Have you ever wanted to use a string variable to call a function? Or combine two completely different strings together to form a function name then call it. Okay, that last bit probably not so much. But if you ever do decide to do it, this tutorial will show you how. It’s all about making strings call functions.

If you like using MovieClips to animate your artwork in flash then this is a great method for doing it. Not only for Flash Games but for any project in which you have an object that needs to undergo different animations based on conditions. However, this will work perfectly for our Flash Game. So this time in the series we are going to make our Stinger Ship EXPLODE when it gets hit by a bullet.

Okay so hit tests. Hit tests simply are a check to see if two objects are touching one another. There’s plenty of ways of doing them and every shooter game needs them. AS2 had a nice little function called hitTest, AS3 has two functions…. hitTestPoint and hitTestObject. So what’s new about this hitTestPoint and hitTestObject and which one do you use? We’ll discuss it and how to make our bullets hit enemies and enemy bullets hit us.

All games need enemies…. okay, maybe not tetris. But if you’re in some game where you fly a spaceship it is more than likely that there’s going to be an enemy or two. So in this tutorial we’re going to learn to make our enemy class, making enemies randomly appear on the stage and move, and make them fire bullets at us.