Action script 3.0 is suitable for the creation of flash games due to its many features. You have a capability to freehand draw animations as well as importing images. This allows you to create environments and characters that you can apply code to too make your character move, jump or whatever you need it to do. You can create a set of key frames and then draw the object in each stage of movement, like walking for example.

You can also make your character jump; you need to edit the action script to control the height and speed of the jump etc. You do this by changing the gravity number.

var gravity:Number = 10;
var jumpPower:Number = 0;
var isJumping:Boolean = false;
var ground:Number = 377 - box_mc.height;

That is a typical piece of action script which tells your character in the game to jump. You also need to add a mouse event and an event listener for this as well to tell the character to jump when the mouse button is clicked for example.

Other examples can allow you to change the jump and walk speed etc, all you need to do is tweak the numbers of the following piece of actionscript.

public function createHero() {

                                    hero = new Object();

                                    hero.mc = gamelevel.hero;

                                    hero.dx = 0.0;

                                    hero.dy = 0.0;

                                    hero.inAir = false;

                                    hero.direction = 1;

                                    hero.animstate = "stand";

                                    hero.walkAnimation = new Array(2,3,4,5,6,7,8);

                                    hero.animstep = 0;

                                    hero.jump = false;

                                    hero.moveLeft = false;

                                    hero.moveRight = false;

                                    hero.jumpSpeed = .8;

                                    hero.walkSpeed = .15;

                                    hero.width = 20.0;

                                    hero.height = 40.0;

                                    hero.startx = hero.mc.x;

                                    hero.starty = hero.mc.y;

This can be done for enemies as well which is helpful cause it can make the hero walk faster than the enemy’s to make it easier for example or even make them jump faster or slower to change the difficulty. You can also change the behaviour of your enemys by making them jump when the hit a wall or alternatively turn around.

// if hit a wall, turn around

                                                if (enemies[i].hitWallRight) {

                                                            enemies[i].moveLeft = true;

                                                            enemies[i].moveRight = false;

                                                            enemies[i].jump = true;

                                                } else if (enemies[i].hitWallLeft) {

                                                            enemies[i].moveLeft = false;

                                                            enemies[i].moveRight = true;

                                                            enemies[i].jump = true;

                                                }

This piece of code tells and enemy to jump if hitting a right or a left wall. By removing the 4^th line an enemy will simply move left when hitting a right wall and moving right when hitting a left wall which is determined by true or false.

You can also use sprites when making a game, sprites are a movie clip or an object that do not have a timeline. In terms of game creation this is good because it means you can animate these object independently to what is happening on the timeline. Sprites can easily be integrated into a larger scene and are dealt with separately. This could be the case for various enemies that will be included in the game. These enemies need to have action script attached to then that means when you touch them you lose a life.

Onion skin is another feature that flash has which is very useful for game design. When you click the onion skin button it makes the entire key frames translucent so that you can make them all the same size. This is for example when drawing from hand and you want to make sure they are all the same size, shape and colour.

Movie clips can also be used as backgrounds for example or as moving, rotating or spinning objects that are not controlled by the user. This could include having trees blowing in the wind for example to make it look more realistic during game play. You can add a path to an object to make a point where it starts and ends and then the object will follow this path. This can be done for objects included in the game. Action script can also be used to control them as code can be written to say that once the character passing a point for example a movie clip starts or stops.

Another feature of flash that can be used for game design is shape tween and motion tweens and classic tweens.

·         Create a graphic or instance that you want to tween, and then right-click a frame(s) in which its present and select Create Motion Tween

·         Select the graphic or instance that you want to tween, and select Insert > Motion Tween from the main menu

·         Create a graphic or instance that you want to tween, and then right-click the instance on the Stage and select Create Motion Tween

In all of these cases, Flash converts the static frames to a tween span on the Timeline. You may encounter the following during the process:

·         If the instance you have selected is not tweenable (for example, it is a raw shape instead of a symbol), you will be prompted to convert it to a symbol first. Click OK to continue creating the motion tween, and Flash creates a movie clip in this case.

With flash for action script you can also use text this allows labels like high scores and allows dynamic text, when the program generates the text. You can make text boxes and make them say whatever you like. You can also have text which shows your lives or text boxes which appear when you complete certain tasked.

Action script is also capable of decision making: an example of decision making is if number of lives is > 0, then play again. You can also add script which can gain you life’s if you collect a chest or something this will add a life when an event occurs. This is done by adding a ‘life’ symbol to the library and adding an AS linkage to it and then in the action script changing it to become something that can be picked up by the user. You then must write the action script to say that when this item is picked up a life is gained like so:

} else if (otherObjects[objectNum] is life) {

                                                pb = new PointBurst(gamelevel,"Got Life!" ,otherObjects[objectNum].x,otherObjects[objectNum].y);

                                                gamelevel.removeChild(otherObjects[objectNum]);

                                                otherObjects.splice(objectNum,1);

                                                playerLives += 1;

                                                showLives();

this basically say tat when the object called ‘life’ is collected a message will appear saying ‘got life’ the object ‘child’ is removed once collected also. The players lives increase by one and this is updated on the display.

However if you do run out of life’s you can make it display ‘game over’. This is another example of where text is useful.

// game over, bring up dialog

                        public function gameComplete() {

                                    gameMode = "gameover";

                                    var dialog:Dialog = new Dialog();

                                    dialog.x = 175;

                                    dialog.y = 100;

                                    addChild(dialog);

This piece of code brings up a dialog box when the game is over.

However it does not recognise when to say the game is over this piece of code does:

if (playerLives == 0) {

                                                gameMode = "gameover";

                                                dialog.message.text = "Game Over!";

This is an ‘if’ function. It says that IF the players lives = 0 then the game is over and a message box appears.

Action script also recognises repeated behaviours: also known as Loops for wall = 1 to 10. You must edit the script of a wall to recognise whether you can pass it or not. You also need to recognise that the wall can be jumped on and walked across. This is by adding a floor point.

 if ((mc is Floor) || (mc is Wall)) {

                                                            var floorObject:Object = new Object();

                                                            floorObject.mc = mc;

                                                            floorObject.leftside = mc.x;

                                                            floorObject.rightside = mc.x+mc.width;

                                                            floorObject.topside = mc.y;

                                                            floorObject.bottomside = mc.y+mc.height;

                                                            fixedObjects.push(floorObject);

this piece of code is to make the floors and walls fixed points meaning you cannot move them or pass through them. ((mc is floor)) relates the object in the library with the AS Linkage ‘floor’ as the floor, this is done for all objects that can be collected in the game, they must be listed.

} else if ((mc is Treasure) || (mc is Key) || (mc is Door) || (mc is dfloor) || (mc is rupee) || (mc is life) || (mc is Chest)) {

                                                            otherObjects.push(mc);

In flash there is also Game boundary checking: Checks positioning on an object on the stage to make sure it is visible on the stage. This includes walls and also backgrounds to make sure all is in view. This is so that no part of your level is off the screen, also so your character and the enemies do not go out of screen as well.

You can also change the action script to allow cursor substitution and mouse tracking: Allows the cursor to be removed or substituted for another graphic. This can also allow objects to be controlled with the mouse. This could be used for a game where you control the main character with your mouse. Your cursor graphic in this case will be the character.

Flash can also allow score keeping: this keeps track of player score when certain conditions are met. This could be giving you points each time you complete an achievement or whenever you kill and enemy for example. This is done by attaching code to certain things you collect using a public function. This function says to add a certain amount of points and show a message when an item for example is collected like so:
public function getObject(objectNum:int) {

            // award points for treasure

                                    if (otherObjects[objectNum] is Treasure) {

                                                var pb:PointBurst = new PointBurst(gamelevel,100,otherObjects[objectNum].x,otherObjects[objectNum].y);

                                                gamelevel.removeChild(otherObjects[objectNum]);

                                                otherObjects.splice(objectNum,1);

                                                addScore(100);

this is awarding points for collected treasure. Row 3 is the code which shows the message ‘100’ when the item which the ‘treasure’ AS linkage is collected. The item is then removed and 100 are added to the score.

// add points to score          

public function addScore(numPoints:int) {

                                    gameScore += numPoints;

                                    scoreDisplay.text = String(gameScore);

this is the piece of code which tells the points to be added this means if you add the line addScore(100); it recognises that it needs to add it to the score board shown on line 2. Line 4 says that the score is displayed by using text.

Events and Keyboard Input: Keyboard inputs can be mapped to action script for example you could have the space bar as jump or the right button and moving forward or the up arrow as jump alternatively. You could even use letter keys to move and jump instead.

Event listeners can determine what keys or mouse buttons for example are used to control the game.

// add listeners

                        this.addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME,gameLoop);

                                    stage.addEventListener(KeyboardEvent.KEY_DOWN,keyDownFunction);

                                    stage.addEventListener(KeyboardEvent.KEY_UP,keyUpFunction);

This event listener essentially lists that the keys to use for the game is enter and the key up and down buttons in this case. These can be changed however.

There are many other ways that flash can be used in game design and upon using flash and getting used to it you will soon learn how to create a simple game using tweens, movie clips, event listeners, mouse events etc. Simple actionscript can be learned quickly and a simple game created within a month or so. This is why action script is such a good way of creating games.

Posted By Victoria Blackwell

Sharing Know-how Can Cut Costs! 

Now with the help of local universities with innovative tie ups, firms can implement a comprehensive and also very effective energy reduction scheme.

The Company

With the new transactional mail service company serving councils called CFH Total Document Management. It is good for; financial institutions and general businesses, producing statements, billing, council tax bills and payment slips. It can also do DM work and business forms. It was established in 1977, Dave Broadway, owner and managing director who has built the company twice over the years based 15 miles south of Bristol.

In 1995 they were in every type of continuous stationery printing several of these diversions were then sold off and consolidated so that they could become a print and mailing company. And since this time they have been growing and expanding, this is mainly through mail services that are transactional. They then moved into hybrid mail with the docmail product in 2008, they are probably the largest hybrid mail service in the UK currently.

The Problem

at CFH allot of electricity is used and the stability of the supply of electricity and this is crucial to the productive running of the business. 350m of critical document images are produced by the company per year, and its mails 66m envelopes per year. This means that if electricity suddenly became irregular in any way this would have a knock on effect and stall production, this would become a huge problem. These problems could be ones to be faced in the future for the company.

There is not enough investment in electricity generation in the UK and this is becoming a big worry. If plants decide to go offline in the coming years an unstable supply may be the issue to deal with. Many companies have onsite generators; however this only lasts a few weeks. Options should be explored for generating your own power; this is for both practical and economic reasons. How much power a company is using is also a concern, this need be reduced too for much the same reasons.

The Method

It soon came to light that it was impossible to run a business and acquire the expertise to generate your own electricity at the same time, in order to reduce electricity consumption. To try and make this more feasible or to find other ways of reducing energy consumption the University of the West of England was approached for some help.

The university informed them about the Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP), this is a system specifically designed for knowledge sharing. It is designed to encourage companies as well as Universities to get together and share their knowledge; this is done with the help of government funding.

The Knowledge Transfer Partnership system was created by the government and hopes to bring together research bodies or higher education with business in order to improve the knowledge of all of them by sharing what they know with each other.

But how does it work?

In this case the company and UWE make a joint application for funding. Once this application has been accepted, a post graduate student will be hired on a full time basis. This is to carry out the project. With support from the professor the Knowledge Transfer Partnership has so far lasted for 2 years and the students have spent most of that time with the company. 67% of the scheme was funded by the government and the rest put up in cash by the company. The company did not merely employ the university students and leave them too it, they were given as much help and guidance as necessary.

The company also offered a lot of knowledge from the engineering department too whom provided a lot of base knowledge. The student found that they really benefitted from the staff knowledge and the key director was involved in the project and meetings were held for the student weekly.

All areas of the business where looked at by the student to see where energy saving may be able to be made. Potential solutions where also assessed so the company would have no need to rely on the national grid in the forthcoming future.

The Results 

This two year product seems to be a success as the results have been incredible. The initial aim of discovering an energy generation solution had been abandoned and hope was lost nine months ago, this gave way to the new key aim of energy reduction.

The original plan was to find a unique way of electricity generation. This however proved almost impossible to achieve. The equipment that was needed to generate the electricity independently was found but not available in the correct size or was extremely expensive in terms of payback.

The company admitted to being very close to installing a gas combined heat and power system (CHP). On the first glance it looked perfect, it could run the whole site through their own electricity generated from gas. This would be a much more energy efficient way of powering the company than using electricity through the grid. The government then removed its support for these schemes. It then turned into a 2 year ROI and then into a further 10 year ROI. This type of payback simply could not be afforded.

Wind turbines were also a method that was looked into as well as solar panels. The testing site did not however have the appropriate wind speeds or the frequency that was required. This option also had a worse return that the combined heat and power system at a massive 12 years!

It is a surprise that there is a pressure upon businesses for greener energy but it still remains increasingly difficult to put it into practice. Worldwide there is no one producing a kit that would have fitted this companies needs.

Fortunately for the company it was able to really make development in its aim to reduce its power usage. In example to this the company made use of lighting energy which was reduced by 70% through the use of LED technology, also a better use of air compressors minimised wasted energy and 15% potential savings in total for energy usage. This was made through investing in LED UV lamps for the drying process. Also a whole new range of smaller improvements, this also contributed to the overall effect.

At this rate the current saving would become a cost of £100,000 per year and this figure is hoping to be doubled with more time!

The Conclusion

the project has not thrown up anything new; it is believed that the knowledge the company has gained has had a huge impact on the company and improved the business significantly. The lessons learnt could in fact be useful for other print firms. Because of this the company are going to share their newly acquired information when usually it is hidden from all rivals. The company will be publishing a white paper to inform other companies on exactly what can be done! This is being done by an environmentalist who wants to see the benefit for print as a whole not just kept to one’s self.

The company do not want to stop yet with such good being gained from it. The next KTP will be a re-assessing power generation to see if a way of making gas CHP could work. Building should also be looked at to make them more efficient too.

It has been stressed that though the KTPS do not have to just be all about the environment, this is in fact a very clever initiative all printers should be looking at!

You must firstly find the right partner to put in a good proposal to get the grant but it is said to be worth exploring as it can deliver great benefits as it has done for this particular company.

Posted By Victoria Blackwell

E-books or Paperback Book, Not Permanent Enough?

With the release of reading tablets such as the Kindle, there is an indication of the book sector developing into two sections both seeking a different market. This is the ‘serious readers’ who will continue to buy printed books and enjoy sitting back and enjoying the tactile quality of a the paperback version of their favourite novel. Or, alternatively there are the ‘consumers’ of mass market fiction, these people download new releases to their kindle or other e-readers.

The phenomenon some argue is already upon us, this could represent a massive upheaval in the way books are bought, sold and produced. However, print need not necessarily give up so easily on the mass market, provided it can improve upon the job it is currently doing, people are unlikely to ever completely stop buying books, right?

The shocking growth of sales and e-books in the market has been quite rapid and is rather extraordinary. So the figures say, for every 100 hard- and soft-cover books Amazon sold, it sold 105 Kindle downloads. Another worry for those of you sticking to your paperbacks is that launching an e-book-only title is now relatively common. This means print inevitably suffers as a result of this.

There is indeed a decline in booking being printed and of books being sold.  About 6.5% less books are being printed in the past year. Many publishers are predicting this will continue to drop and become a major decline. It is inevitable that the next year has further reductions ahead of us.

MPG Books chief executive Tony Chard attests to this trend. "E-books are eroding the print market," he says. "The reality is, people don’t want to take five books on holiday; it is more convenient to use a Kindle."

This is not just the case for fiction books; e-books have other availabilities making studying more manageable.  E-readers have now got access to a lot of textbook given to students to study from, but who wants to carry a weighty textbook to and from classes? It is predicted that in the next 3 years a decrease in academic printing will be among us having 10%-20% less textbooks printed.

The changeover from print to digital however will be more from the less serious, mass market readership. This is a theory printers are sticking by.

E-book’s are winning in terms of sales compared to print so are crime, romance and thriller book, known as throw away reads are also being downloaded on a kindle instead of having the actual book.

Industry upheaval

If this trend continues, publishers will be left with a much smaller customer base that demands a high-end product and that would require a completely different business approach and production capability than is currently the industry norm.

Some believe that e-readers will never completely take over and there will always be a place for the printed version. E-books are having the most success at the extreme ends of mass-market reads – and obviously online access to serious academic work as well – but the bit in the middle is still owned by the printed book.

Another sector where print seems to come out on top in is for children’s books - teaching a child how to read using a e-book would perhaps not be the best method.  Also illustrations do not translate will to an ebook format so print has the advantage.

There is also a price factor. Electronic books are almost always less expensive to buy than their printed counterparts, in spite of the fact that, unlike printed books, they are subject to VAT. So, in economically tough times, it is perhaps inevitable that readers will opt for the lower-priced e-books. Whether this means the trend will reverse as the economy improves remains to be seen. However there is also the initial cost of buying an e-reader which could get you up to 15 books in paperback form.

So the idea that the book-buying public can be easily divided along clear-cut lines into ‘serious’ or ‘mass-market’ readers, does not reflect the reality of the situation. That means, for a publisher, targeting a particular type of consumer is extremely difficult. And some question why book-sellers would want to target just a section of the reading public anyway. They argue that the printed and digital formats should not be rivals but rather complementary platforms, and that there is room for both to enjoy mass appeal.

An example to put this in perspective could be people many people having an itunes library and still will continue to buy cd’s of their favourite music.  This is the same for books, technology seems to be here to stay, and it is convenient and easy.

Printers should be reminded that they should focus on what makes print so popular and cherish that and deliver it instead of hoping to profit from a high spending niche.

You are buying an object that will stay with you for a long time. A physical book reminds you of reading it. Books are much more loved than any sort of e-book can be. They are cheaper and discard able but also keep able and can be read, lent out and annotated.

However those with e-readers will argue that a digital book is just as permanent and just as capable of staying with you – after all, people buy a book to read not look at and what really ties a book to our consciousness and makes it stay with us are the words within it. Print’s primary advantage is its ability to deliver the reading experience in a more attractive and enjoyable way than and e-reader – and that gives it an edge.

This could be because we are living in an age where the analogue product – the printed book so very much still thought of as the dominant technology; millions of people are familiar with it as well as being comfortable with it. This could no longer be the case soon enough as electronic screens are taking places in schools so children are growing up with e-readers instead of books. Libraries and bookshops are also becoming more adjusted to electronic screens this could become as familiar and comfortable as books as a reading platform for the future generations.

Many may feel like the future generations will not enjoy the kindle or tablet as much as an actual book, not quite like the real thing. But when will people be willing to let books go and become digital.

Worth Keeping

In order to keep readers coming back to ink on paper, print needs to provide an experience that cannot be replicated by a screen and to do that it needs to heed the advice of Julian Barnes, who, in his 2011 Man Booker Prize winner’s speech, implored publishers to create something "worth keeping" rather than relying on an outdated romance of print’s superiority. That means ensuring the highest standards of design and production for every product and pushing those design and production processes ever further – one bad experience could see a reader convert permanently to the digital format.

Many certainly believe that there will always be a need for print however; the industry does need to step up the game if they want to keep books in full swing of popularity. They need to keep the audience who love reading a book and make sure they want to keep the paperback version and not covert to digital.

Over the past two years there has been a noticeable improvement in design standards, this could be a good way of gaining customer loyalty. After all the cover is part of what sells the book, a digital version will not have this artwork in quite the same way. Another thing many designers and publishers are looking into to bring in more customers. This is improving many of the old classics with new covers to re-launch sales, with new designs and attractive exclusive covers.

This was something Waterstones was seeking to highlight last Christmas when it used tables at the front of stores to promote what it called ‘Beautiful Books’.  There is almost a revival of desire for the book as a beautiful object. The printed book is now a high-end product.

In shifting to a more beautiful product printers and publishers have to be wary of falling into the trap of getting greedy and producing high-quality books for high profit margins. If print is to continue to attract a wide audience, commercial considerations have to be thought out or printed books will become an industry catering to the rich only.

Waterstones feel that adding on the price to a print product is justifiable to have a physical copy of a book as opposed to an electrical copy in the form of an e-book. However for someone with an ebook, will they be loyal enough to stick to purchasing a real copy of their favourite book even if it is more expensive? This is a risk Waterstones are taking, meaning they are catering for a more wealthy audience.

And the truth is that books do not need to be expensive to look good, thanks to the advances in print technology. The quality of digital print is higher than ever before and production speeds and costs mean that print-on-demand is a model that even mass-market titles can adopt – bringing production, storage and distribution savings. Meanwhile, the cost of applying special finishes is becoming ever cheaper as inline processes and low-cost ‘cheats’ for things like gold foil effects become possible. Going forwards, it will be crucial that print maintains this level of development so that better and more affordable print products can be manufactured, if print is to remain competitive.

Bound to Sell

Just as important as good printing is a good binded book. Good binding of a book can often be overlooked. A nicely bound book will last after all. There is surely a need to have books better made and longer lasting with the increase in competition. The rise in e-book sales means that publishers should be focussing on what is important, and that is good binding! This ensures perfect performance, physically and in terms of market longevity. There is now a need for publishers to select binders and publishers; this depends on the quality of the products that are being made.

Binding is important because if you were to have a book for a very long time, it has a large chance of falling apart, this just isn’t permanent enough, you might as well have had an electronic version. The problem is that so many people now buy books through an online shop where it is impossible to get a feel for the finish on the cover or investigate the binding.

That means publishers and printers don’t just have to concentrate on how they are producing printed books, but also how they marketing their wares to bookshops and to the reading public. This means developing promotional campaigns that celebrate the look and feel of a book, as well as the words printed within it.

Some may not realise the reality of the issue but for retailers and printers it surely is a large problem. The likelihood is that, as with other areas where print and digital converge, the two media find a level of co-existence. Nevertheless, print will have to do more and say more to ensure it maintains its position in the books market.

Posted By Victoria Blackwell

Action script 3.0 is suitable for the creation of flash games due to its many features. You have a capability to freehand draw animations as well as importing images. This allows you to create environments and characters that you can apply code to too make your character move, jump or whatever you need it to do. You can create a set of key frames and then draw the object in each stage of movement, like walking for example.

You can also make your character jump, you need to edit the action script to control the height and speed of the jump etc.you do this by changing the gravity number.

var gravity:Number = 10;
var jumpPower:Number = 0;
var isJumping:Boolean = false;
var ground:Number = 377 - box_mc.height;

that is a typical piece of action script which tells your character in the game to jump. You also need to add a mouse event and an event listener for this aswell to tell the character to jump when the mouse button is clicked for example.

You can also use sprites when making a game, sprites are a movie clip or an object that do not have a timeline. In terms of game creation this is good because it means you can animate these object independently to what is happening on the timeline. Sprites can easily be integrated into a larger scene and are dealt with separately. This could be the case for various enemies that will be included in the game. These enemies need to have action script attached to then that means when you touch them you lose a life.

Onion skin is another feature that flash has which is very useful for game design. When you click the onion skin button it makes the entire key frames translucent so that you can make them all the same size. This is for example when drawing from hand and you want to make sure they are all the same size, shape and colour.

Movie clips can also be used as backgrounds for example or as moving, rotating or spinning objects that are not controlled by the user. This could include having trees blowing in the wind for example to make it look more realistic during game play. You can add a path to an object to make a point where it starts and ends and then the object will follow this path. This can be done for objects included in the game.

Another feauture of flash that can be used for game design is shape tween and motion tweens and classic tweens.

·         Create a graphic or instance that you want to tween, and then right-click a frame(s) in which it's present and select Create Motion Tween

·         Select the graphic or instance that you want to tween, and select Insert > Motion Tween from the main menu

·         Create a graphic or instance that you want to tween, and then right-click the instance on the Stage and select Create Motion Tween

In all of these cases, Flash converts the static frames to a tween span on the Timeline. You may encounter the following during the process:

·         If the instance you have selected is not tweenable (for example, it is a raw shape instead of a symbol), you will be prompted to convert it to a symbol first. Click OK to continue creating the motion tween, and Flash creates a movie clip in this case.

With flash for action script you can also use text this allows labels like high scores and allows dynamic text, when the program generates the text. You can make text boxes and make them say whatever you like. You can also have text which shows your lives or text boxes which appear when you complete certain tasked.

Action script is also capable of decision making: an example of decision making is if number of lives is > 0, then play again. You can also add script which can gain you life’s if you collect a chest or something this will add a life when a event occurs.

However if you do run out of life’s you can make it display ‘game over’. This is another example of where text is useful.

Action script also recognises repeated behaviours: also known as Loops for wall = 1 to 10. You must edit the script of a wall to recognise whether you can pass it or not. You also need to recognise that the wall can be jumped on and walked across. This is by adding a floor point.

In flash there is also Game boundary checking: Checks positioning on an object on the stage to make sure it is visible on the stage. This includes walls and also backgrounds to make sure all is in view. This is so that no part of your level is off the screen, also so your character and the enemies do not go out of screen as well.

You can also change the action script to allow cursor substitution and mouse tracking: Allows the cursor to be removed or substituted for another graphic. This can also allow objects to be controlled with the mouse. This could be used for a game where you control the main character with your mouse. Your cursor graphic in this case will be the character.

Flash can also allow score keeping: this keeps track of player score when certain conditions are met. This could be giving you points each time you complete an achievement or whenever you kill and enemy for example.

Events and Keyboard Input: Keyboard inputs can be mapped to action script for example you could have the space bar as jump or the right button and moving forward or the up arrow as jump alternatively. You could even use letter keys to move and jump instead.

There are many other ways that flash can be used in game design and upon using flash and getting used to it you will soon learn how to create a simple game using tweens, movie clips, event listeners, mouse events etc. Simple actionscript can be learned quickly and a simple game created within a month or so. This is why action script is such a good way of creating games.

Posted By Victoria Blackwell

In recent months it has been made apparent that Britain is back into the depths of recession. This is according to figures that have been posted from the Office for National Statistics, which has shown that out economy has shrank by 0.2% already, this is within the first quarter of 2012!

This is followed by a 0.3% fall in the gross of domestic product in the last quarter of 2011. This further indicates that the country is entering a double dip recession which is the first since the year 1975.

The figures given by ONS have shown that the output for the production industries such as the printing industry there has been a 0.4% decrease from January till March. This was following a 1.3% reduction at the end of 2011. The construction sector was the hardest hit, with output decreasing by 3% over the same period, following a 0.2% decline for the previous three months.

The manufacturing sector however has come out on top of the economy despite the bad news for the rest of the economy. This is with a number of businesses in distress in 2012.

However the printing industry may be over the worst due to a promising start to 2012. This leaves printers optimistic despite the margins being tightly squeezed. From February to April this year 2012 the printing industry has grown up by 5% in revenue terms from year to year. Despite upward pressure on newsprint costs abating, the continuing challenge for the year will be to ensure that this feeds through to the bottom line to restore much eroded margins.

So far this year there has been observation showing a much lower level of churn compared to past years. This is with less focus on price from customers. There continues to be so much ability removed that at some point a appearance of stability must logically be restored. I do not think we are quite there yet, though the signs are that this is perhaps closer than at any point over the last three years.

Many printing companies have admitted to having an upturn in sales in 2012. Some companies claim to have up to a 25% rise in sales this year, this means business is looking good for printers. This means for most that the printing industry is moving into a more positive place for sales. There is also no sign of budget cuts in any sectors at the present.

Some view the recent fall in noted distress is to do with only those businesses that are well managed that are being left rather than any noticeable upturn in the general sale demands. Tough trading continues and will do so for some time, leaving the toughest businesses intact.

Posted By Victoria Blackwell

The Cossar printing press known by many is the last printing press by the inventor Tom Cossar.

This printing press is a flatbed press which was donated to the NMS (Nation Museums Scotland) by a printing company run bu David Phillips.

The printing press was originally built in 1907 and up until now has survived four generations in this family run bussiness.

The machine weighs 10 tonnes and sadly had to be dismantled and removed in parts in order to remove it from its location. It was located in a Crieff based print facility and would not fit through the standard size door frame upon removal.

The national museum of scotland has agreed to fund its restoration. The machine will be moved into a storage unut in Clydeside while the money is being raised by SPRAT. SPRAT stands for Scottish Printing Archival Trust and they will be raising the money so that the printing press can be reassembled and put in display in Edingburgh. 

It would be ideal if the machine could be restored to a state in which it could produce newspapers again but this may not be possible unfortunately. This is due to other factorswhich are out of anyones control.

This exact printing press was in full steam printing the Strathearn Hearlf from 1907 until production was converted from hot metal letterpress to the current situation of web offset lithography starting 1991.

In the day the Cossar printing press was revolutionary technology. Currently it has been rebuilt and has certain refurbishments. However refurbishments where kept to a minimum bearing in mind the machine is over a century old!

Posted By Victoria Blackwell

Explaing Props Theory using Cube

Cube is a low budget Canadian film made in 1997. This film is intertextual to saw and many suggest this film is where saw got the idea from. The plot is of a group of people who wake up in a cube that has a door In each side with joining rooms.
The opening scene is a close up of an eye opening, as if waking up. There is then an establishing shot which reveals the location which appears to be a cube. The man however continues on without caution to different room and gets sliced into piece. The title then comes up on the screen in a mathematical looking font which suggests some element of maths in the film.



you are then introduced to the rest of the character who wake up without a clue how they got there. They shortly discover they are trapped in a maze of cube shaped rooms with no food or water, this means they must escape before they run out of energy to carry on. They shortly discover with the death of the first character that some of the rooms are boobie trapped.

The film is extremely claustrophobic and traps both the character and the viewer in the cube for the whole duration of the movie. I feel the film engages the viewer perfectly by keeping them interested throughout the film by adding new developments to keep the viewer interested. But of course the 5 characters try to figure out why they are there and what the purpose of the cube is. Throughout the film you start to find out why each of the people may have been placed in the cube. For example the young girl is a maths genius so she was placed in the cube to figure out the numbers on each of the doors to solve the puzzle. There is also a doctor and a police man, the police man has a temper and by the end of the film becomes very dangerous which adds more drama to the story line. Another character is what seems to be an autistic guy who acts very odd, who up until the end seemingly serves no purpose. But he does in fact help an awful lot as he understands maths questions at an astronomical level of intelligence as many autistic people do find. And lastly there is the guy who somewhat helped make the cube but does not seem to know anything about why they are there, perhaps he is there to be punished for helping make it, or s it completely random afterall?

What I find most interesting about the film is how within these 5 random ‘strangers’ propps charector types come into play, as the risk of death heightens and they start to fend for their lives they all show there true selves. Much like the many sides to the cube there also seems to be many sides to the characters. Such as Quentin the police officer at first he seems to be strong, courageous and a born leader who seems to be helping the rest of them, but as the pressure builds he looses his temper and the audience begin the despise him and he become the villan. Here is a run down how I see it, of how propps charector types come into play.

Quentin becomes the villan because he is evil and kills the other ‘good’ characters. He does however fall at the end.

Leaven becomes the helper as she is good at maths so she is solving the equation in each room to get them out.
The princess could in fact act as the outside world; it is the goal that they are all aiming for.

The donor is worth as he offers information about the cube as he helped build it.

The hero turns out to be Kazan as he is the one who saves all the other character and gets them to the exit and he is also the only one who survives.

Quentin could also act as a false hero as he tries to be in charge o everyone and seem could when in fact he is only looking after himself.

Propps Theory

• The villain — struggles against the hero.
• The dispatcher —character who makes the lack known and sends the hero off.
• The (magical) helper — helps the hero in the quest.
• The princess or prize — the hero deserves her throughout the story but is unable to marry her because of an unfair evil, usually because of the villain. the hero's journey is often ended when he marries the princess, thereby beating the villain.
• Her father — gives the task to the hero, identifies the false hero, marries the hero, often sought for during the narrative. Propp noted that functionally, the princess and the father can not be clearly distinguished.
• The donor —prepares the hero or gives the hero some magical object.
• The hero or victim/seeker hero — reacts to the donor, weds the princess.
• False hero — takes credit for the hero’s actions or tries to marry the princess.

The film mainly focuses oncharacter development as the entire film is this set of characters in the cube finding a way out.

Some scenes become quite gripping as you start to gain a personal relationship with one of the characters making you want her to survive, as said by kats and blummers if you create a personal relationship/ identification with a character you are more likely to gain from the text as you will be rooting for this character to survive in this case.

In the end of the film the character that stayed calm and followed orders throughout survived meaning he passed the test. It truly was a test to work together as it was not a trick it was possible for every one of those people to survive. 

Posted By Victoria Blackwell 

The trailer starts by showing you who the movie was made by, this is then interupted by a clashing sound and a flash of a close up shot of a flash we later discover is Hannibal Lector. To the audience at first this evokes curiosity because Hannibal has not yet been introduced. You can however tell by the sharp sound of the bang that this character may be bad. 
You are then introduced to the female lead 'Starling'. The clash sound can then be identified as it is the sound of the closing gate in the prison. This sound has been related to Hannibal which could suggest imprisonment of his character, being trapped and not being able to escape.

A voice is then introduced which is that of someone telling Starling about the killer 'Bill', the audience are only shown a newspaper article at this point saying 'bill skins fifth' this tells the audience the nature of the serial killer, this also creates a separation between Lector and Bill making sure the audience is aware they are two different people. A further series of bangs are then played to accompany shots of what looks like a women, the shots are of lips, a necklace, and eye and a hand with the tattoo 'Love' on it. This makes the viewer confused because these clashes are previously associated with a killer but this appears to be a women? or is it... The mystery is then uncovered if you watch carefully on a shot later on it is the killler cutting open the shirt of a dead women, on his hand you can see the tattoo saying love, this seems quite ironic really.



At this point we are sure this is a man due to the hands looking quite masculine, this makes the viewer wonder what the shots of the lips and eyes with make up on could be about, perhaps a victim? This adds mystery to the storyline cause all is not clear in the trailer.

Design 

When creating a new system milestones and deliverables need to be considered.

Milestones 

milestones are important because it helps cut a project down into manageable chunks and also means I will keep on schedule. Tasks can be signed of when completed and done to a good standard. Milestones mark the logical stages of the project this is then reviewed, part of the project is delivered.

Deliverables 

these are the points in the project that are completed and then signed off when they are good enough by either the client or the subject sponsor. These are the smaller tasks that make up a project and are agreed by the project team in advanced. 

When the system is finished it needs to be implemented ready to be used.

Changeover Methods

When going from one system to another a change over method needs to be considered. 

Direct changeover

Direct changeover is when you simply stop using one system or software and start using a different one. An advantage of this is that it is hassle free quick and easy and need less money people and equipment to work. A disadvantage is that there is a risk of losing data.

Parallel changeover

This method includes running the original system alongside the new system until you are sure the new system has all the information it needs and it running properly. An advantage of this is that it minimises the risk of losing information. A disadvantage of this is that you have to repeat the process on both the new and the old system which takes a lot of time. 

Phased conversion

For this form of conversion one part of the system will be changed one at a time until all of the new system is converted. An advantage of this is that problems can be dealt with module at a time. A disadvantage is that it can only be used for systems that have different sections or modules.

Pilot conversion 

for this method is used for companys with many branches one branch will be using the new system first and then one by one all the other branches will change over too. An advantage of this that it is suitable for companies with many branches, it also makes it much more manageable. A disadvantage Is the time it takes to get every branch using the new system. 

Testing 

Types of testing can be dependent on who is doing the testing, this could be one of two types including alpha and beta testing. One is done in house and one in a real life situation. 

Alpha Testing 

• Alpha testing is typically performed in house at a site that is not always associated with the software developers. 

• Alpha testing uses data carefully selected by the software producer 

• When the software is tested the alpha test would normally test the design specification against the implementation this is to check that it does all it is supposed to 

Beta Testing 

• Larger tests are called beta tests these are done by users and chosen by the software producers

• Beta software is the version of the program that is not released yet, it is tested by users to find all the bugs this is done in a real life situation as a user.

• This allows all the bugs and problems to be found and fixed before the final release

Black Box Testing 

Black box testing tests the functionality of a piece of software, it is a technique where the tester does not know the internal workings of the systems. The tester will only be familiar with the inputs and what the expected outputs should be but not knowing how it arrives to these outputs. Advantages include an unbiased testing because the tester and designer are separate, the tester doesn’t need any knowledge of programming languages. The testing will be done as a user would see the programme so any bugs would be found before the user does. Disadvantages include the test cases that need to be made are difficult to make. All inputs can also not be tested because this is quite unrealistic so many inputs will remain untested. 

White Box Testing 

Unlike black box testing, a extensive knowledge of the internal workings of the systems are required in order to choose the data to test. A high knowledge of programming code is needed and a knowhow of what the program is supposed to do at each step of testing.

Operational 

Operational testing is where the software is tested in the working environment that it was created for. Greens will use the new system alongside the paper based one and this will allow them to give feedback on any problems they encounter. These problems can then be fixed and the system can be used permanently.  

Acceptance 

This type of testing takes a group of end users to test the software to make sure it meets their requirements. 

Functional 

This is black box testing to make sure the system works as it should do. This includes hyperlinks, macros etc. This will be done by someone that did not make the system, feedback can then be given.

Application

Application testing is another word for system testing this testing works by inputting valid data and making sure the output is correct. Invalid data is then input to make sure and incorrect output comes out. 

Performance

This type of testing measures how well people can use the system. Strengths and weaknesses are measures such as understanding instructions and knowing what to do next and interpreting feedback. Workload can also be determined by seeing how fast the system can operate under an average workload. This can determine how much of a workload the system can handle before starting to run badly.

Scalability

This is a type of performance testing that focuses on ensuring the system is able to cope with an increased workload. 

Usability

This is how easy it is to operate the system and how easy it is to operate. This can determine how well it has been built for its use. 

Volume

This tests the volume the system is capable of holding before it starts to run slowly. 

Training

End users will then require training to show them how to use the new system, here are different types of training methods.

One to one

One to one training involves one trainer and one student. This could be beneficial because one on one time with someone knowledgeable is given. You can work at your own pace and ask as many questions as you want. However this is very time consuming if there is a large amount of people needing to be trained.

Instructor based 

This is led by an instructor who teaches a group of several people. This could be done in the working environment such as an office. This can be very thorough but unfortunately quite expensive because you need to pay for the instructor to teach the group.

Cascade 

This is the best way to train people if you are trying to save money. This method means that someone will go off and learn on the course, they will be trained thoroughly much like the one on one method but this one person is the only person trained. The person then comes back and teaches the rest of the employees what they have learnt. 

Computer based training 

Computer based training (CBT) is a form of training which is done on the computer. The benefits are that it is very interactive and is a very good way to learn. It is also flexible cause users can go on it when they like which eliminates the need for a instructor. This is however expensive to develop.