MovieClip timeline animations wont play across classes - Flash Game

MovieClip timeline animations wont play across classes - Flash Game

First question. Please be gentle.
I'm making a simple (I'd hoped) keyboard controlled movieclip of a game
character. The Movieclip has five frames, each with a simple animation
inside for when the player presses the arrow keys, walking up, down,
stable etc.
I made a simple prototype in the main application class file and it works
PERFECTLY. I also traced currentFrame and totalFrames and that is correct
too. When key is pressed it plays correct frame and it says the
totalFrames are 5. Great!
However I want to make a multi level game, so have used the application
class as a level switcher and each level and object is its own class.
During this migration the MovieClip stops working. It is added to the
stage fine and can be moved with the arrow keys but the individual
animations wont play. It just flickers through each of the five keyframes.
Also when I trace it, it says currentFrame is 0 (?) and totalFrames is 1
(?)
It wont be controlled by .stop or .gotoAndPlay either.
Please help!
Here is the single class version that works fine.
package
{
import flash.display.Sprite;
import flash.display.DisplayObject;
import flash.display.MovieClip;
import flash.events.Event;
import flash.events.KeyboardEvent;
import flash.ui.Keyboard;
[SWF(width="650", height="450",backgroundColor="#FFFFFF", frameRate="60")]
public class CharacterMovieclip extends MovieClip
{
//Create and initialize the vx and vy variables
public var vx:int = 0;
public var vy:int = 0;
[Embed(source="../swfs/characterRes.swf", symbol="Character")]
public var Character:Class;
public var character:MovieClip = new Character();
public function CharacterMovieclip()
{
//Add Character
stage.addChild(character);
character.x = 200;
character.y = 100;
character.gotoAndStop(1);
//Add the event listeners
stage.addEventListener(KeyboardEvent.KEY_DOWN, keyDownHandler);
stage.addEventListener(KeyboardEvent.KEY_UP, keyUpHandler);
stage.addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, enterFrameHandler);
}
public function keyDownHandler(event:KeyboardEvent):void
{
if (event.keyCode == Keyboard.LEFT)
{
vx = -5;
character.gotoAndStop(4);
}
else if (event.keyCode == Keyboard.RIGHT)
{
vx = 5;
character.gotoAndStop(5);
}
else if (event.keyCode == Keyboard.UP)
{
vy = -5;
character.gotoAndStop(2);
}
else if (event.keyCode == Keyboard.DOWN)
{
vy = 5;
character.gotoAndStop(3);
}
}
public function keyUpHandler(event:KeyboardEvent):void
{
if (event.keyCode == Keyboard.LEFT
|| event.keyCode == Keyboard.RIGHT)
{
vx = 0;
character.gotoAndStop(1);
}
else if (event.keyCode == Keyboard.DOWN
|| event.keyCode == Keyboard.UP)
{
vy = 0;
character.gotoAndStop(1);
}
}
public function enterFrameHandler(event:Event):void
{
//Move the player
character.x += vx
character.y += vy;
trace(character.currentFrame);
trace(character.totalFrames);
trace(character.x);
}
}
}
But that all goes to hell once I try it across a few classes. Here is the
character class.
package
{
import flash.display.DisplayObject;
import flash.display.MovieClip;
public class Character extends MovieClip
{
[Embed(source="../swfs/characterRes.swf", symbol="Character")]
private var CharacterImage:Class;
//Private properties
private var _characterImage:DisplayObject = new CharacterImage();
private var _character:MovieClip = new MovieClip();
//Public properties
public var vx:int = 0;
public var vy:int = 0;
public function Character()
{
_character.addChild(_characterImage);
this.addChild(_character);
}
}
}
The character object is then added to the LevelOne class
package
{
import flash.display.Sprite;
import flash.display.DisplayObject;
import flash.display.MovieClip;
import flash.events.Event;
import flash.events.KeyboardEvent;
import flash.ui.Keyboard;
public class LevelOne extends Sprite
{
//Declare the variables to hold
//the game objects
private var _character:Character;
private var _background:Background;
//A variable to store the reference
//to the stage from the application class
private var _stage:Object;
public function LevelOne(stage:Object)
{
_stage = stage;
this.addEventListener(Event.ADDED_TO_STAGE, addedToStageHandler);
}
private function addedToStageHandler(event:Event):void
{
startGame();
this.removeEventListener(Event.ADDED_TO_STAGE, addedToStageHandler);
}
private function startGame():void
{
//Create Game Objects
_character = new Character();
_background = new Background();
//Add them to stage
this.addChild(_background);
_background.x = 0;
_background.y = 0;
this.addChild(_character);
_character.x = 300;
_character.y = 50;
_character.gotoAndStop(1);
//Event listeners
_stage.addEventListener(KeyboardEvent.KEY_DOWN, keyDownHandler);
_stage.addEventListener(KeyboardEvent.KEY_UP, keyUpHandler);
this.addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, enterFrameHandler);
}
private function enterFrameHandler(event:Event):void
{
//Move the game character and check its stage boundaries
_character.x += _character.vx;
_character.y += _character.vy;
checkStageBoundaries(_character);
trace(_character.currentFrame);
trace(_character.totalFrames);
trace(_character.x);
}
private function checkStageBoundaries(gameObject:MovieClip):void
{
if (gameObject.x < 50)
{
gameObject.x = 50;
}
if (gameObject.y < 50)
{
gameObject.y = 50;
}
if (gameObject.x + gameObject.width > _stage.stageWidth - 50)
{
gameObject.x = _stage.stageWidth - gameObject.width - 50;
}
if (gameObject.y + gameObject.height > _stage.stageHeight - 50)
{
gameObject.y = _stage.stageHeight - gameObject.height - 50;
}
}
private function keyDownHandler(event:KeyboardEvent):void
{
if (event.keyCode == Keyboard.LEFT)
{
_character.vx = -5;
_character.gotoAndStop(4);
}
else if (event.keyCode == Keyboard.RIGHT)
{
_character.vx = 5;
_character.gotoAndStop(5);
}
else if (event.keyCode == Keyboard.UP)
{
_character.vy = -5;
_character.gotoAndStop(2);
}
else if (event.keyCode == Keyboard.DOWN)
{
_character.vy = 5;
_character.gotoAndStop(3);
}
}
private function keyUpHandler(event:KeyboardEvent):void
{
if (event.keyCode == Keyboard.LEFT
|| event.keyCode == Keyboard.RIGHT)
{
_character.vx = 0;
_character.gotoAndStop(1);
}
else if (event.keyCode == Keyboard.DOWN
|| event.keyCode == Keyboard.UP)
{
_character.vy = 0;
_character.gotoAndStop(1);
}
}
}
}
And levelOne is added to the stage by the Main application class.
package
{
import flash.display.Sprite;
import flash.events.Event;
import flash.display.MovieClip;
[SWF(width="650", height="450",
backgroundColor="#FFFFFF", frameRate="60")]
public class Main extends Sprite
{
private var _levelOne:LevelOne;
public function Main()
{
_levelOne = new LevelOne(stage);
stage.addChild(_levelOne);
}
}
}
Somewhere in all this my MovieClip stops playing the individual
animations. Its on the stage, can be moved around with arrow keys, but
wont play the keyframe animations. (And trace seems to think its playing
frame 0, and it only has 1 frame too.)
Any help would be hugely appreciated. My head hurts.