Me and ActionScript

I have been working with Flash since version 2.0. That's about 11 years now! The first time I put my hands on it was back in 1998, and I haven't stopped ever since.

I was lucky to grow as a Flash developer as the tool grew with time. Always learning the new tricks as the new versions came out. From the birth of AS to AS2 and now with the great AS3. Likewise I have worked doing CSS layouts since 2003.

Flash is the reason I decided I wanted to be a programmer, and changed my majors from Electronic Engineering to Computer Engineering.

Over the years I have worked in many projects. The following is a list of some of the highlights with either links to the online versions (if they are still around), or links to a download file (when the projects were for CD release).

Feel free to email me asking for code samples if you are interested.

Zynga
Project Description:
  • I work as a Senior Software Engineer at Zynga, Inc.
    • My role:
  • As a Senior Software Engineer I am in charge of planning the development of projects both for both scoping and a software architecture points of view, as well as program key systems of our games. I work leveling up junior developers, working with management to define roadmaps and the features we will work on, and making sure things run as smoothly as possible. Keeping always in mind the most important thing: our players having fun!

    • Zynga's website

    ZombieChomp
    Project Description:
  • Tile based Zombie themed turn based strategy game for social networks, currently in stealth beta mode in Facebook.
    • My role:
  • Sole ActionScript developer for the first half of development. Now leading a team with another two AS developers. In the beginning of the project I designed the game system's architecture, and designed with the server side developer how all the comunication between the server and the client (flash) would be done. With a PHP backend we decided to go for AMF and JSON. Client side configuration is done via XML files, there is localization with Xliff in place. A part I am particularly proud of is the Units behaviour and AI.

    • Link (Main app - Facebook)
    Link (A* Pathfinding demo)
  • Click on a tile to direct the Zombie there. Once the goal has been reached you need to reload page to run again.

    • Slide Themes + Skins
    Project Description:
  • Design and implementation of particle systems for different Slide themes (sets of images and illustrations that flow around people's photos). As well design and implementation of Skins for their photo sliders (skins where the decorations "around" the photos, like that heart with wings in the examples I post).
    • My role:
  • I would design and propose illustrations to use both as themes (particle systems) and Skins and then review them with the Slide team. Once they were approved I needed to create the vector illustrations and prepare the files for delivery (skins), and program the particle systems in the case of the themes. Then I would submit to QA, after they were approved they would seamlessly integrate with their system. Some of the thigns I did a couple of years ago remain on their site since people keep using them a lot. :-)

    • Screenshots of some of my work (From former Slide's blog):
  • Valentine's heart skin
  • Plasma Tv Skin + Firefly theme
  • iPod Skin + March madness theme
  • Paparazzi skin + theme
  • Vanity skin

    • Prototypes (particle systems):
  • Butterflies(every time you load the garden looks different)
  • Cascade
  • Casecade 2
  • Fireflies
  • March madness
  • Starfield
  • Disco Music
  • Disco Music 2
  • Trail

    • CircleMagic
    Project Description:
  • The idea was to create a visualization widget that could take in a lot of related date and show it in a way that would display those relationships, groupings, sets and subsets within the data.

    • My role:
  • To go over the data and design a way to organize it (XML) so that it can be parsed to then create the visualization widget. Design and implement the widget.


    • Link (Demo)
  • Click on the "Load" button in the top-right. The XML with the data set being loaded by default is marked there. Click on the slices (data sets) to see them get highlighted and stand out.
    This is a direct like to that data set.
    Here are more data sets: Data set 1 and Data set 2

    • Link (Viz widget embedded in a blog)
  • Click on the data sets (slices) to see how they stand out

    • ArcanaKids Site
    Project Description:
  • Based on an image, I put together a simple php driven site with a news feed, banners, etc. Likewise, the site has two major ActionScript components: coloring application and simple game.
    • My role:
  • As a web developer: CSS based html site with a PHP backend.
    As a flash developer: Worked on coloring application and on casual game.

    • Link (Main site)
    Link (Casual game)
    Link (Coloring application)





    Watching the Script
    Project Description:
  • System to enable the planning of theater staging using a Flash based GUI. Theater directors can say where each actor goes for every bit of dialogue, where they are in relationship to each other, place props, annotations, and share plans with colleagues.
    • My role:
  • I wasn't the first developer on this project. My first task was to make some sense out of the code base. The system was developed in ActionScript 1.0, no object oriented and embedded code in a number of nested MovieClips and frames. So the first thing was to take all that embedded code and place it in separate ActionScript files, making things modular, easier to maintain and extend. Then implementing new functionality such as actors having a direction (knowing where they are facing), the placement of props, stage shapes, and a better UI.

    • Link (Main site)
    Link (Cast with direction and props)

    PureSafety
    Project Description:
  • PureSafety is a company that delivers a lot of great e-learning courses for a variety of companies. The subject matter is always geared towards safety in the work environment, and to achieve their goal they have interactive slide shows, brain teasers, and learning activities (mini-games).

    • My role:
  • I worked doing several courses for sevaral clients like Disney, EBay, Catterpillar, among many others. I worked in their full range of products, from slide shows to brain teasers and learning activities, often doing some illustration / design and audio editing as well.


    • Link (Their Demo Site - Cannot directly link to my work due to NDA)

    Mediata
    Project Description:
  • Mediata is a University TV show with an Urbal feel that needed an intro and some animated screens to present the different sections of the show.

    • My role:
  • I voluntereed to work with them and design the feel of the intro and the animated screens. I presented them this option and they liked it so much that it's still being used on their TV show.


    • Link (Download)






    Casacor
    Project Description:
  • Casacor is a project in which a series of interial designers and architects get together and transform an old house into a beautiful place filled with greatly decorated rooms and all those things interior designers know how to do. Each year it's done in a different country and they wanted a promotional CD for Mexico's turn.

    • My role:
  • Designer and Flash developer.


    • Link (Download)





    Network simulator
    Project Description:
  • This is a project I did still in my undergrad. I present it because I'm proud of what we were able to do with AS 1 back then. It's a fully fledged network simulator in which you can inter connect routers and see how their tables are updated, and how the communcation flows from one to the other. The problem is that the application in in Spanish. Maybe I can walk you through it over the phone?

    • My role:
  • Designer and Flash developer.


    • Link (Download)




    De nada
    Project Description:
  • De Nada , is a pretty nice project that... Sadly enough, didn't came to happen. But still, we have the CD that was meant to help the producers get funding. For some reason, they didn't give the project followthrough, but this is a nice portfolio piece, in terms of the graphical layout. I am really proud of this design, as old as it may be. Navigate through the "app" with the icons around the clock. (The flash intro is quite bad though (I didn't do it!), just click anywhere to skip it). This project was done in Lingo (Director), but I add it here for the sake of nostalgia for a good scripting language that has been sort of lost in the past.

    • My role:
  • GUI designer, Lingo developer.


    • Link (Download)


    Poesia Digital
    Project Description:
  • Last but not least, this is the project that made me fall in love with ActionScript. It's very old, but I present it for nostalgia reasons and to show that even back then I was already working on very complex stuff. The navigation and windows system, scrolling, dragging and dropping and all that was quite complex to do back then and we were super proud of it.

    The vibrating circle thingy is the menu. :-P Load principal.swf

    • My role:
  • GUI designer, ActionScript developer.


    • Link (Download)



    And here is a collection of screen-shots from various projects to show a tad of GUI design skills.

    Now, about me as project manager.