Flash - Managing a large project

Question

We are prototyping using Autodesk Scaleform and building our game UI using Flash. We will need to be able to run a large project with a team of 3-4 artists and 10+ programmers. We use Perforce source control system for storage of all code and assets. We need to be able to manage a project with multiple shared resources and multiple people (artists & programmers) working on screens and controls.

Our problem is as follows:

We want to be able to create skinned graphical custom components, such as buttons, sliders, checkboxes as well as more complex controls such as tables and game specific elements. We want to be able to share graphics assets in a single location and allow multiple artists and coders to work on shared components simultaneously. We need all of this to be stored in a Perforce source control repository.

For AS3 code this is all fairly straight forward. It works like any other codebase and we have set up FlashBuilder and FlashDevelop projects.

Now, the options seem to be as follows:

• Create a flash project or projects. The problem here is that all of the assets are copied into AuthortimeSharedAssts.fla. This means that, because FLA is a binary format, our source control cannot allow more than one person to edit any shared resource at the same time.

• Set up manual authortime sharing. This will allow work on multiple shared components because individuals can update a small discrete FLA file and this will automatically update a larger shared librar. The problem is that this does not allow sharing of graphics assets, which means that, if an artist updates a graphic, this does not filter down to individual flash files.

• Use the XFL format. This would allow us to merge files when checking in to source control as they are plain text and it saves out individual assets as separate files, which looks perfect. The problem is that I can't see how to make a project, which entirely uses XFL files (i.e. makes something like AuthortimeSharedAssets.xfl).

At the moment I can't see any obvious, sensible way of running a large project in Flash. We cannot be the first to do this sort of thing though.

Can anyone help or explain how we should do it?

Answer 1

I would say XFL would be the way to go for such a large team, especially when using source control.

As far as I know most symbols for XFL are saved as .xml in the LIBRARY folder. If they are imported jpgs or other bitmaps then the actual image file is saved there as well.

I have not been able to embed fonts and save them under this format however, which can be a big issue depending on what you are doing. A solution to this is to load your fonts dynammically, as discussed here. Which may be a slight inconvenience to you designers but a small price to pay when you consider what you gain using the XFL format when there are so many people involved in the project.

I would also recommend to pre-compile (make components) of certain parts of your project.

I hope that helps.