I have been looking around for different programs that I can use to make HTML5 games. Unsure if I fully want to take that route. I am curious if anyone has used any of these programs and what their opinion on it is.
I'm currently developing a few HTML5 games using Game Maker: Studio.
Though I have worked with other engines before, I've stuck with this program to create my HTML games.
What I like about the program is the speed at wich one is able to prototype a game. If you have a simple concept and would quickly like to see how it translates to a game, you can often have a playable prototype ready in under a week.
Game maker also supports the use of SWF files in your projects for animations and sprites. This means that I just do all of my graphics in flash and export these to Game Maker. This leaves me with slik vector images.
In Game maker you code in GML, wich is basically Java. Seriously, if you can code in Java, you can code in GML. You'll just have to memorise some functions.
One of my main issues with the program however, is that it isn't able to check for floating point values. (exept within data structures) So this means I'll have to round() almost all of my variables to make absolutely sure my checks will register when exporting to HTML5. It gets really annoying sometimes, especcially when you forget to round a variable and keep wondering why your code won't execute.
Ofcourse there is also the price tag that could turn one off, as there are free alternatives for creating a HTML5 game. Though the program is worth the money in my opinion, I won't deny I haven't doubted my purchase.
Pros:
+ Very Fast Development
+ Java-like coding
Cons:
- Unable to directly check for floating point variables
- Price
My favorite thing about HTML5 is that you don't need any 3rd party program to make stuff with it, as long as you have a text editor.
HTML5 games use HTML and CSS for the UI, so if you already know a little bit about web design, you'll be able to jump right in on the design side. All of the code behind is done with Javascript, which IMO is a fun language to learn and likely won't go out of style any time soon.
3d games are tougher to make with HTML5 than with something like Unity, though there are now quite a few great plugins that can help with the 3d stuff.
I put together a full HTML5 game with 0 plugins, loved every minute of development, and am quite happy with the final product. Miraidematro listed price as a Con, but I've never spent a cent on anything I've used for an HTML5 game.
Here is a very short tutorial that I read when I had 0 javascript knowledge that really helped me to grasp how to use javascript to make a game. The tutorial is geared towards making an idle/incremental game, but the points (how to set up a basic game loop, how to change things on screen, how to use functions, format numbers, and save progress) should apply towards any type of game.
For personal reasons I really want to showcase the work that my friends put into it as well as my own. So one of the big things I am looking for is the flexibility in terms of animation and assets. @Miraidematro I see you noted about flash+HTML5 to get the best of both worlds there. Unfortunately if I had flash I would just stick to that, I very much enjoy as3 programming.
@GreenSatellite seeing as this is your first post, let me be the first to welcome you I hope to see more of what you have to offer. Also I really like what you said about the simplicity of programming with only notepad, and how you enjoyed the programming. If this was my first time around I totally would have done that, unfortunately I have been spoiled by fancy animation software, so I would feel limited without the timeline. Curious tho... how have you been handling your art assets? Spritesheets?
@weirdlike Thanks for the welcome! I came for the new HTML5 game support and plan on sticking around I actually didn't do too much with art in my game. I'm not a very graphically minded person but I enjoy the logic side of programming, so I ended up with mostly a text based incremental game. I used the free glyphicons that come with bootstrap to spice it up a little bit (they come as a font with a CSS stylesheet so they're super easy to use). I have also spent some time working on a different grid-based project, where the whole screen is a giant html table with the background colors of cells changing. I don't know much about animation and such yet though (some day!).
Nice! Did you use A* path finding method? Fun stuff. I can see the key features of how you created it. Personally I enjoy grid-based programming, I just got into it about 7-10 some odd months ago. Also to reiterate... you are definitely having fun programming, well if you are anything like myself. :P
Cocos2D-JS is a good one to go for, here is an example of games made with it: http://www.cocos2d-x.org/games/all?p=15
Great thing about it is it's also portable to Android, iOS and desktop.
