In Foundation Game Design with Flash, Rex van der Spuy introduced the reader to the rudimentary Actionscript programming skills required to create professional quality games developed in Adobe Flash. A direct continuation from that book, Advanced Game Design with Flash explores more advanced game programming techniques including grid-based pathfinding for enemy AI, loading and saving game data using XML, particle systems, and creating destructible environments.
Unlike Foundation Game Design with Flash, Advanced Game Design with Flash does not rely on the reader owning a licensed copy of the Adobe Flash IDE. The Actionscript examples in the book can be compiled with any alternative IDE, such as Flash Develop or Eclipse.
While his first book focused on the beginner, in Advanced Game Design with Flash van der Spuy assumes a basic knowledge of Flash game development and Actionscripting on the part of the reader. As such, this is not a book for the inexperienced. However, van der Spuy covers each topic with the depth and detail which makes Foundation Game Design with Flash such a valuable resource to the budding Flash game developer, and readers of that first book will find themselves on reassuringly familiar ground.