Mobile HTML5 casual games are experiencing a golden age these days. Not only famous Flash hits and successful native mobile games, but also original games tailored for mobile browsers are played by millions of players everyday.
With a continuously growing number of mobile devices available to play HTML5 games, and with each one having its own resolution, and display size, and ratio, creating a game version for each device would make you waste a lot of time. That's why there's a new way to make HTML5 games called cross-platform. It means you create a game once, and some magic adapts it to every device capable of running HTML5 content.
This magic is called Cocos2d-JS, which allows you to focus on what you actually love, making games, and takes care of screen resolutions and ratios. Also, you will be using one of the simplest and most widely known languages ever: JavaScript. Last but not least, it's free. You can create the next big game at no cost.
Throughout this book, you will learn how to make games using Cocos2d-JS in the most fun and productive way. We know you hate boring theories, so we did our best to focus the entire book on one single word: action.
Learn Cocos2d-JS with examples taken from the most successful game genres; see how easy it is to create a game once, and then make it run on each device.
Chapter 1, Hello World – A Cross-platform Game, will show you how to create a blueprint that you will be using for every game you will make with Cocos2d-JS. This chapter will also guide you through the creation of an environment to create and test your cross-platform games.
Chapter 2, Adding Interactivity – The Making of a Concentration Game, guides you through the creation of one of the most popular games that makes you learn how to create sprites and interact with them both with the mouse and finger.
Chapter 3, Moving Sprites Around the Screen – An Endless Runner, introduces scrolling and sprite movements using motion tweens in the creation of a space-themed endless runner. Particle effects and collision detection complete the game experience.
Chapter 4, Learn about Swipes through the making of Sokoban, shows you how to create a classic puzzle game that you can control with the most intuitive way used these days: swiping on the game.
Chapter 5, Become a Musical Maestro, examines the importance of having sound effects and background music in your games. This chapter also shows you how to start and stop sounds and loops by adjusting their volume.
Chapter 6, Controlling the Game with Virtual Pads, provides you three different ways to control your games with virtual pads when you build a fruit game. Virtual buttons and analogic pads will be your best friends when you create your next game.
Chapter 7, Adding Physics to Your Games Using the Box2D Engine, shows you the magic of physics engines in the creation of the blockbuster Totem Destroyer game, which you will easily build using the Box2D physics engine. You will also learn how to create, destroy, skin, and interact with physics bodies in a realistic physics environment.
Chapter 8, Adding Physics to Your Games Using the Chipmunk2D Engine, creates the same Totem Destroyer game, this time using Chipmunk2D rather than Box2D. While the Web is divided by the Box2D versus Chipmunk2D war, you will learn both of them, leaving the choice of your favorite physics engine up to you.
Chapter 9, Creating Your Own Blockbuster Game – A Complete Match 3 Game, completes the book with the creation of the most successful game genre today: a Match-3 game. At the end of the chapter, you will also find some hints and suggestions on protecting, promoting, marketing, and monetizing your game.
Cocos2d-JS is so easy to use, apart being free; it basically does not require anything but a text editor and a server to run your projects. If you want, you can use the Cocos2d-JS official IDE, but you're welcome to use your favorite text editor if you prefer.
Whether you are an experienced game developer coming from another language or a complete novice, this book can guide you through the creation of cross-platform games. Some basic knowledge of JavaScript is recommended, then just follow book examples.
In this book, you will find a number of styles of text that distinguish between different kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles, and an explanation of their meaning.
Code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles are shown as follows: "I found myself almost rewriting the game with a series of if.. then.. else trying to make it look good on any device."
A block of code is set as follows:
var gameScene = cc.Scene.extend({
onEnter:function () {
this._super();
gameLayer = new game();
gameLayer.init();
this.addChild(gameLayer);
}
});When we wish to draw your attention to a particular part of a code block, the relevant lines or items are set in bold:
var gameScene = cc.Scene.extend({
onEnter:function () {
this._super();
gameLayer = new game();
gameLayer.init();
this.addChild(gameLayer);
}
});New terms and important words are shown in bold. Words that you see on the screen, in menus or dialog boxes for example, appear in the text like this: "If you now open the developer console, you should see: my awesome game starts here".
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