As I finished this semester university exams, I've retaken some tech books I had halfway read and finish the task. First one is done, a 360 page book about game development using HTML5 and CreateJS.
Review
Title: HTML5 Game Development Hotshot
Author: Makzan
A game developer told me a few years ago that he liked javascript to do game prototyping, but current browsers now allow way more than just mere prototypes. I chose this book for learning what options are there, because the author shows different techniques, but mostly relies on a free nice-looking library, CreateJS. Along the 8 chapters we'lll learn by example and build 8 different games that range from simple card games, endlesss runners and math quizs to an isometric city builder or a physics-based basketball mini-game.
The first and last chapter use CSS and HTML, but the remaining ones make use of the sub-libraries of CreateJS to teach how to manage game loops, even-based logic, sprite and vector-based graphics, collisions, screen coordinates, Box2D physics, levels, saving and loading data (using LocalStorage), and mobile-friendly UIs that adapt game menus to both big and small, landscape and portait screens.
While the graphics used in the games are between regular and sometimes really ugly, the games themselves are nice and varied examples, serve perfectly their purpose and the javascript looks simple and clean, including also details or links to further readings whenever needed. I was quite impressed with the book and definetly recommend it if you're interested in the subject.
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