Hello Whirled

ActionScript Tutorial
Create a simple hello whirled game.
Difficulty Level
Beginner
Requirements
ActionScript 3.0, Whirled SDK
Other Information

Set Up Your New Game

Windows

To create a new game, go to the Whirled SDK directory and double click on the the newproject.bat file to run it.

If this is the first time you are using the SDK, it will ask you to configure the directory of your Flex SDK and your Flash Standalone Player. A dialog box will pop up allowing you to specify that information and then you will proceed to creating your new project.

<actionscript>Unable to locate tools.jar. Expected to find it in C:\Program Files\Java\jre6\lib\tools.jar Buildfile: build.xml

prepare-flex:

    [copy] Copying 1 file to C:\whirled\etc
    [copy] Copying 1 file to C:\whirled\etc

newproject: [newproject] What type of project would you like to create? [newproject] 1 - Avatar [newproject] 2 - Game [newproject] 3 - Pet [newproject] 4 - Furni [newproject] 5 - Toy [newproject] 6 - Backdrop [newproject] 7 - AVRG [newproject] Enter the number [1-7]? 2 </actionscript>

Don't worry if you get that tools.jar error, it does not affect anything.

Next, you will be asked if you want to employ a server agent for your game (you can read more about how to use server agents here): <actionscript>[newproject] Whirled games can optionally employ a server agent. This is [newproject] recommended for multi-player games, but is more complicated to [newproject] write. For more information, see: [newproject] [newproject] http://wiki.whirled.com/Server_Agents [newproject] [newproject] Do you want your game to employ a server agent? [newproject] Enter [y/n]: n</actionscript> Next, you will be asked to name your project:

<actionscript>[newproject] Please enter the name of your Game project. [newproject] For example, BestGameEver: HelloWhirled</actionscript>

Then you will confirm the new project name: <actionscript>[newproject] Your main class will be called: [newproject] HelloWhirled.as [newproject] Is this OK? [y/n] y </actionscript>

and the tool will do the rest for you: <actionscript>[newproject] Creating 'hellowhirled\build.xml'. [newproject] Creating 'hellowhirled\build.bat'. [newproject] Creating 'hellowhirled\HelloWhirled.as'. [newproject] Done! Your new project has been created in 'hellowhirled'.

BUILD SUCCESSFUL Total time: 2 minutes 29 seconds Press any key to continue . . . </actionscript>

Your new project will have been created in the Whirled SDK directory in a subdirectory named hellowhirled. You will find the file HelloWhirled.as in that directory.

UNIX and Mac

To create a new game, change to the whirled directory and run the ant newgame task:

  % cd whirled
  % ant newgame

If this is the first time you are using the SDK, it will ask you to configure the directory of your Flex SDK and your Flash Standalone Player. A dialog box will pop up allowing you to specify that information and then you will proceed to creating your new project.

Next, you will be asked if you want to employ a server agent for your game (the url it provides is to here and explains how to use server agents): <actionscript>newgame: [newproject] Whirled games can optionally employ a server agent. This is [newproject] recommended for multi-player games, but is more complicated to [newproject] write. For more information, see: [newproject] [newproject] http://wiki.whirled.com/Server_agent [newproject] [newproject] Do you want your game to employ a server agent? [newproject] Enter [y/n]: n</actionscript> Next, you will be asked to name your project:

<actionscript>[newproject] Please enter the name of your Game project. [newproject] For example, BestGameEver: HelloWhirled

[newproject] Your main class will be called: [newproject] HelloWhirled.as [newproject] Is this OK? [y/n] y</actionscript>

and the tool will do the rest for you: <actionscript>[newproject] Creating 'hellowhirled/build.xml'. [newproject] Creating 'hellowhirled/HelloWhirled.as'. [newproject] Done! Your new project has been created in 'HelloWhirled'. </actionscript>

Your new project will have been created in the directory hellowhirled. You will find the file HelloWhirled.as in that directory.

Hello Whirled

A game that doesn't talk over the network is just a simple Flash file. Open the file 'HelloWhirled.as' in a file editor program. Delete the current content and add the following content to 'HelloWhirled.as':

<actionscript> package {

import flash.display.Sprite; import flash.events.Event; import flash.text.TextField;

import com.whirled.game.GameControl;

[SWF(width="400", height="400")] public class HelloWhirled extends Sprite {

   public function HelloWhirled ()
   {
       // listen for an unload event
       root.loaderInfo.addEventListener(Event.UNLOAD, handleUnload);

       _control = new GameControl(this);

       var label :TextField = new TextField();
       label.x = 0;
       label.y = 0;
       label.htmlText = "Hello, Whirled!";
       addChild(label);
   }

   /**
    * This is called when your game is unloaded.
    */
   protected function handleUnload (event :Event) :void
   {
       // stop any sounds, clean up any resources that need it
   }

   protected var _control :GameControl;

} }

</actionscript>

Compile & Test

To compile it in UNIX or Mac, run ant at the command prompt:

 % ant test

For windows, simply double click build.bat.

This will produce an output file called HelloWhirled.swf in the same directory and it will load your game in the test environment.

Next Steps

• Simple text game (ActionScript tutorial)
• Back to Creating Games