Sometimes the first option is your best shot, but for casual online games the second one is more suitable. Multiple loadings in AS3 can be a pain, because there are several file types to load (wave, JPG, mp3, GIF, swf, etc) and there is no single way to load them all.

So far my best approach to solve this problem is called BulkLoader, a library for managing multiple loadings with AS3. It is licensed under the MIT License and has amazing features:

• Connection pooling.
• Unified interface for different loading types.
• Unified progress notification.
• Events for individual items and as groups.
• Priority
• Stop and resuming individually as well as in bulk.
• Cache management.
• Statistics about loading (latency, speed, average speed).
• Various kinds on progress indication: ratio (items loaded / items to load), bytes , and weighted percentage.
• Configurable number of retries.
• Configurable logging.
• Various assest types (XML, NetStreams, Swfs, Images, Sound, Text Files)

Design goals:

• Minimal imports.
• Few method to learn.
• Consistent interface, regardless of content type.

BulkLoader gracefully handles progress notification in these use cases:

• Few connections to open: bytes total can be used instantly.
• Many connections opened: progress by ratio
• Many connections opened for data of widely varying sizes: progress by weight.

One of the things I like the most is that this project was created by a Brazilian fellow named Arthur Debert . Thanks for this great tool!

Looking for isometric game engines, I found three great projects: FFilmation, As3isolib and OpenSpace.

FFilmation (MIT License):

• Have a programming interface as small and easy as possible, no matter how complex the internal code is;
• Rendering performance is a major concern when designing all the algorythms;
• Graphic designers are able to work on the application’s ( game or not ) environments without any programming skills, visually, and with almost immediate previews of what they are doing.

As3isolib (MIT License):

• Simple scene creation;
• 3 primitive types;
• Base class for displaying user-created conten;
• Plenty of styling option on vector based primitive;
• Integrates well with a variety of tween engine;
• Improved 3D isometric positional sortin;
• Scene & view renderer classes geared towards performance optimizatio;
• Performance caching of static and animated sprite asset.

OpenSpace (commercial, part of the SmartFoxServer platform for multiplayer games):

• Engine and framework for rapid development of multi-user virtual worlds and MMO communities;
• Customizable tiles' aspect ratio;
• Tiles Elevation
• 2D objects in a 2.5D world
• Backgrounds and foregrounds
• Scrolling
• Advanced pathfinding
• Powerful avatar management
• Advanced map interaction system
• Exhaustive documentation
• Complete Map Editor

If you were planning to develop an isometric game, you just found your first step.