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HTML5 Game Development with ImpactJS

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HTML5 Game Development with ImpactJS

304 pages, Paperback

First published March 21, 2013

8 people want to read

About the author

Davy Cielen

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Displaying 1 of 1 review
1 review
August 19, 2013
3.5 star

Not a Free ImpactJS but still a Lively All-In-One Web Gaming Book

Prerequisites: web programming , literal & JSON notation, purchase ImpactJS to practice with it; No Free Trial.

Code Analysis : Certain parts were difficult to understand. Code for (distance, mouse cursor calculations, ai ) need more commenting & visual examples .

I didn’t have a foreknowledge about ImpactJS’s cost until I found out in the beginning chapters. But as an experienced learner in programming, I was able to read the book successfully & understood nearly all the code. So I didn’t have to download ImpactJS. Overall, I’m satisfied & enjoyed this book because it enhanced my knowledge on gaming in different ways.

Throughout the book, the content is given to you in short sections where each, then end with a recap summary.

I consider this book an all-in-one because it covers all the essentials on web game development for mobile devices & desktop. It doesn’t teach web programming but just ImpactJS. You use ImpactJS & the integrated tools to make 2 kinds of games, RPG & side-scroller.

More specifically, here’s a main overview what to expect:

web resources (free, paid) for starting, making, distributing, selling & getting the analytics of the game

ImpactJS , its debugger (features, customizing it), level editing tool Weltmeister
a briefing on unit testing the game
game levels (designing, transitioning from one to another)
objects , layers , z-depth, collisions
entities (3 categories: dead objects, player, nonplayer)
player controls (keyboard & mouse)
camera (automatic & manual view, viewport)
audio(music, sound)
integrating Box2d (physics engine)
NPC (nonplaying character)–using artificial intelligence; broken down int decision making & behavior
-apply this for a single person or collectively (a hive –grouped body) in a level

coding intelligent spawn locations
dialogue(back & forth) -1st the data table (specific keys for 2 people) & coverting it to JSON format for the game.
-2nd use a word (wrap ) function-already defined to display text inside a rectangle
data storage (cookies, DOM) ; WebSqlLite (querying this – isn’t covered)
graphics (vector, avatar) ; pixel isn’t covered


The author ‘s statement “HTML & JavaScript can be interpreted by any browser”, should further point out that (from my understanding) Javascript code isn’t portable across all browsers . Instead of figuring out how to do this, you can just use libraries like JQuery in the code that help with this.

Some quick facts:
Weismister, ImpactJS – sensitive in certain naming of things you do in the code.
mobile phones - may not allow more than 1 sound (ex music & sound effect) played simultaneously.

Few Favorites: how to make layers have equal dimensions that contain different tile sizes
AI for the non-player
MarketJS – free web tool to market your game.

Beginner , but more Intermediate Student. I strongly recommend it to a friend.
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