Things to think about when creating for Flash?

[Outcast]

Is there some pointers you should follow when creating for Flash to minimize size and maximize performence?

I always do my games in exe first because I dont need to think about filesize or performence that much. But when I export to Flash (and this is probably the version that will be released) the game always runs much slower and not as good.

So is there some things you should think about when doing the game to make it as optimized in Flash as possible? What do I need to do to make a Flash game run really smooth and without to much filesize?

For example is it better to build the game up from many small images instead of using one big image?

[Olivier]

A good place for getting answers about this is to read the MMF Help > Distributing your application > SWF files for Abobe Flash Player > Various considerations.
The other points are worth reading too.

[Outcast]

A good place for getting answers about this is to read the MMF Help > Distributing your application > SWF files for Abobe Flash Player > Various considerations.
The other points are worth reading too.

Where do I find this? I looked inside the help/content inside mmf but did not find this topic..

[Francois]

You should avoid complex and intircated fast loops, whihc are slow (despite their names) on Flash.

[Steven]

Keep a close eye on the number of active objects too. Think about when you will need them and when you don't and create/destroy them as appropriate.

Steve

[Skyhunter]

As Steven said number of objects are the most problematic issue in flash.
avoid scaling of objects at all cost, this will drop your fps incredibly.
using directions instead of angles is only slightly faster so you should not be afraid of using angles.
using alpha does not drop fps at all so you can use as much as you want.
Also if you keep a lot of objects off-frame it's faster to have them ticked follow frame in case of your game will scroll.

[Ryan]

"using alpha does not drop fps at all so you can use as much as you want"

I'm not sure of this. From what I know, an alpha-channel image needs to be processed twice due to the two layers, which surely must be slower than a non-alpha image. In iOS, alpha images are processed 2/3rds as fast as non-alpha (statistic given by a user of this forum).

[Eliyahu]

Use alpha because games that use it look so much sexier and if your game doesn't look sexy, you shouldn't bother making it u_u

Nah JK you can still make retro games without alpha
But really though, if you are making a flash game, I personally think it is very important to think of the final product. You want a good looking game. Performance goes along with it, because it should run as smoothly as it looks. In my experience of Flashing with MMF2, my games have always run perfectly fine because I don't think of absurd game ideas that will require loads of objects. I have used common sense and it works fine.

Sorry if this seems irrelevant. My main point is just to be logical. Hope that helps at all.

EDIT: I had to hit reply like 3 times and it finally worked. So if 3 similar messages pop up, blame the forums, not me. It makes up for the issue with the fact that it autosaves, so I only had to type the last sentence again.

[Zoglu]

Also when you're making your game, try to build and test your SWF regularly on slow PCs, to make sure your games work everywhere.
I also agree about the number of objects, try to always have less than 200 objects in a single frame.