Several years ago when I first got started in Flash game development (2003 if you’re counting), Actionscript 2.0 was the new kid on the block, appearing along side the cutting edge Flash Player 7 and the Macromedia Flash MX 2004 IDE. If you wanted to build a Flash game, that was pretty much your only (sane) option, and you had to be ready to shell out some major cash to get started. With the arrival of MTASC and Adobe’s release of the Flex command line compiler and SDK, you now have a plethora of options available if you are looking to get started in Flash game development on a tight budget. The best things in life are free, and right now so is setting up the perfect game development environment.

Using the Flex command line compiler, and the peerless (and free!) Flash Develop IDE, we can get fast, reliable .swf compilation in a sexy efficiency-boosting Actionscript 3.0 coding environment. All the programmers at Urbansquall use this exact same set up, so you know that it’s reliable in a production environment. These are the steps to get the two cooperating nicely (just 3 of them!).

Step 1: Download and unpack the SDK

Download the Flex 3.0 SDK. You can find the link near the bottom of this Adobe webpage. Unzip the contents of this folder to a permanent directory and remember the location. I always just drop it into a directory I create at c:\flex3sdk.

Step 2: Download and install Flash Develop

Get the latest version of Flash Develop. Today that is Flash Develop 3.0.0 Beta 6. The default install settings should be fine for our needs. (If Flash Develop whines about needing the ActiveX Flash Player installed, you can download it on this Adobe page. Look for “Download the Windows Flash Player 9 ActiveX control content debugger.”)

Step 3: Tell Flash Develop about the Flex command line compiler

Download the Hello World project. Double click on HelloWorld.as3proj to open it in Flash Develop. Press control+enter to signal to Flash Develop to build and test the Hello World project. Because Flash Develop doesn’t yet know about the Flex command line compiler, it will pop up an alert and ask you: “Would you like to open the AS3 context settings to configure the compiler?” This is Flash Develop essentially checking if you’d like to tell it where the Flex command line compiler is. We do, so click “OK.” This should open a very scary looking Flash Develop Settings menu, listing a bunch of plugins on the left and a properties panel on the right. Ignore everything except for the line that says “Flex SDK Location.” It should be 4 entries down on the properties section. Consult the big blue arrow in the following image if you are lost:

When you hit the “…” button, a browse dialog will open. Browse to the folder where you unzipped the Flex SDK to (in step 1, I suggested c:\flex3sdk) and select that. Click close. Now that Flash Develop knows where the Flex command line compiler is, you should be able to hit control+enter again which will compile the .swf and run it for you in a new tab. If you have a draconian firewall, you might get a pop up asking you if you want to allow the JAR Launcher from Adobe Systems Incorporated (which you should allow). That’s it! You’re done! You are now successfully building Flash applications from the awesome Flash Develop IDE, using the Flex command line compiler, and it didn’t cost you a dime!

Problems? Well, you might have gotten a little alert box that said something along the lines of “Could not display the movie. You need to install Flash 9 ActiveX Player for IE.” By default Flash Develop uses the Internet Explorer flash player for testing flash movies. The easiest way to fix this is to open Internet Explorer (yes, I know, IE sucks, but just humor me) and browse to a website that has Flash embedded in it. It’ll notify you that you need to install the flash player plugin. Do that and now try build the Hello World project again. If that doesn’t work, try reboot your machine and then give it another spin. If you’re still stuck, post a comment here and I’ll try help you out!

Final Thoughts

You should be able to get this to work under a parallels installation on a Mac (I needed to jump through a couple hoops to get it behaving). Additionally, if ActionScript 2.0 is more your poison, you should be able to get a similar set up going, but you’re on your own there.

It’s worth noting that this set up lets you build Flex .swfs and AS3-only .swfs very easily, but it doesn’t let you edit .flas, the proprietary format when working in the Flash IDE. This doesn’t really limit you in any way, but it does require you to do some things differently. In a later article, I’ll talk about where the old Flash IDE best fits into your new streamlined work flow and how to leverage the best of both worlds.