Book Review: Nintendo Wii Flash Game Creator's Guide
Jun. 11
Flash games you can play on your Wii is something I've covered before, though not in any great amount of depth-- there's just too much out there, and much of it is too crappy for me to really devote a lot of mental energy toward playing.
Perhaps with an eye toward helping the growing number of Wii Flash game makers improve their craft, McGraw-Hill-- yeah, those guys who publish textbooks-- has published The Nintendo Wii Flash Game Creator's Guide. Written by Todd Perkins of the Chad and Todd Adobe Podcast, the guide starts out by going over Flash basics and then gets into the subject of how to design games specifically to be played with the Wii Remote.
Now, I'm no programmer (or, I should say, a failed one), so a lot of the code-oriented sections of this book went over my head. That said, each chapter is structured around building a sample Flash game, complete with examples of what your game should look like, code segments, and explanations of how things work. Programming books like that generally did a better job of getting through my thick head than more theoretical work, so I'm inclined to think that this guide would leave you capable of making working things.
What's interesting for the Wii fan is just how simple it is to make a game compatible with the Wii Remote in Flash. Apparently all that's required is to make absolutely sure you develop in Flash 7, and then your program automatically recognizes the Wii Remote cursor as an acceptable substitute for the mouse cursor.
That said, I was pleased that that guide emphasized that game design created with a Wii Remote in mind can't be identical to what you might design for a mouse; the Wii Remote is generally less precise and favors games that let players use broad motions. Sadly, the guide also confirms that it's impossible for Wii Flash games to make use of the Wii Remote's accelerometers.
The book clocks in at eight chapters and 301 pages long. It's not an exhaustive discussion of creating Flash games for the Wii Remote by any means, but could be useful to someone with a passing interest in teaching him or herself how to program in Flash. The Wii element is more a consideration in the game design chapters than in terms of hardware, as a result of how Flash games understand the Wii cursor.
The book's price tag is $29.99, which is really not bad for a how-to book that could easily double as a light textbook. The emphasis is on "light", there, though. I'm pretty sure this book won't offer huge insight into designing Flash games or what makes a good Wii game. It will get you going from nearly no knowledge whatsoever, though, which isn't bad for thirty bucks. Just don't show up as more of a reader than a programmer.
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