At the beginning of August I have started to read the book HTML5 Games Development by Example, provided to me kindly by Packt Publishing. The book tells us exactly what is written at the title – it shows you how to make Game Development with HTML. The book is available for purchase here.
You do not need to be a pro developer to make use of the book – it presents step by step the development of the games with HTML. Each chapter is divided into several sub-chapters and the code for each sub-chapter is given. Thus, you may be able to go with the author, checking the code and seeing what he actually meant. These are the sub-chapters with code from chapter 1:
To make the story fascinating, the games are really interesting (if you are a developer, not a gamer). Here is a list of the 8 games with screenshots:
| Name | Screenshot |
| A CSS Quest Game |  |
| Card Battle |  |
| Space Runner |  |
| Multiply Defense |  |
| Building an Isometric City |  |
| Space Defenders |  |
| Ball-shooting with Physics Engine (Basketball) |  |
| Sushi Shop |  |
So the games probably look fantastic! Let’s go back to the book – what level of HTML do you need in advance? My opinion is that at least a basic level of HTML is needed, otherwise you will get into trouble. The book even touches object oriented programming (OOP), and although it describes it quite into detail, this is probably not a subject for a beginner. Anyway, if you are definitely into games and you are not a quitter you may go through the book successfully.
A good plus is the structure – the author gives us a mission briefing, objectives and checklist for each of the games. Thus, separating the tasks into smaller details, you learn how to deal with a complex problem step-by-step. As mentioned earlier, the book provides the code for these steps separately – you do not obtain only the big project with 1000+ lines of code, where it is quite easy to lose yourself. This is an approach I like. At the end of each chapter, you can kindly give yourself a treat, by playing the game you have created. Trust me, there is nothing more challenging than playing a game, which you have built by yourself (copied code counts as well 🙂 )
Last but not least – there are a lot of things in game development, which can be used in the so-called “Real Projects”. Making a status bar and dealing with OOP and variables is just the start.
In conclusion I would say the following – take a good look at the screenshots – if you want to understand how the games behind them are built – that is your book! 🙂