After asking a few people and giving it some more thought, I decided to do a session on our popular first person shooter “Puki: The Swarm”, instead of “Top 5 Flash Problems Solved” at FlashForward New York in July. I think it will be an informative and entertaining session, and should tie in exceptionally well with the workshop on OOP game development that Glyn Thomas is presenting on day 1 of the conference.

I really want to thank everyone for posting their ideas for problems to solve, and apologize for not solving them in NY – I might use them in a future session, though maybe not given all the cool stuff MM is showing off in 8ball.

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At FlashForward New York this year I will be running a session titled “Top 5 Flash Problems Solved”. This session will identify, define and provide straightforward real-world solutions for 5 problems faced regularly by Flash Developers.

So here’s where you come in… what would you consider to be the top problems you have faced as a Flash developer/designer? How did you solve them (or are you still looking for a solution)? Please post your ideas in the comments below, or email them to me using the contact button above.

I will be posting the session notes online in the usual place after the conference, so even if you aren’t attending FFNYC, you might get your question answered.

A few ideas to spark your thoughts: streamlining server interactions and pre-loading, avoiding _root, extending components, optimizing your code, making shared runtime libraries work.

Thanks in advance!

I’m such a digital nerd I get really stoked when I show up in print, so I was pretty excited when I saw that I was the top story in the Business section (appropriately, section G) of the Edmonton Journal today under the heading “Edmonton web whiz’s new company quickly hailed as industry superstar”. It’s a very complimentary article about me and the company – though they failed to mention that the AOL project was done with Metaliq, inc. (who are really awesome to work with), and that LucasArts is BLITZ’s client, not ours directly. The article was also featured on the front page, with a goofy posed picture of me beside my computer.

You can read the article on the Edmonton Journal online edition. Below are a couple of pics of the print version, for posterity.

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Everyone has been blogging this, and with very good reason, but I wanted to think about it for a bit until I could write a balanced analysis of the Adobe acquisition of Macromedia.

Firstly, please chill. In the short term, there will be no impact on developers from this deal except for what we bring on ourselves. There will be minimal or no changes at Macromedia until the deal is approved, which will take at least 3-4 months. However, if Flash developers start pulling a Chicken Little, we’ll simply frighten an already skittish market and do harm to ourselves. While I’m sure we all have reservations, it’s in our best interest to reflect this deal in a positive light, at least until we have concrete reasons for concern.

In the longer term, I think there are 4 important areas to look at:

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Wow! Last night I won Best Canadian Developer (which of course really translates to Best Canadian Flash Developer) at the FitC awards show – quite an honour (eh?). The award is supercool – an old-school can opener embedded in a block of clear lucite. I’ll add a picture of it here after I get back home.

I’d really like to thank my fiance Bobi for putting up with my nerdy Flash obsessions, and a fair amount of neglect over the past few years. I’d also like to thank everyone that’s contributed to this fantastic industry – it’s pretty cool to have a job that you actually look forwards to each day (well… most days), and one where you can meet up with so many great people at these events.

I’d also like to (belatedly) thank my amazing team at gskinner.com, their great work has let me focus more of my time on the community, and on pushing the boundaries of the technology with experiments and cutting-edge corporate projects. I wouldn’t be able to do what I do without them. Thanks guys!

I’ve just finished off my sessions at FitC (Toronto) and FlashForward (San Francisco) on Object Oriented Procrastination. I had a lot of fun doing both sessions, although I may have had a bit too much booze, and a bit too little sleep for the FitC one. You can check out the session notes by clicking here, and don’t forget to check out the full list of notes from my previous sessions here.

The Puki have landed! My latest “experimental” venture was into the land of 3D, which is an area I haven’t explored much in the past. What started with an abstract concept to create a set of 3d classes, and render a view of a tunnel, has blossomed into a full featured 3d game, the first of its kind (first person shooter) that I am aware of in Flash. With help from my team (lots of beta testing, especially since the highscores went in), I have pretty much finished the game, and am releasing it now as a beta. Click any of the screenshots below to play it, and please leave any feedback or bugs in the comments below. This is the first full game we’ve built purely for the fun of it (ie. non-commercial) at gskinner.com, and we’re all excited to hear what you think.

Be sure to read the tips at the beginning of each level, they have some good info. And keep your eyes peeled for easter eggs (a few days late for easter, but there nonetheless).

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