._x = 1500;
if(_root.differences_left == 0){
gotoAndPlay(3);
}
_root.congrat.text = "You found a difference! Only " + differences_left + " more to go";
};
// The same again

Now let's check what's inside the "Timebar" MovieClip:

5 Layers: stroke, mask, fill, dots and background

Take special attention at the masking (highlighted with a red rectangle in the image). The layer Mask is masking the layers "fill" and "dots", but not the layer background. (You can modify masking by right clicking on the layer>properties )

The layer Mask contains a MovieClip instanced as "bar".

And now, see the actionscript in the "Timebar" MovieClip (not inside it) :

onClipEvent(enterFrame){
this.bar._x -=0.25;
// The "bar" MovieClip's _x decreases
if(this.bar._x<=0){
// If it's _x gets to 0...
_root.gotoAndPlay(4);
// The game goes to Frame 4 ( the loser one )
}
}

Frames 3 and 4 only have a static text saying "Loser" or "You win" and a stop(); in its actions layer

Flash "Find the differences" game creation tutorial - Part 2

2007-12-31T04:54:00.000-08:00

Here comes the second part. Today I don't have time enough to write it all, so I'm going to split it in two parts: Part 2a and part 2b.

This first part will consist only in the game and the source code and the next will be the explanation.

Download the source code if you want, but don't worry,I will explain it soon.

A prototype

2007-12-28T14:58:00.000-08:00

This is a game we made. I think it's quite interesting.
I plan to make a tutorial in a few days, but till then you
can download the .fla if you want.

Your ball moves with arrow keys

New look

2007-12-27T14:22:00.000-08:00

As you may have noticed, we've changed the page's
look. That's why we haven't written for a while, but
now we're back with more interesting articles. See
you

By the way, check this songs at Newgrounds:

- Space pirates, by chainsaw_09
- Your prelude, by Bosa
- Chaoz Japan, by ParagonX9

Happy Christmas!

The composer

2007-12-24T08:27:00.000-08:00

Do you know The Composer, by JAZZA? You can
have a look at it at Newgrounds.

"The Composer is an animation following the life cycle
of a young boy to adulthood, who uses the purity of
music to heal wounds, and inspire the hearts of others"

It is really beautiful and also quite sad, I recommend all
of you to watch it.

I think Newgrounds is a very good place to find games,
animations and music, especially music and I enjoy visiting
it to have a look at really good stuff.

Moving!

2007-12-19T12:24:00.000-08:00

Because of some curious facts, next friday ( yes, tomorrow)
we're moving to:

http://rjflashgames.blogspot.com

So, don't forget it, don't visit rjgamez anymore if you're
looking for the best blog about flash games, visit
rjflashgames!

Escape from the time

2007-12-18T13:12:00.000-08:00

Do you know Escape from the time, from Crazy Genius?

It's very, very good and also hard, really hard. At the
moment I'm writting this, only 189 people out of 691764
managed to beat it. Can you be number 190? I can't. I
get stuck here:

One last thing: don't try to cheat by right-clicking, it's fatal,
believe me...

Where to find good music for your games

2007-12-15T08:25:00.001-08:00

Looking for some good music to add to your games? Have a
look at Newgrounds Audio Portal. There are lots of musics
tracks, the only thing you have to do if you add them to your
creations is to give credit to the artist.

Here you have a list of some of my favourites:

- Twilight Techno, by Dimrain 47
- Surface, by Dimrain 47
- Chaoz Fantasy, by Paragon X9
- Mazidon's Fury, by Paragon X9
- A simple Jazz, by SasquaMox
- Playing Poker, by Cheez-R-Us
- Christmas Reloaded, by RaustBlackDragon
- Polar 240, by Paragon X9

A little game by us

2007-12-11T11:44:00.000-08:00

This is a little game we made a long time ago. It's very
simple, as you can see. Reload the page to restart.
Player 1 [Black] moves with arrow keys and Player 2
[Blue], with deletekey, end, home and page down. Have
a look at it.

Flash "Find the differences" game creation tutorial - Part 1

2007-12-11T11:11:00.000-08:00

Hi, in this tutorial we'll see how to make a flash
game similar to 5 Differences. Of course, in Flash
things can be done in lots of different ways, so we'll
cover only one of them, maybe not the best, but
it will work.

Lets see what I have in my flash document:

There are 6 layers:

- Image 1: A drawing
- Image 2: The same drawing, but with some changes
- Contour: Some black lines, to make it look better
- Button/s: In this layer I drew an invisible button
over the differences, instanced as "Df1_btn"
- Text: A dynamic text field instanced as "congrat"
- Actions: The actions layer.

In the actions layer I introduced this code:

Df1_btn.onRelease = function() {
_root.congrat.text = "Well done! You found the difference!"
};

And that's it. Lets see what do we get:

Oh, that's really primitive... when you place your mouse over the difference, it turns into a little hand. We need to solve this problem. Lets think...

If you can't see the cursor, then you won't see the
little hand... Great!
But... wait a moment... then you won't know where
your mouse is and you won't be able to play. We'll
have to make our own custom cursor.

This is very easy, don't worry. All you have to do
is to create a movie clip and link it as cursor

How do I do that!!??

Firstly, create a new MovieClip [in the image, rounded
in green] and draw an arrow.Once you have it created,
don't forget to open it's properties panel and tick
"Export for ActionScript" and give it the identifier
"cursor".

And now, the ActionScript

The only ActionScript I have is in the layer actions, in
the first frame. This is what I wrote:

Mouse.hide();
attachMovie("cursor", "cursor", 1);
cursor.onEnterFrame = function() {
this._x = _xmouse;
this._y = _ymouse;
};
Df1_btn.onRelease = function() {
_root.congrat.text = "Well done! You found the difference!"
};

And that's all.

This is the final result. Of course, it's not
finished, but the rest will have to wait for
Part 2.

Download the final result if you want

Coming soon... flash tutorials!

2007-12-10T12:43:00.000-08:00

I'm glad to announce that in a few days, we'll be publishing
our first flash tutorial. Please be patient while we prepare it.
We're also going to change the blog's look. It's a lot of
work, but I think that it'll be ready for Wednesday.

Thanks for reading ;)

Bubble Tanks

2007-12-07T13:47:00.000-08:00

Don't play Bubble Tanks if you have anything
important to do, because once you begin playing,
you can't stop. It's not addictive. It's a drug!

In this game you begin playing as a small bubble
thing that shoots tiny red bubbles and you can
become a huge (bubble) monster that shoots lots
of big, red bubbles. Your tank grows when you
destroy your enemies and pick up the bubbles they
leave, but don't get hit by their attacks, or you'll
become smaller and less powerful.

Base Jumping

2007-12-06T14:22:00.000-08:00

Base jumping is a strange game by Bubble
Box where your objective is to become the
king of extreme sports by being promoted
from league to league until you challenge
the king of extreme sports and beat him.
All you need is to have great reflexes and
you'll dominate the game. In my opinion,
it's very original and also addictive.

The Fancy Pants Adventure

2007-12-04T13:36:00.000-08:00

Fancy Pants Adventure is a flash game
created by DrNeroCF and sponsored by
Armor Games.

What I like about this game are the guy's
movements. They're so funny... He's kind
of a crazy runner, he can climb even
the hardest loops, no matter if he's
upside-down.
All these things, along with good
music and easy controls, make a
really funny game.

Bloons!

2007-12-02T14:30:00.000-08:00

Bloons is a simple, funny game developed by NinjaKiwi

In this game you are a monkey who has to pop
a minimum number of balloons to advance to
the next stage. You can also pop special bloons,
which help you to pop more balloons with their
special effects. Some levels are very easy, but
others are really challenging. You have a limited
number of darts, so use them wisely. It's very
easy for everyone to understand and play, and
funny too.

You can also play More bloons and Bloons
Tower Defence.

The best of the month

2007-11-30T14:28:00.000-08:00

Today is November 30th, so let's make
an overall review of the month. Let's give
some "awards".

The best graphics award goes to 5 differences,
because they are simple, but funny and expressive.

The music award has to be shared between
Transmigration, for Chaoz Fantasy, and Particles,
for Twilight Techno, both absolutely fantastic.

And the best overall game is MM2. It's really
good, and very complete.

Factory Balls

2007-11-29T12:54:00.000-08:00

Play Factory Balls

It was made for a JiG contest about ball phisycs.
Its very original, and quite fun. In my opinion,
it's not as good as particles, transmigration, and
the other games we've already seen, but it's not
bad.

3D Logic

2007-11-28T13:45:00.000-08:00

Have a look at 3D Logic.

3D Logic it's a logical flash puzzle game. It's
very funny, and can give you hours of
entertainment. What you have to do is to connect
the two squares of the same colour by making
kind of a coloured way. It's very original and
has nice sound effects. Something really good
about this game is that you rarely get stuck,
not as in so many puzzle games.

5 differences, the $5,000 game

2007-11-27T13:55:00.000-08:00

First of all, play 5 differences.

Did you find it good? I did, and very. It's a really
complex game, I'm not very good at flash, so I
have no idea about how did they manage to make
a button so that your mouse doesn't change into a
hand when it's over it (if they did it that way, I don't
know how did they do it). Otherways, it's a good
passtime, and some levels are very, very difficult;
but always fun.
Its a good idea for a game, and I think Crazy Monkey
thought the same, because they paid $5,000 for the
game!

Particles

2007-11-25T12:36:00.000-08:00

Lets have a look at Particles, a flash game
by Matteo Guarnieri, from Ragdoll Soft.

Particles is a physics-based game where you have to
dodge bouncing balls. Move the blue ball with the
mouse, and try to avoid the red balls for as long as
you can. The longer you survive, the more red balls
appear.
Why is particles so good? Firstly, because of the great
music [Twilight Techno, by Dimrain47] and also
because it's very addictive.

How long can you last? I lasted 163 seconds and,
believe me, it's really difficult.

Transmigration

2007-11-25T06:31:00.000-08:00

In Transmigration you play as a changing character:
firstly, you're a robot, then a dragon, then the robot again...
Lots of beautiful characters, specially the final leopard.

This beautiful game by Monkey In The Pants is,
as they say "an interactive journey through
ParagonX9's latest song, 'Chaoz Fantasy'".
Music is absolutely fantastic and graphics are simple,
but great. The game is short, but i'm sure you'll like it.

Our first game: MMM2

2007-11-22T13:03:00.000-08:00

The first game we will review is MMM2 [Momentum Missile
Mayhem 2]

MMM2 is a defence game where you have to defend your missile launcher
against hordes of enemy tanks and other machines. It has very good
graphics, and great sound effects. It's fantastic when you hit a tank, it hits
another one and that one hits another one, and you hear that sounds that
reminds you of a crushed tank...if you have played this game, you'll
know what I mean. It has only a problem: it needs a long time to load, so
be patient!

Please give feedback and remember, if you know(or make) any game and
you want us to review it, just leave a comment or email us at
congomision[@]hotmail[.]com

What is this blog about?

2007-11-21T14:25:00.000-08:00

Well, in this blog, I'll talk about
some flash games. But I won't talk
about the newest of them or the most
famous. I'm going to review and tell
you about some of the most addictive
and fun of them. I hope you'll like
them as I do.

Here we are

2007-11-19T14:06:00.000-08:00

This blog is still working on its appearence. Please be
patient as this proccess may take a few days.