Haxe Game Development Essentials

Create games on multiple platforms from a single codebase using Haxe and the HaxeFlixel engine

About This Book

• Learn the modern, cross-platform language Haxe to build games without any trouble
• Create engaging 2D games that are compatible with desktop, web, and mobile platforms
• Learn how to speed up your workflow with OpenFL and HaxeFlixel using this useful and compact guide

Who This Book Is For

This book is for game developers with some experience programming games on one or more platforms already. If you want to leverage your game development experience on one platform to develop for multiple platforms and to get up and running quickly, this book is for you. Having prior experience with a language similar to Haxe, such as ActionScript or JavaScript will help, but isn't required.

What You Will Learn

• Understand the fundamentals of the Haxe programming language
• Set up a development environment that will work on Windows, Mac, and Linux
• Create fun 2D games using OpenFL and HaxeFlixel
• Understand how to implement a user interface
• Enhance the gameplay experience with cool animations
• Improve immersion by adding sound
• Make your game modular and easily expandable using configuration files
• Compile games that will work on desktop, web, and mobile platforms

In Detail

Haxe is a powerful and high-level multi-platform language that's incredibly easy to learn. Used by thousands of developers and many high-profile companies, Haxe is quickly emerging as a forerunner in the area of cross-platform programming. OpenFL builds on top of Haxe to make developing for multiple platforms quick and painless. HaxeFlixel provides you with the tools you need to build amazing 2D games easier than ever before. Cross-platform development has been supercharged using the Haxe programming language, making it increasingly easy and hassle-free to develop multi-platform games.

If you've programmed games before and want to learn out how to deliver games across multiple platforms, or develop games faster, then Haxe Game Development Essentials is the book for you.

It starts by showing you how to set up your development environment, then running you through some Haxe language fundamentals, and finally taking you through the process of programming a game from start to finish.

You will learn how to create a side scrolling shooter game using HaxeFlixel. Next you will learn to enhance the game with new gameplay features, user interfaces, animations, sound, and configuration files to make your game expandable. Once your game is built and ready, you will learn how to deploy it to web, Android, iOS, and desktop systems.

By the end of this book, you will be confident about creating multi-platform games using Haxe, OpenFL, and HaxeFlixel in a faster and easier way.

Style and approach

Since this book is aimed at people who have worked on games before, this book is written in a way that will get you quickly up to speed with a new set of tools, but will still be accessible for less experienced developers. Each chapter covers an essential milestone in building a game from start to finish. The chapters move in a logical fashion, starting with the basics of Haxe development and ending with preparing a game for deployment.

Jeremy McCurdy

Jeremy McCurdy is a game developer who has been making games using ActionScript, C#, and Haxe for over four years. He has developed games targeted at iOS, Android, Windows, OS X, Flash, and HTML5. He has worked on games that have had millions of gameplay sessions, and has built games for many major North American television networks. He is the games technical lead at REDspace, an award-winning interactive studio that has worked for some of the world's largest brands. They are located in Nova Scotia, Canada, and have been building awesome experiences for 15 years.