Flex SDK or Adobe Flash?

Question

I am looking to get into Flash game development (coming from XNA), but I'm not so sure I'm willing to dish out for the pricey Adobe Flash software. I've noticed there is the free "Flex" SDK.

What's the difference? Would I be able to develop a Flash game using the free Flex SDK and submit it to a game portal in the same way I would, if I had developed a Flash game using Adobe Flash?

Answer 1

If you use Windows, FlashDevelop may be an option. It is free and open source.

I believe you can use it in conjunction with the compiler that comes free with the Flex SDK from Adobe, also to compile ActionScript projects that doesn't include the Flex component framework, in other words, to develop stuff like games and such, in pure ActionScript, rather than Flex based RIA's.

Answer 2

There are 3 different things here, I think.

• The platform in itself : the flex sdk is a compiler that targets the flash player, and is perfect for game development, and you won't have any problem to submit a game developped this way.
• The IDE : If you are a programmer you'll be disappointed by Flash Professional, which is clearly aimed at graphists. That leaves you with 4 main options : Flash Builder, the IDE offered by Adobe, FDT, developped by PowerFlasher, FlashDevelop which is free and open-source, and IntelliJ which now has decent AS3 support. Or, you can of course develop in any text-editor and compile with the Flex SDK
• The framework : for game development, you probably don't want to use the flex framework, which is rather heavy and won' bring much in terms of functionnality.

Answer 3

There are a number of confusing* terms surrounding your question:

Flash - An interactive content development tool that has lots of vector drawing and animation capabilities, can incorporate interactive elements programmed in ActionScript, and publishes to SWF files.

Flash Player - A browser plugin that runs SWF files.

Flex - A framework for developing rich internet applications by programming in ActionScript and laying out UI in MXML.

Flex SDK - A set of freely downloadable compilers for ActionScript and MXML that generate SWF files.

Flash Builder (formerly Flex Builder) - An IDE sold by Adobe for programming ActionScript code.

Flash Develop - An open source IDE for programming ActionScript.

Long story short, a "Flash game" is a SWF file that runs in the Flash Player.

*Most of the confusion is because Adobe purposely made the terms confusing. Part of the problem is that they occasionally change things, like when they renamed Flex Builder to Flash Builder or when they changed Flex SDK from an IDE to the underlying compilers (and actually I'm not even entirely clear about that last one.)

Answer 4

I have used FlashDevelop earlier.. FD IDE great for AS3 developement.. Even they support Haxe which is one more open source programming language.. You can compile a Haxe program to a .swf file. Haxe can compile for Flash Players 6 to 10. http://haxe.org/doc/intro

I think you should try Haxe and you will love using the FlashDevelop IDE as well.

Answer 5

You can:

1) use Flex SDK to compile pure AS3 code, which is convenient. It helps organizing your code and debugging, unlike Flash CS.

2) if you are making a game that involves a lot of drag'n'drop, GUI manipulations and so on, I would recommend the Flex Framework.

Answer 6

I have seen flex used well for games, altough it requires a bit more ground work in terms of sprite and cast organisation. Making games even in flash mx and 2004 was an absolute breaze, it really depends on the nature and complexity of the game, I find making games a little easier in the old flash 8 workflow, if we are talking cheezy pop cap games, but I have seen many casino's do perfectly decent work in flex on gaming engines.

As someone who also comes from a heavy MS dev background having gui dev tools is a plus once you have used RAD Tools you will never go back to linux style text editing and tools.

Flash Builder (flex 4) is a very very nice tool compable to visual studio in allot of ways.

Altough if I were to describe Flex Builder the workflow is identical to VB 6 its like VB for the web, except instead of vbscript you got a full oop language instead.

I would recommend using it (even in 60 day trial) I would recommend it.

I have seen some very good flex game engines even a port of quake 2, so depending on how sexy you want to get it can handle very well.

Answer 7

I know am replying late to this question, But just wanted to add my view on Flex 4.6,

Its wort upgrading to Flash builder 4.6 where mobile development on Blackberry, Android and IOS is supported. Its much simpler to develop and build applications for mobiles using Flash builder 4.6.

You can also refer to

http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flash-builder/articles/whatsnew-flashbuilder-46.html

http://www.adobe.com/products/flash-builder/features.html

Answer 8

1. Flex isn't really for games. It's more for RIA (Rich Internet Application), which isn't really the same thing.
2. You can program against the Flex SDK itself, and it's free, but you'll be 1/10 as productive than if you use Flash Builder. It does a whole lot for you. But, anyway, I think you should look into Flash development - not necessarily Flex.