I need help to get started in flash

[asdfmoviecaleb]

Okay, okay. I know i said i was "going to start to learn" to how to program flash, but of course i didn't even get started.
I am being 100% serious when i say that I am going to get into flash coding.
But of course, every guide i saw on google was confusing and complex. Before i start, I need a few questions answered.
Is Flash free?
What version of flash is best for beginners?
Do i need to know any programing languages before starting flash?
And of course, I need to actually learn how to program. Obviously, no one reading this probably doesn't know how to operate flash, and probably wouldn't waste their time teaching me. So if any of you know a 100% user friendly flash guide for beginners for dummies, please send it to me.
What am I going to do in flash, you ask?
Well, i was considering making an updated level designer for sm63, but that will obviously take years of learning flash to make. I mostly want to learn flash to get me started on coding, because i do want to be a game designer when i get older.
So I appreciate any help I get on this. Thank you for taking your time to read through this cluttered and unorganized post.

[l.m]

Is Flash free?

What version of flash is best for beginners?

It depends. The tool professional programmers/animators use to program applications in Flash is the Adobe Flash Professional (currently in the CC version, but i'd recommend CS5 or CS6 as they're easier to mess with), and no, it's not free; pretty expensive actually. However, there's an alternate option called FlashDevelop, which is not as user-friendly and easy to program on as Flash Professional, but it's still (probably?) the only choice if you don't want to pay/pirate it.

Do i need to know any programing languages before starting flash?

No. In fact, Flash (AS2 or AS3) itself is a good and easy language to get started on the very basics of programming, at least imo.

If any of you know a 100% user friendly flash guide for beginners for dummies, please send it to me.

Use this. It was the first thing I used to get into the very basics and actually get to work ♥♥♥♥ with Flash. (That works better if you're going to use Flash Professional though.) I'm not aware of any FlashDevelop tutorials but it's just as easy as googling it and finding it.

---

A little word of advice though. Flash is honestly not a good language to program anything serious with as of now. It is an easy language, but it's old, and it's dying (Even Adobe itself decided to rename Adobe Flash Professional to Adobe Animator, as a step to slowly put Flash to an end.) If you're REALLY wanting to engage on something serious then try Python or Java, or maybe C++ for a change.

Also, obviously, it's going to take a LOT of time before you get to know how to build a proper platformer, and even more time to learn how to do a level designer. It's not something you just learn in a day and then boom, you're done. It requires a lot of time and patience to work a decent thing out. So think about it before starting something.

And stop pitying yourself, it's very obnoxious actually.

[ShadeRaider]

I can't help you with this but I wish you good luck in the future.

[asdfmoviecaleb]

And stop pitying yourself, it's very obnoxious actually.

Excuse me?
And thanks for the link to the tutorial, I guess.

[Raz]

The best way of learning is by doing the research yourself. Getting the answers from someone else accomplishes nothing. Google is the single greatest resource of this day and we might be one of the worst.
But yes, FF is right. Flash is not the way to go, consider learning another language. And let me emphasize that you need to be dedicated. There is no way you will be able to do anything significant in a day, or even a week.

[asdfmoviecaleb]

The best way of learning is by doing the research yourself. Getting the answers from someone else accomplishes nothing. Google is the single greatest resource of this day and we might be one of the worst.
But yes, FF is right. Flash is not the way to go, consider learning another language. And let me emphasize that you need to be dedicated. There is no way you will be able to do anything significant in a day, or even a week.

I said in my post that it would take years of learning code before I can do anything actually good.
And I want to use flash as a beginners programming tool. If you know any other "modern" or not out of date programing tools as easy to use as flash to introduce me to programming, please inform me.

[l.m]

I said in my post that it would take years of learning code before I can do anything actually good.
And I want to use flash as a beginners programming tool. If you know any other "modern" or not out of date programing tools as easy to use as flash to introduce me to programming, please inform me.

i literally just said it in my reply

try Python or Java, or maybe C++ for a change.

of course you'll have to search those by yourself, i don't have enough info to help you there

[asdfmoviecaleb]

try Python or Java, or maybe C++ for a change.

of course you'll have to search those by yourself, i don't have enough info to help you there

Are those easy? I heard they were a little advanced.

[Oranjui]

FF, you could at least try to be a little more helpful

Either Python or C# ("C Sharp") is probably your best option right now if you're looking into small game development. They're very approachable and beginner-friendly, but still powerful for larger projects and professional programming. If you're interested, there are plenty of resources out there in print and on the internet to help you. To get yourself started, read this reddit wiki page. There are lots of dedicated communities on the internet to help you, too.

Play around with bestprogramminglanguagefor.me if you want to read and explore more. It has a lot of details on the advantages and disadvantages of different languages and how they can be used for different purposes.

To address some other questions: Flash is beginner-friendly, but it's pretty old and support is dropping, so it won't be very useful in the future. Java is more difficult but much more powerful and perhaps more rewarding than Flash, though it suffers many of the same problems that Flash does, mostly due to security flaws. C++ isn't generally a very good option for beginners because of the complexity, but it's massively powerful and gives you a lot of control.

And remember to use Google.

[asdfmoviecaleb]

Thank you. That helps me a lot.
I think i will explore a bit of Phython first, if i may.