I have a question (web design related)

[JuneBerry]

Ok, so I'm wanting to make a dress up game similar to that of the Gaia Dream Creator of tektek.org [link]. My question is how would I go about creating this? Could I use dreamweaver or is it some other program like flash? If there's some kind of tutorial out there (I looked and couldn't find anything, so if you know of one...) please drop me a link. If I can just figure out what all is involved, then I can teach myself. I just need a shove in the right direction to know what I'm gonna be dealing with.  

[Catani]

well you can go two ways doing this either dynamic html (php, asp, or smthng) like the tektek or in flash - it depends what kinda outcome you wanna get

- dhtml - the outcome will be a web page, simple - but the making side of it is much more dificult, you would need to create a fully operational database webpage so you'd need a server and a decent knowledge of php and msql (or any other combination of a web language and databese language)

- flash - after compiling it to swf you don't need anything more then a web browser with a flash plugin (and maybe some kind of database too, depending on the size and way you'd design your project)
you only need some flash program and rather extensive knowledge of postscript  

[JuneBerry]

Hmm, so sounds like the flash route would be somewhat simpler. Is postscript the same as actionscript?

If I decided on the dhtml, would it be possible to do that in dreamweaver?  

[Catani]

i think it's actionscript actually ^^;;;; - i mixed it up with something else...

well i haven't used dreamweaver - but i think it would be posible but you'd have to write the whole php stuff by hand cause i don't supose it has tools as for the html

and i shouldn't have called it dhtml cause dhtml and php, asp are completly different things ^^;;;;  

[JuneBerry]

Catani

i think it's actionscript actually ^^;;;; - i mixed it up with something else...

well i haven't used dreamweaver - but i think it would be posible but you'd have to write the whole php stuff by hand cause i don't supose it has tools as for the html

and i shouldn't have called it dhtml cause dhtml and php, asp are completly different things ^^;;;;

I've only made one website using dreamweaver, but you can create a php document, so maybe there are php tools. -shrug- I dunno. I'm not sure what I'd be looking for since I'm completely unfamiliar with php. Anyway, thanks.  

[Chisa]

Hiyo! I've done a simple PHP/MySQL dress up thing for my interactive pet shop. Dreamweaver does not write any PHP that I know of, so to go this route you will have to have a decent knowledge of PHP and HTML. You'll also need to have access SQL databases and be able to write MySQL. And then you'll also have to make all of your images as transparent gifs, which mean pixel art is really the best way to go to reduce the effect of aliasing (didn't figure that out til it was too late for my thing sweatdrop ). It's quite difficult and involved, so if you're not already very familiar with PHP and MySQL I wouldn't recommend it.

I think there is a way that you can drag and drop items using some simple~ish HTML and Javascript, but I haven't played around with it before, not sure if it works in all browsers, and you still have the aliasing issues.

Flash might be your best bet. I haven't done that before either, but my actionscripter brother says the most basic type of dress up game, one where you drag and drop clothing items onto the model (or anywhere - it doesn't position them) is very easy to make and doesn't require a huge amount of actionscript knowledge. If you want to go more complex with things like only allowing things in certain slots like the Dream Creator things will get more complicated again.

Oh and 'actionscript' is what's used in Flash, and I'm pretty sure that 'DHTML' includes PHP, ASP, Javascript and all those fancy scripting languages ^_^  

[Catani]

Chisa

..., and I'm pretty sure that 'DHTML' includes PHP, ASP, Javascript and all those fancy scripting languages ^_^

actually not really ^^ cause "dhtml = html + css + javascript" and php, asp are programing languages that can use databases and so on. dhtml is only a little more interactive way to display a page - not that definition are all that important ^^  

[JuneBerry]

Ah, Chisa, very helpful indeed. I'm definitely gonna do the flash version now. 3nodding

I've seen the "6 easy steps to making a dress up game" flash tutorial thingy. I want the items to go to certain places though, like the old GAC. I guess I'll just have to figure out the action script for that. I dont' suppose you'd know any tutorials or helpful things, would you? (I already know about flashkit.)  

[Chisa]

Whoops, you're right sweatdrop I thought includeded all those things cos its under 'Dynamic Pages' in Dreamweaver, but apparently not.

June, I haven't actually done much with Flash and haven't done a dress up game, but I've been planning on doing one so I'll try looking it up whee Anand over at Flashbunny.net has done plenty of similar games and has a cute forum - there are plenty of idiots there attracted by the cute bunny avatars, but I think there's a thread in the Art Discussion forum where Anand answers questions, and she does actually look at and post. I vaguely remember her posting something about how to make dress up games in the Flash forum there too. Good luck!

EDIT: Hokay, so I couldn't find anything useful on the Flashbunny forums (full of idiots =_=). A quick Google search did come up with this forum thread where someone has posted the full .fla file and an explanation, so it shouldn't be too difficult to figure it out from those ^_^  

[JuneBerry]

That's perfection, Chisa! Thanks so much. I'll have to post the game here when I finish it so that you can see it. whee

Oh, btw, how did you find that?! gonk I searched all afternoon one day trying to find something like that, and all I could ever find was the drag-and-drop method. xp  

[Chisa]

Yeah, I got pretty much the same. Just got lucky I guess? Don't overlook forums, they usually have useful info ^_^ And now you know if you have a Flash question that forums like that might be useful.

Ooh yes, please post it when you're done! The one I'm planning is probably one of those things that won't happen for a very long time xp  

[JuneBerry]

Yeah, probably the same situation here as far as actually executing the plan, but I'll try to get something up to show relatively soon. ^^;  

[Captain Tatsuhiro]

*raises hand* I did flash in college, and used Dreamweaver. But don't ask me how to do the dress up site thing, cause it would probably take me forever to figure it out myself...... sweatdrop