Build an HTML5 Game was published in March 2015 by No Starch Press.
If you already have even basic familiarity with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, you’re ready to learn how to
build a browser-based game. In Build an HTML5 Game, you’ll use your skills to create a truly cross
platform bubble-shooter game — playable in both desktop and mobile browsers.
Through the book's in-depth, hands-on tutorial, you'll
learn how to:
- Send sprites zooming around the screen with JavaScript animations
- Make things explode with a jQuery plugin
- Use hitboxes and geometry to detect collisions
- Implement game logic to display levels and respond to player input
- Convey changes in game state with animation and sound
- Add flair to a game interface with CSS transitions and transformations
- Gain pixel-level control over your game display with the HTML canvas
The programming starts right off in Chapter 1. No hemming and hawing, history, or throat clearing.
Exercises at the end of each chapter challenge you to dig into the bubble shooter’s code and modify the game.
Go ahead. Take the plunge. Learn to create a complete HTML5 game right now, and then use your newfound skills to build your own mega-popular, addictive game.
Reviews
"I would recommend this book to any junior programmer who has written some code before, but maybe has trouble breaking up code in to logical modules with a clean separation of concerns. For example, early on in my programming career, I suffered from “monolithic file” syndrome. It was not clear to me when it made sense to split up programs across multiple files and even when to use multiple classes as is typical in object-oriented paradigms. I would also recommend this book to anyone who has yet to implement their own game."
Nick Desaulniers, Mozilla Hacks
"I really enjoyed reading Build an HTML5 Game. The writing is clear and easy to follow, the examples are good, and the concepts provide a solid foundation on which you can build. This is not a comprehensive “everything you will ever need or want to know about game programming” sort of book, but rather a clean and enjoyable entry that helps you over the first hurdle of writing that first game. It then gives you ideas and tips to help you know what else is out there so you have a bit of a roadmap to continue learning as you figure out what sorts of games you want to create."
"The descriptions of all of the ideas are clear and easy to follow but only if you already know something about the technologies being used. This is not a book for trying to learn JavaScript or even HTML/CSS. It would make a good second level course on the techologies, but only if you were interested in building a game."
"The starting point of Build an HTML5 Game: A Developer’s Guide with CSS and JavaScript is something that completely snuck up on me. In my time as a volunteer webmaster, I’d never considered taking my web skills much further than a church web site with just a tad of moving text and a slide show “walk” along the nature trail. The features of HTML5 that have made it a contender for game development were simply lost on me. With this book, the proverbial lights came on. And while I haven’t yet jumped in and tried to build my own game, I now understand what is required and might just give it a shot."
Sandra Henry-Stocker, IT World
"Bunyan's excellent new book on web programming sits between beginner guides to JavaScript and the many specialist, advanced titles available for experienced web programmers."
The MagPi, The official Raspberry Pi magazine
"If you have any interest at all in learning how to build games with web standards, then I definitely recommend checking it out."