Create impressive and engaging, cross-platform games from scratch. You'll learn how to dissect the elements that make successful games and develop practical skills in game design, loops and user input, animation, maps, collision detection and AI, mathematics, game physics, and much, much more.
What you will learn
Learn the fundamentals of game design: what makes a good game?
Develop several fun games
Jazz your games up with "juice"
Description
This book will teach you how to create awesome video games. Games from scratch. Games that run cross-platform, in web browsers, and on phones. Games filled with dynamic sound and music. Games overflowing with impressive visual effects. Fun games.
More importantly, this book will teach you how to think about making games. You’ll learn to analyze and dissect games—to understand what it is that makes great games great. By the end of the journey you’ll have all the knowledge and tools needed to produce engaging, polished products that people will love to play.
Learn the basics: game loops and input
Draw graphics on the screen using Canvas
Add amazing sound effects and music using the Web Audio API
Develop several fun games: a platformer, a shoot ‘em up, a dungeon crawler, and a physics-based game
Create your own JavaScript game library
Jazz up your game up with "juice": screen shakes, particle effects, and more
This book is for anyone who wants to create their own games using tools such as a browser and a text editor. It’s expected that you're proficient in HTML and CSS, and are reasonably experienced with JavaScript, but no prior game development experience is assumed.
Who is this for?
This book is for anyone who wants to create their own games using tools such as a browser and a text editor. It’s expected that you're proficient in HTML and CSS, and are reasonably experienced with JavaScript, but no prior game development experience is assumed.
Creator
Earle Castledine
Earle Castledine—JavaScript flâneur and internet flibbertigibbet—is back! By day it’s serious business while Earle steers the ship as lead engineer at hot startups. By night his attention turns to the world of weird art and wonderful game design.
Reviews
vladislavnikora@gmail.com
Sadly, the only book on SitePoint at the moment on the topic of making games - but one that's well worth it!
Some things I already knew, as a web developer.
Some I might have to learn on my own, like making good sprites and aesthetics.
Overall, the book did its job - helped with circling out the gaps in my knowledge and pushed me to search for answers in the right direction.
Albert Löhnertz
entertaining and instructive, highly recommended.
Yan Moe Naing
Best of all I have come across. This book is awesome.
Andrew Sychra
Very thorough and worth putting a lot of effort into learning, as much as the author did into making this.
Alex Walker
Earle is a very entertaining writer and this book sets useful, fun goals and delivers them in attainable ways. Sure, there's some JavaScript to learn, but it should be within the grasp of most practical-minded people.
Noah Perlmutter
I have previous JS experience, and very little game development experience. Already having built a rudimentary engine using this book, I have a much deeper understanding of the game development process. Highly recommended. Some small typos. Keep the github repo open, just in case.
Frequently Asked Questions
HTML5 Games: Novice to Ninja
4.6
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