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I started developing Flash games back in 2002, mostly because I thought it would be a fun way to learn Flash and Actionscript.  Little did I know at the time that I'd end up creating Flash games for a living.

More recently I've also been teaching Flash games development, and my students have had a wide range of reasons for wanting to learn how to create their own games.  Some are looking to expand the range of services they can offer their web design clients, others want to develop games for sponsorship deals, yet others simply want to create games as a hobby.

Whatever your reasons for wanting to create Flash games, there are a number of ways to learn.  The most obvious route (and the one that I took nearly 10 years ago) is to buy a book on Actionscript and just start experimenting.  You'll learn a lot, but it will be a long, slow process and you'll make a lot of mistakes along the way.  The lack of a mentor will also mean that you'll struggle when you do hit obstacles, although there are some great forums now with lots of helpful folk you can turn to.

Teaching yourself using a book or two is certainly viable (hey – it worked for me!) and is inexpensive, but if you want to learn much faster then at the other end of the scale there are some great workshops and seminars available.  They can cost from a few hundred dollars upwards, and unless you're very lucky and have one in your home town you'll have the added expense of travel and hotels.  You will however receive great hands on training and have access to an experienced mentor who can answer your questions and you'll learn extremely fast.

If you want to learn fast, but can't justify the expense of traveling to and attending a workshop then an online course is probably your best bet.  There are now a handful of online e-learning courses which allow you to study from home at your own pace.  The syllabuses vary, but generally you'll get a good grounding in Flash game design and development, and you'll be taken through a number of case studies building different genres of game.  You'll also get access to an experienced mentor, at a fraction of the cost of attending a live workshop.

So what's the best solution?   Well that will depend on you, your budget, and how fast you want to learn.  Do a little research, decide on how quickly you want to learn and how much you can justify spending on acquiring your new skills, and choose the path which suits your needs best.

For Flash games tutorials visit FlashGamesClassroom.com, or visit ViralFlashGames.com to download Flash games FLA source files to rebrand, reskin and learn from.