For game developers (since that is the focus of this blog), there’s a number exciting developments, not the least of which was the announcement of the 3D APIs for Adobe Flash Player and Adobe AIR now available on Adobe Labs!

Also in the keynote, Kevin was joined by RIM’s President and Co-CEO Mike Lazarides for one of the first public demos of the PlayBook, RIM’s new tablet based on AIR (SDK for the PlayBook now available). Samsung announced support for AIR 2.5 integrated in future Samsung SmartTV’s. The Flash Platform blog has a great summary of all the announcements.

With all the announcements, sessions, labs, free DROID2′s and more, MAX has certainly had an exciting first day. There’s lots more in store for game developers on Day 2, here’s some of the highlights:

Developer Tips for Building Great Games using AIR for Android
Tuesday, October, 26th, 8:30 am – 9:30 am
Room: 515B

Join Adobe Platform Evangelist Renaun Erickson to learn how to develop, optimize, and deploy an Adobe AIR game on the Android mobile platform. Get the lowdown on using features like gestures, touch, bitmap transformations, and peer-to-peer networking to take your game to the next level on mobile devices. Sample code will be available to participants after the session.

Tracks: Develop
Audience: Architect, Application Developer, Business Decision Maker
Skill Level: Advanced
Products: ActionScript, AIR
Speaker: Renaun Erickson

Building P2P Multiplayer Games
Tuesday, October, 26th, 3:00 pm – 4:00 pm
Room: 515B

Learn how you can leverage peer-to-peer communication in Adobe Flash Player to enable multiplayer games on Facebook. This session will include an in-depth tutorial on peer-to-peer technology, a demo of how to use peer to peer in your games with Adobe Flash Builder and Flash Professional CS5, and deployment on the Facebook platform.

Tracks: Develop
Audience: Creative Designer, Web Designer, Web Developer, Application Developer
Skill Level: Advanced
Products: ActionScript, Flash Builder, Flash Player, Flash Professional
Speaker: Tomas Krcha

Animation with Chris Georgenes
Tuesday, October, 26th, 4:30 pm – 5:30 pm
Room: 518

Learn from animation expert Chris Georgenes of Mudbubble as he walks through various games, character animation and interactive content he’s created for clients using Flash Professional. Always an educational and informative speaker, Chris will share his approach to various animation projects, sharing his artful way of using Flash animation tools.

Tracks: Design, Develop
Audience: Creative Designer, Web Designer, Web Developer, Application Developer, Educator
Skill Level: Beginner
Product: Flash Professional
Speaker: Chris Georgenes

MAX 2010 is here! Here’s a short list of a couple of sessions & labs that are happening on Day 1 of MAX 2010 that may be of interest to Flash Game Developers. Of course, there’s tons more going on at MAX, but here’s a few I thought I would highlight:

Game On! Multiscreen, Multiplayer Game Development
Monday, October, 25th, 12:45 pm – 2:15 pm
Room: 403A

Learn about techniques used in multiscreen and multiplayer game development and how best to use the resources available on mobile devices, including multitouch and accelerometers. Be sure to bring your Flash enabled device, and your competitive edge, to participate!

Tracks: Envision, Design, Develop
Audience: Architect, Creative Designer, Application Developer
Skill Level: Intermediate
Products: ActionScript, AIR, Flash Builder, Flash Media Server, Flash Player, Flash Professional, Flex
Speaker: Nate Beck

Building “Plants vs. Zombies” in Flash
Monday, October, 25th, 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm
Room: 515A

Join us as top casual game publisher PopCap covers a wide variety of topics about porting bestselling “Plants vs. Zombies” from its proprietary C++ framework to ActionScript and the Adobe Flash authoring environment. This session will cover traditional game architecture and the update loop, tradeoffs in the Flash graphics API versus PopCap’s native PC graphics API, animation, font rendering, sound and music systems, and resource management.

Tracks: Develop
Audience: Architect, Creative Designer, Web Designer, Web Developer, Application Developer
Skill Level: Beginner
Products: ActionScript, Flash Builder, Flash Player
Speaker: Max Anderson

Animation How-To’s, Tips and Tricks with Chris Georgenes
Monday, October, 25th, 2:45 pm – 4:15 pm
Room: 409A

Ask, share, and learn everything about animation in this hands-on lab with leading Flash animator Chris Georgenes. The lab will help anyone who has wanted to advance their character animation, interactivity, games, and animation skills with the animation tools in Flash Pro.

Tracks: Design, Develop
Audience: Web Designer, IS/IT, Web Developer, Application Developer, Educator
Skill Level: Beginner
Product: Flash Professional
Speaker: Chris Georgenes

Open Source Game Development with Flash and PushButton Engine
Monday, October, 25th, 3:30 pm – 4:30 pm
Room: 511C

Learn how to develop games based on Flash technology and the open source PushButton Engine. PushButton Engine is a framework that’s designed for creating a new generation of games for Flash. PushButton Engine not only makes it easy to build great games, but it also allows the development of new functionality and components to improve the world of gaming for everyone thanks to its open source nature.

Tracks: Envision, Design, Develop
Audience: Architect, Web Developer, Application Developer, Business Decision Maker
Skill Level: General Audience
Products: AIR, Flash Builder, Flash Player, Flex, Open Source
Speaker: Ben Garney
Times:

Pushing Pixels: Blitting on Desktop, Web, and Mobile
Monday, October, 25th, 4:00 pm – 4:30 pm
Room: Unconference (FITC)

Speaker: Jesse Freeman Blitting is a technique for rapidly drawing bitmaps to a screen. This is one of the oldest techniques for displaying graphics on a screen and was used heavily in the 8bit and 16bit video game days. Even though it’s an old technique it doesn’t mean Blitting doesn’t apply to modern Flash development. Bitmap manipulation is incredibly fast in Flash and can be used to scroll large images, make games, or perform generative art. Through the power of Bitmap and BitmapData classes in Flash Player you can achieve incredible run time compositing.

We’ve got one more to add to that list and it’s a big one! Max Anderson from PopCap will be discussing their recent port of the uber popular Plants vs. Zombies game to Flash. He’ll give a postmortem of the porting process and he’s sure to have some great performance optimization tips as well. The session will be on Monday, October, 25th from 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm.

Building “Plants vs. Zombies” in Flash
Join us as top casual game publisher PopCap covers a wide variety of topics about porting bestselling “Plants vs. Zombies” from its proprietary C++ framework to ActionScript and the Adobe Flash authoring environment. This session will cover traditional game architecture and the update loop, tradeoffs in the Flash graphics API versus PopCap’s native PC graphics API, animation, font rendering, sound and music systems, and resource management.

Speaker: Max Anderson
Tracks: Develop
Audience: Architect, Creative Designer, Web Designer, Web Developer, Application Developer
Skill Level: Beginner
Products: ActionScript, Flash Builder, Flash Player
Time: Monday, October, 25th, 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm

If you’re already registered for MAX, follow this link: http://bit.ly/cULY78 to find the session in the MAX Scheduler. Be sure to register early for this one, it’s sure to fill up quick.

If you’re not already registered for MAX, what are you waiting for! They’ll be over 300 sessions and labs, not to mention keynotes, Sneaks, parties and everything else. Head on over to http://max.adobe.com/ to register now!

After you register, play the online version of PvZ here: http://www.popcap.com/games/free/pvz

So if you’ve got a great mobile Flash game (or a port of an existing game), check out the following partner’s contest pages for more information:

	Kongregate Enter Kongregate’s Mobile Flash Game Contest with Adobe Flash – Nearly $30,000 in prizes! At Kongregate we’re building the leading site to play games – or to make them. Contest Ends September 6th, 2010
	Mochi Mochi Media brings you the Made for Mobile developer Flash® game contest! Create games for the Android mobile platform that run in Adobe® Flash® Player 10.1 for a chance to win. We have more than $15,000 $20,000 in cash prizes up for grabs (plus free copies of Adobe CS5 given to the top 3 entries) AND contest submissions will be showcased on Mochi Media’s mobile-optimized site MochiGames. Contest ends September 24th, 2010
	FlashGameLicense.com Cell Your Flash Game and Win – brought to you by FlashGameLicense.com. Develop mobile games for Android and win fabulous prizes. FlashGameLicense.com is a marketplace and community of over 13,000 flash game developers and nearly 3000 companies actively sponsoring and licensing their titles. Contest Ends September 6th, 2010

The event is free, pizza & beer are being provided and prizes raffled off, but space is limited, so head on over to http://www.adobeintelapplab.com/ to register today.

Info from the official invite:

If you are an AIR developer who has been looking for an easy way to reach millions of users and make money, join us for this joint Adobe – Intel event. Learn more about what Adobe and Intel are doing to help you distribute and monetize your AIR applications. We will talk about the business opportunity and how you can take advantage of the service immediately.

Date:
Wednesday, July 21st

Location:
Adobe Systems Office

Click here for information on this venue.

Address:
601 Townsend, San Francisco, CA 94103
Click here for a map and directions.

Parking:
Parking will be extremely limited in the Adobe parking structure;
however, there is street parking available.

Agenda:
4:45 PM – Registration Begins
5:00 PM – Beer & Pizza Served
5:30 PM – Flash Platform Services Overview (Adobe)
6:00 PM – Intel AppUp Center Business Model and Opportunity (Intel)
7:00 PM – Technical Deep Dive (Adobe)
8:30 PM – Staffed Open Lab (Adobe and Intel)
Prizes will also be raffled off during the evening. Space is limited so register now to secure your spot!

• Game Theory and Design for the Flash Platform
• Open Source Game Development using Flash Technology
• Game On! Multiscreen, Multiplayer Game Development (BYOL Lab)
• Animation with Chris Georgenes
• Mobile Devices as Application Controllers
• Authoring Rich Experiences for Every Room in the Home
• Building P2P Multiplayer Games
• Building the Coolest Online Chess Game: Real-Time Messaging Lessons from the Trenches (Lab)
• Creating Interactive Rich Media Advertising Campaigns with Video

Read on for more details and stay tuned, we’ve got some more exciting sessions in the works. We’ll see you in LA for MAX 2010!

Sessions
Game Theory and Design for the Flash Platform
Learn the tools of the trade for creating great games for the Adobe Flash Platform, including enhancing the fun factor, optimizing performance, and deploying across devices. John Say and his team at Say Design have enjoyed the excitement and rewards of building a wide variety of games over the last ten years using the Flash Platform. From the web to mobile to kiosks, they have delivered games on almost every device enabled for the Flash Platform. Catch up on their latest tips and tricks for Flash Player on mobile.
Audience: Architect, Creative Designer, Web Designer, Web Developer, Application Developer
Skill Level: General Audience
Speaker: John Say
Products: Flash Builder, Flash Player, Flash Professional
Open Source Game Development using Flash Technology
Learn how to develop games using Flash technology that are based on the open source PushButton Engine. PushButton Engine is an open source engine and framework that’s designed for creating a new generation of games for Flash. PushButton Engine not only makes it easy to build great games, but its open source nature also allows the development of new functionality and components to improve the world of gaming for everyone.
Audience: Web Developer, Application Developer, Business Decision Maker
Skill Level: General Audience
Speaker: Ben Garney
Products: Flash Builder, Flash Player, Flex, Open Source
Animation with Chris Georgenes
Learn from animation expert Chris Georgenes of Mudbubble as he walks through various games, character animation and interactive content he’s created for clients using Flash Professional. Always an educational and informative speaker, Chris will share his approach to various animation projects, sharing his artful way of using Flash animaiton tools.
Audience: Creative Designer, Web Designer, Web Developer, Application Developer, Educator
Skill Level: Beginner
Speaker: Chris Georgenes
Product: Flash Professional
Mobile Devices as Application Controllers
Learn how to set up mobile devices as controllers with Adobe AIR, explore issues you might run into, and discover how to best design desktop applications to interface with one or more devices. When you think beyond the desktop, you are not limited to simply building mobile versions of an application, but rather can take advantage of powerful features like multitouch, geolocation, and accelerometer information. This allows you to add a whole new level of interactivity in scenarios ranging from productivity tools to games to eLearning environments.
Audience: Web Developer, Application Developer
Skill Level: Intermediate
Speakers: Peter Elst, Nathalie Wormser
Products: ActionScript, AIR, Flex
Authoring Rich Experiences for Every Room in the Home
Hear from Chuck Freedman (@chuckstar), Adobe Flash Platform expert and chief channel evangelist at litl, as he discusses how Flash Player compatible content plays on many cool, in-home devices from Sony, Nintendo, litl, and more. He’ll explore why creators should take special note of different form factors, simplified user experiences, and the new distribution channels that make this an exciting opportunity. We’ll consider the full range of experiences, from open, multiplayer games and HD video in the living room to interactive cooking in the kitchen to DIY guides in the garage, and even story time.
Audience: Architect, Creative Designer, Web Designer, Web Developer, Application Developer, Business Decision Maker
Skill Level: General Audience
Speaker: Chuck Freedman
Products: ActionScript, AIR, Flash Builder, Flash Catalyst, Flash Media Server, Flash Player, Flash Professional, Flex
Building P2P Multiplayer Games
Learn how you can leverage peer-to-peer communication in Adobe Flash Player to enable multiplayer games on Facebook. This session will include an in-depth tutorial on peer-to-peer technology, a demo of how to use peer to peer in your games with Adobe Flash Builder and Flash Professional CS5, and deployment on the Facebook platform.
Audience: Creative Designer, Web Designer, Web Developer, Application Developer
Skill Level: Advanced
Speaker: Tomas Krcha
Products: ActionScript, Flash Builder, Flash Player, Flash Professional
Creating Interactive Rich Media Advertising Campaigns with Video
In this session you’ll learn how video can be one of the most engaging components in Rich Media Advertising. We’ll discuss how: use multiple videos in standard or HD format leveraging Dynamic Streaming; record your own video with a webcam and send it to email or a smartphone; post videos on Facebook; play a 3D multiplayer game using Papervision and Flash Media Interactive Server; and go mobile with your campaigns. We’ll show examples of real rich media campaigns from top advertisers, discuss the technologies powering the creative, and try to dispel all the myths around the limitations of video ads.
Audience: Creative Designer, Web Designer, Web Developer, Application Developer
Skill Level: General Audience
Speaker: Todd Pasternack
Products: Flash Media Server, Flash Player, Flash Professional, Flex
Labs
Building the Coolest Online Chess Game: Real-Time Messaging Lessons from the Trenches
Learn how ChessJam, a scalable, interactive, multiplayer chess application, was built using Flex, Adobe AIR, BlazeDS with LiveCycle Data Services, and ColdFusion. Employ publish/subscribe messaging, remoting, and a few tricks to build something far cooler than just another multiuser chat application. Synchronize graphics across players and learn how to handle user disconnects and reconnects, poor networking conditions, latency, and more.
Audience: Architect, Application Developer
Skill Level: General Audience
Speaker: Greg Wilson
Products: AIR, Blaze DS, ColdFusion, Flash Builder, Flex, LiveCycle DS
Game On! Multiscreen, Multiplayer Game Development
Learn about techniques used in multiscreen and multiplayer game development and how best to use the resources available on mobile devices, including multitouch and accelerometers. Be sure to bring your Flash enabled device, and your competitive edge, to participate!
Audience: Architect, Creative Designer, Application Developer
Skill Level: Intermediate
Speaker: Nate Beck
Products: ActionScript, AIR, Flash Builder, Flash Media Server, Flash Player, Flash Professional, Flex

Event Information
Adobe® Creative Suite® 5 Global Online Launch Event
April 12, 2010
8am PDT/11amEDT/ 5pm CEST on Adobe TV
http://cs5launch.adobe.com

Until then, you can catch the latest “buzz” around CS5 at the CS5 Buzz Hub and of course follow along on twitter: #cs5.

Connect Room 1: ROBERTSON AUDITORIUM
Connect Room 2: FISHER ROOM

We’re looking forward to seeing everyone again this year!