OpenLaszlo as flash game engine - anyone play with this?

[whisperstorm]

Openlaszlo (http://www.openlaszlo.org/) lets you create flash and DHTML applications using xml+js. An example application is Pandora.com (http://www.pandora.com) or http://www.laszlosystems.com/demos/

Basically, if you can create a web page with a bit of javascript logic, you can code in Laszlo.

I've created a few simple games in Laszlo , but nothing too involved yet. I was wondering if anyone else here has looked as using this tool (basically a free flash compiler w/o having to buy the flash IDE).

[soniCron]

If you wanna do free Flash dev, check out MTASC (http://www.mtasc.org/). Don't know that Laszlo is suitable for game development - but I could be wrong.

[Matthew]

If you wanna do free Flash dev, check out MTASC (http://www.mtasc.org/). Don't know that Laszlo is suitable for game development - but I could be wrong.

If anyone uses MTASC/etc--or even if you're using the Flash IDE--check out FlashDevelop for your ActionScript IDE. It's amazing!

http://www.flashdevelop.org/community/

[KNau]

I looked at OpenLazlo but for the life of me I just couldn't figure out what the hell it was for. As it stands, it's still on my to-do list to check out.

Can anyone tell me why I would develop anything in Lazlo as opposed to Flash?

[soniCron]

It's a framework, so it provides you with many things you'd otherwise have to do yourself. Widgets, client/server communication, etc.

[HairyTroll]

I looked at OpenLazlo but for the life of me I just couldn't figure out what the hell it was for.

Can anyone tell me why I would develop anything in Lazlo as opposed to Flash?

You write the application in Javascript and XML and then OpenLazlo converts this into Flash to be executed in a Flash player on the client.

- Luke

[whisperstorm]

What I am creating in Laszlo is a web based rpg engine similiar to RPG Maker. Since there's not alot of complex particle effects or arcade collision detection I think this will be a good fit, Especially since the code will be open source'd which is a bit more difficult to do in a standard Flash application.

I think that the best way to show folks that Laszlo is a good fit for flash games is to actually make one :)

[soniCron]

...Especially since the code will be open source'd which is a bit more difficult to do in a standard Flash application. :confused: Why is that?

[whisperstorm]

Well, it was my understanding that flash is a binary format - even fla files, whereas lzx is simply text. Correct me if I'm wrong - is there a full text format that compiles to swf?

[soniCron]

Most Actionscript code is written in text files. (*.AS) It's possible to write code in specific frames and even movieclips and buttons, but that's considered bad form for anything more than a small project. Flash is highly flexible for multi-tiered development - it even has built-in support for versioning systems! Even the binary data is quite accessible. SWF is an open format that's throughly documented - many other applications have the ability to read and write SWF files with no problem. You could create an entire Flash application without ever touching a single Macromedia product.

Flash is an excellent platform for OSS. It's just a shame we don't see much. I'd like to opensource my framework once it's been proven in the field, for example...

[impossible]

If anyone uses MTASC/etc--or even if you're using the Flash IDE--check out FlashDevelop for your ActionScript IDE. It's amazing!

http://www.flashdevelop.org/community/
Wow, I had no idea this existed. I've been wanting to do some Flash development because its the top platform for browser games, but don't really like Flash MX 2004 and didn't want to pay $500 or warez it. This looks like a nice, simple and free way to get started on some Flash games. Next time I get the urge to prototype a new game I'll do it with this instead of Processing.