Successful Flash Games (19:00 - 20:00) - Iain Lobb
A rapid-fire exploration of the Flash games scene. If you want to create a hit Flash game, this talk will tell you what to make, how to make it, where to promote it and how to make money from it. I’ll cover platforms and devices, genre, graphical style, branding, playability, control schemes, localisation, distribution and promotion. I’ll also go into detail about technical issues, such as making your game pausable, making save-game functionality, optimising performance and creating multi-user games. I’ll also give real-world examples of why certain Flash games are successful - including games I’ve made and games I just love playing.

Practical Particle Effects with Flint ( 20:15 - 21:15 ) - Richard Lord
Flint is an open-source particle system written in Actionscript 3. Flint is easy to use and enables the rapid development of particle systems through the reuse of existing particle behaviours and a simple interface for adding custom behaviours.
This session will look at the code behind Flint and the techniques that lead to its versatility, ease of use and speed. It will also cover the basics of creating a number of particle effects using Flint including rain, fireworks, smoke and fire.
Flint is available at http://flashgamecode.net/flint

Prizes for the free raffle
1 copy of a Foundation Flex for Designers donated by friends of ED.
1 copy of a Foundation Flex for Developers:
Data-Driven Applications with PHP, ASP.NET, ColdFusion, and LCDS donated by friends of ED.
1 copy of Essential ActionScript 3.0 donated by Adobe.

We will also have some Adobe rock candy and stickers.

Sponsored by friends of ED.

When/Where
Date: 28th February 2008 (28/02/2008)
Time: 19:00 - 23:00 (doors open at 18:30)
Venue: CosmoBar, 50-54 Clerkenwell Road, EC1M 5PS (click for map)
Tube: Barbican

You need to register and sign-up if you wish to attend and be entered into the raffle. You can sign-up in at the bottom of the post here. Please do not sign-up if you don’t plan to attend. You cannot win unless you attend the event.

Thermo - The Thermo Team (Steven Heintz, Ethan Eismann & Rob Adams)
An introduction to Thermo followed by an open discussion on Thermo and Flex workflows.

Thermo - Adobe Labs

Prizes for the free raffle
1 copy of a Foundation Flex for Designers donated by friends of ED.
1 copy of Essential ActionScript 3.0 donated by Adobe.

Sponsored by friends of ED.

When/Where
Date: 21st February 2008 (21/02/2008)
Time: 19:00 - 23:00 (doors open at 18:30)
Venue: CosmoBar, 50-54 Clerkenwell Road, EC1M 5PS (click for map)
Tube: Barbican

You need to register and sign-up if you wish to attend and be entered into the raffle. You can sign-up in the sidebar on the right of the front page or at the bottom of the post here. Please do not sign-up if you don’t plan to attend. You cannot win unless you attend the event.

PureMVC (19:00 - 20:00) - Paddy Keane
In this session, Paddy will explain the advantages of using the PureMVC framework, giving it an overview, covering best practices and expound his experiences thus far in using it. He’ll go into the purpose of frameworks, an overview of PureMVC, comparisons to other frameworks and examples of PureMVC in use.

The 3rd Way: Handling 3D on the Web ( 20:15 - 21:15 ) - Rob Bateman
In this session, Rob investigates how the available 3d possibilities on the web have shifted since the outbreak of open source 3d engines in Flash (Papervision3d, Away3d and Sandy), and compares the relative merits between them and other current competing 3d formats. He goes on to analyze what constitutes good use of 3d, illustrating by example how things can be done well, what happens when 3d is abused, and how the application of 3d can be approached in order to create a compelling and intuitive experience.

Prizes for the free raffle
2 conference passes to FiTC Amstedam 2008 donated by FiTC.
1 copy of Essential ActionScript 3.0 donated by Adobe.

We will also have some Adobe rock candy and stickers.

Sponsored by FiTC.

When/Where
Date: 31st January 2008 (31/01/2008)
Time: 19:00 - 23:00 (doors open at 18:30)
Venue: CosmoBar, 50-54 Clerkenwell Road, EC1M 5PS (click for map)
Tube: Barbican

You need to register and sign-up if you wish to attend and be entered into the raffle. You can sign-up in the sidebar on the right of the front page or at the bottom of the post here.

Piss-up
Come and join us for some beers and smokes to celebrate this thing called Christmas!

When/Where
Date: 20th December 2007 (20/12/2007)
Time: 19:00 - 23:00
Venue: The Dragon Bar, 5 Leonard Street, London, EC2A 4AQ (click for map)
Nearest Tube: Old Street

You don’t need to register and sign-up but a list of who plans to attend would be helpful. You can sign-up in the sidebar on the right of the front page or at the bottom of this post here.

Touching the Future (19:00 - 20:00) - Richard Leggett
In this session, Richard will take a look at computing in 2012. Not too far away at all, but far enough for things to have become a little bit more interesting, especially in the world of Flash and HCI.
There’ll be prototypes, videos and hands on demonstrations all in order to try to get a feeling for the kind of things we will be making and using in the near future.
The session will not be too technical in its nature, but explanations will be given as to how everything is made, with room for questions to get into a little more detail.

Collaboration in Education ( 20:15 - 21:15 ) - Elmer Zinkhann
In this talk Elmer will show us the current results of his research on how digital media may be used to enhance face-to-face communication between pupils as well as exploring ways how devices can interact with eachother. As a part of his post-grad studies in Industrial Design Engineering he will deconstruct the design process through examples and illustrations which led to a product-service solution parts of which are prototyped using Flash.

Prizes for the free raffle
Adobe ‘Flash on the Beach’ T-shirts donated by Adobe.
Essential ActionScript 3.0 books donated by Adobe.

We will also have some Adobe rock candy and stickers.

Sponsored by Adobe.

When/Where
Date: 29th November 2007 (29/11/2007)
Time: 19:00 - 23:00 (doors open at 18:30)
Venue: CosmoBar, 50-54 Clerkenwell Road, EC1M 5PS (click for map)
Tube: Barbican

You need to register and sign-up if you wish to attend and be entered into the raffle. You can sign-up in the sidebar on the right of the front page or at the bottom of the post here.