Hello everyone! Dim here. Starting a SFB news posts with "apologies for not updating in so long" has become the accepted opener, so I shall avoid it this time. Although we are sorry. Overall Super Flash Bros progress has been slow the last few months, for a number of reasons:

>> I'm in my third year at University, studying animation.
>> I'm working for Armor Games on side projects that perhaps aren't always classed as "SFB" games
>> Tom has a full time job
>> We're both a little bit useless

The game next on the radar from myself and my brother is still JAMES THE SUPER ZEBRA. Yes I know it is taking forever, we're very sorry. We haven't been able to have half as much time on it as we'd like. We've done a massive amount of work for it though, so don't worry, it will arrive.

I just made a large post over at SuperFlashBros.net, with a whoooole bunch of exciting images to check out. Since I can only post one here....well...I've posted one here.

I recommend checking it out if you're at all interested in what we've been up to :)

-Dim

Hey all,

FIRST UP, FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER @SFBTom THANKS OK

I just got back from this year's Flash On The Beach down in Brighton. It was my first time at the conference, but I know I'll definitely be going back next year! I had such a great time, not only because of the fantastic speakers, but the parties in the evenings and the general atmosphere made the whole event really special.

Some highlights for me:

- Having my mind blown by Joa Ebert.
- Being woken up properly in Andre Michelle's 9am lecture by his AudioTool
- The excellent elevator pitch session!
- Winning our Tuesday night poker session, practically paid for my ticket
- Meeting a tonne of awesome people
- Seeing one of the top guys at Adobe show Glaiel's Closure on stage as the example of how great PixelBender can be (PICS OR IT DIDN'T HAPPEN)

If you're a UK flash developer/designer and want to make some great contacts and friends, learn a bunch of cool stuff and have a great time, I'd seriously recommend coming along next year

ALSO if you didn't catch it the first time round, you should have a play with my pet project:

Play with as3sfxr here

Not only can you create your own sound effects with it and save them out as .wavs for use in games/animations, if you want to use the synthesizer in your own project, you can! It effectively means you get infinite sound effects for just a few Kb!

Open source here

Tom-

Hey guys,

FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER OR NOT @SFBTom

In my spare moments over the last week or two, I've been porting the excellent sfxr by Tomas Pettersson into AS3, and it's finally done!

If you haven't used sfxr before, it's a really neat app that lets you generate your own custom game sound effects, using the same kind of synthesizers that the classic consoles used. When you're done tweaking the sound, you can save it out as a .wav ready to import into Flash

I've added a few features into my version, like history buttons and copy/paste functionality, but everything from the original is there too, even the .wav export feature!

Play around with the app here

Even better, I've made it open source too, so you can use the synthesizer in your own code. That means for roughly 10kB, you can have as many sound effects in your game/movie as you like, without adding more filesize for each one. Check out the google code description page for a very simple demo of how to use SfxrSynth in your work, and to download the source code.

Google Code project here

AS3, FP10 for the code only though I'm afraid. If you're using an earlier version, you can always export the .wav from the app to use just like any other!

Tom-

We made a new game! :)

The Paper Boy

This was one we made in the space of a day
-whilst taking a break from James the Super Zebra.

-Dim & Tom

www.SuperFlashBros.net

Hey guys,

As I mentioned last post, I did a talk on Adobe's Alchemy project last week, for the London Flash Platform User Group.

If you don't know it, Alchemy is a set of tools for compiling C/C++ code into ActionScript for use in Flash projects. Mike's Doom was compiled using this exact tool, and Mike was kind enough to show me his source, and give me a little insight into the process he went through. It made a great section to finish the talk on!

It went pretty well, considering I haven't done any public speaking in ages. I got some nice feedback after, and even got a few drinks bought for me!

Tink, the guy who hosts the group, has put up a video of the talk. He recorded it with his macbook webcam, and the lighting was pretty low, so you can only really see me in reflected light, but the audio is clear enough, and you can make out most of the slides quite happily. For those that are a little too small of font, I've uploaded the presentation slides in SWF format, along with the source for my quick demos, to a zip

I've put the video on our site too, so check it out here

DISCLAIMER: I only learned C/C++ recently, and for the purpose of using Alchemy. As such, a lot of this is new stuff to me, so if I made any mistakes in what I said, you code guys feel free to correct me, I don't want to have learned anything wrong :)

ALSO: at the end of the talk, I mention talking to Mike about releasing the Doom source for all to see. Right after I finished up, I realised that actually that was someone else, talking to me about another Alchemy project they'd showed me. Sorry Everryone! But I DID talk to Mike again after, and he gave me permission to put the link to the Doom sorce out there for all to see! It's on the same page as the video if you want to check it out for yourself

Tom-

Hey guys,

Over here in London, we have monthly meetings of Flash folk, with two presentations and alcohol-fueled networking after. We call this The London Flash Platform User Group

I've been to a good number of them now, and learned a lot from some guys who really know their stuff. So now it's my turn to give back! Tomorrow (Thursday) night, I'll be giving a presentation on the Alchemy project from Adobe Labs. You may not know the name, but it's the very thing that let Mike compile Doom into Flash, winning him FHM's game of the year award. It's a pretty exciting technology with a lot of potential, so if you want to learn more about it and how to use it, and you're in the London area, come by and check it out!

Oh, and while it's held in a bar, there's no age limit. The place is hired out just for us

Details are here

Tom-

Hey guys!

The Arrow Of Time is here! We've been working on this project for well over half a year now, and today we've finally unleashed it on Newgrounds.

PLAY IT HERE

Dim and I have both really poured all of our energy into this one, and we're very pleased with the result. We just kept adding more and more features (more weapons, dual weapons, defenses, combos, etc) which is perhaps why it took such a long time... Still, I really do think it was all worth it.

With the help of Tom and Mike, we even added some Newgrounds Medals! There're 5 hidden in the game somewhere, each worth 100 points. Even if the medal box doesn't show up on the game's page yet, you'll still collect them if you manage to unlock any.

Evan Merz. The man is a genius! He's the one who wrote the 8 songs for the original score you'll hear as you're playing. We can't thank him enough for really adding a lot to the game's experience.

Thanks too to all the testers, you're all in the credits! Of course they'll have to complete the game again to see them...

To mark the occasion, Dim has added some AoT themed merch to the store, money grabbing charlatans that we are. Go check it out if you want to support us!

Still reading? STOP. GO PLAY.

Tom-

Neat - a brand new game! check out MonkeyMetric if you dare

Its a collaboration with Joey Betz, who was the programmer. He's a great dude!

ALSO The Super Flash Bros. have a brand new site! its a lot easier to use, and has all sorts of fun features like comments, on everything! Its worth nothing that you can now play all our games and movies on our site. Although, I mean, you're already at Newgrounds so....yeah, anyway

NEW SFB WEBSITE

Theres new t-shirts in our online store for the first time in aaaages, so maybe you'll want to have a look.

Hey everyone. I had an amazing time at the Newgrounds meetup, it was incredible! As always

I'm keeping my eyes on Luis' page to see the photos emerge. It has to be the biggest NG group I've ever seen...

Anyway I made another little movie. I actually waited until "Sometimes, y" left the front page to post it, since I didn't wanna be all up in your faces. So thanks for all the support and kind words about that, here's a new one:

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/
480446

-Dim

Hey guys, we never post here WHOOPS sorry

I'm excited for the NG meetup this weekend. London is like, 20 minutes away for me. Happy times! I'll see a lot of you there, I'm sure.

I made a Flash movie this evening, it was a lot of fun! Check it out

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/
478669

Ok, see you soon

love, Dim
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