The website has had a lot of downtime recently, and I apologize for it. I still haven't really fixed the problem, either; I just switched the site to my old site's URL. I haven't had much time to keep the site up and I wont for a long time (I'm very busy at the moment with work). I will make sure to fix the problem when I release my next game (which will be in about 10 months). I will have a 6 month leave from game development, and will take another 3 months to make the third and final [Visible] plus one more for sponsorship and release.


On a side note, I released Revert to Growth and Thief's Escape in the site's downtime, so go play them!
 
 
Ok everyone, I now have an official launch date for Revert to Growth: It releases globally on Oct 29th (no its not a halloween game). Please vote it high (well vote what it deserves, which is high). I hope you all are as excited about its release as I am, its going to be epic.


In other news, I have another game in the works. the code is all done, I'm just waiting for art and music. Sadly, in the world of selling flash games, it takes about 1 1/2 months after a game is finished to release, but I'll try to pump this one out fast. The game itself should be completely finished on Wednesday, so It'll likely be released in November sometime.


Thats all for now.
 
 
I have a new venture, an arcade website where you can play a bunch of games:


http://www.arenafox.com


Its a new site, and will likely be going through some changes in the coming weeks, and it will be getting a larger selection of games as well.
 
 

Sorry about the time offline

My host suffered a DDoS, and my site wasn't loading. Anyways, just a quick update:


Revert to Growth should be online everywhere in about 3 weeks.Sadly, the sponsorship process is a long one, but I will be choosing my sponsor tomorrow, and it will take about three weeks to prepare it for its world launch. Awesome.


The next in the collision series should be coming within the next week as well. Look out for it!
 
 

AABB to AABB - Separation

Last time we learned how to check for a collision between two axis aligned rectangles and that collision detection doesnt have to be scary.

First, an optomization:

Thanks to John Blackburne for pointing out a code optomization:

In your code, change any division by 2 to multiplication by .5 (multiplication is faster than division).



Helpful, but...

While having good collision detection is helpful, its not that useful. If you are making a game (especially a platformer), chances are that you need to do something after they collide. You know, something along the lines of separating them so that they DON'T overlap. A character going through the wall or ground isn't my idea of a good game. So lets do something about it!
 
 

AABB to AABB - Detection


Have you ever played a game with bad collision? It's not a very good experience. Bad collision in a game snowballs into other problems. It can interfere with the controls, interfere with the gameplay, and basically anything else that relies on objects overlapping (which is typically a lot). If you are just starting Actionscript, then you are probably using hitTestPoint() or hitTestObject(), flash's built in collision detection. HitTestPoint() tests any given point pixel-perfectly against a graphical object. hitTestObject() uses two graphical objects' bounding boxes to collide.There are pro's and cons with both:

Pros:

hitTestPoint() - Easy to use, and it tests one point pixel perfectly against a graphical object. This can be extremely useful, as it is pixel perfect(meaning it returns true is it is touching any pixel that the object is comprised of).


hitTestObject() - Easy to use is honestly the only thing I can think of. It's pretty crappy otherwise.


Cons:


hitTestPoint - A point is a very small area (obviously). What if you need a bigger area? Using a lot of hitTestPoints will result in a slower program to get the same results as with other methods.

hitTestObject() - You dont get any flexibility with hitTestObject. The bounding boxes are being tested (the boxes who's dimensions are the objects width and height). That means if you dont need that entire area tested, or need more tested, you are out of luck. Not to mention that its a very slow method.


Though theres not really a suitable cure for hitTestPoint() that I can give you, I can give you the cure for hitTestObject!


Now after that very long intro, I can finally say: Welcome to the first of my collision series tutorials: AABB to AABB!
 
New site up!!! 09/09/2009
 

New Site is Up!!!

I have decided to completely overhaul my site. To my fellow flash developers, it is more developer centric now, and I will be coming out with tutorials, post-mortems, and other studies in the coming months. To my fans, and other people visiting this site, you can still view my games in the "games portfolio" page. You can also learn to make flash games like me by going to the developer resources page. I hope you enjoy the new look and new focus.


-Psyflash