Pro HTML5 Games - Softcover

Aditya Ravi Shankar

Softcover

ISBN 10: 143024710X ISBN 13: 9781430247104

Publisher: Apress, 2012

Synopsis

Build your next game on a bigger scale with Pro HTML5 Games. This book teaches you the essentials of advanced game programming in HTML5. You’ll learn techniques that you can transfer to any area of HTML5 game development to make your own professional HTML5 games!

Led by an expert game programmer, you’ll build two complete games in HTML5: a strategy puzzle game based on the Box2d physics engine and in the style of Angry Birds and a real-time strategy (RTS) game complete with units, buildings, path-finding, artificial intelligence, and multiplayer support. In the process, you’ll learn how to do the following:

• Create realistic physics in your game by incorporating the Box2d physics engine
• Design large worlds with lots of characters and let users interact with them
• Use sprite sheets, panning, parallax scrolling, and sound effects to build a more polished game
• Incorporate pathfinding and steering to help characters navigate through your world
• Create challenging levels with intelligent enemies by using decision trees, state machines, and scripted events
• Add multiplayer in your games using Node.js and the WebSocket API

This book will help you take your HTML5/JavaScript programming experience to the next level. It gives you the knowledge and skills you need to develop more complex, bolder games and become an HTML5 games pro.

What you’ll learn

• Creating realistic physics in your game by incorporating the Box2d physics engine
• Designing large worlds with lots of characters and let users interact with them
• Using sprite sheets, panning, parallax scrolling, and sound effects to build a more polished game
• Incorporating pathfinding and steering to help characters navigate through your world
• Creating challenging levels with intelligent enemies by using decision trees, state machines, and scripted events
• Adding multiplayer in your games using Node.js and the WebSocket API

Who this book is for

Pro HTML5 Games is meant for programmers who already have some HTML and JavaScript programming experience and who now want to learn to harness the power of HTML5 to build amazing-looking games but don’t know where to begin.

Readers who have experience making games in other languages such as Flash and would like to move to HTML5 will also find a lot of useful information in this book.

If you do not feel confident about your game programming skills, don’t worry. This book covers all the essentials needed to build these games so you can follow along and learn to design large, professional games in HTML5. The book will also point to resources and reference material for supplemental learning in case you are having trouble keeping up.

With dedicated chapters on HTML5 basics, the Box2D engine, pathfinding and steering, combat and effective enemy AI, and multiplayer using Node.JS with WebSockets, you should get a lot from this book no matter how much game programming experience you have.

Table of Contents

1. HTML5 and JavaScript Essentials
2. Creating a Basic Game World
3. Physics Engine Basics
4. Integrating the Physics Engine
5. Creating the RTS Game World
6. Adding Entities to Our World
7. Intelligent Unit Movement
8. Adding More Game Elements
9. CreaAdding Weapons and Combat
10. Wrapping Up the Single-Player Campaign
11. Multiplayer with WebSockets
12. Multiplayer Gameplay

About this title

About the Author

Aditya Ravi Shankar started programming in 1993 when he was first introduced to the world of computers. With no access to the Internet or online tutorials at the time, he wrote his first game in GW-BASIC by painstakingly retyping code from a book he found at the local library.

After graduating from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras in 2001, he spent nearly a decade working as a software consultant, developing trading and analytics systems for investment banks and large Fortune 100 companies, before eventually leaving his corporate life behind so he could focus on doing what he loved.

A self-confessed technology geek, he has spent the time since then working on his own projects and experimenting with every new language and technology that he could, including of course HTML5. During this time he became well known for singlehandedly re-creating the famous Command and Conquer RTS game entirely in HTML5.

Apart from programming, Aditya is passionate about billiards, salsa dancing, and learning to develop the subconscious mind. He maintains a personal website (www.adityaravishankar.com) where he writes articles on game programming, personal development, and billiards.

When he is not busy writing or working on his own projects, Aditya does consulting work with companies to help them launch new software products.

About this edition

• Publisher: Apress
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 143024710X
• ISBN 13: 9781430247104
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 364