HTML5 Game Development Insights

HTML5 Game Development Insights is a from-the-trenches collection of tips, tricks, hacks, and advice straight from professional HTML5 game developers. The 24 chapters here include unique, cutting edge, and essential techniques for creating and optimizing modern HTML5 games. You will learn things such as using the Gamepad API, real-time networking, getting 60fps full screen HTML5 games on mobile, using languages such as Dart and TypeScript, and tips for streamlining and automating your workflow. Game development is a complex topic, but you don’t need to reinvent the wheel. HTML5 Game Development Insights will teach you how the pros do it.

The book is comprised of six main sections: Performance; Game Media: Sound and Rendering; Networking, Load Times, and Assets; Mobile Techniques and Advice; Cross-Language JavaScript; Tools and Useful Libraries. Within each of these sections, you will find tips that will help you work faster and more efficiently and achieve better results.

Presented as a series of short chapters from various professionals in the HTML5 gaming industry, all of the source code for each article is included and can be used by advanced programmers immediately.

What you’ll learn

• “From The Trenches” tips, hacks, and advice on HTML5 game development
• Best practices for building Mobile HTML5 games
• Actionable advice and code for both professional and novices

Who this book is for

HTML5 Game Development Insights is for the game developer looking to improve their development process at all stages of the game development pipeline; The nuggets of awesome in this book are applicable both to the hobbyist, trying to track down a performance bug in rendering, and the professional, who is looking to speed up loading time by re-packing their artist-generated images. With this book, it’s like looking over the shoulder of the top HTML5 game developers!

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: JavaScript Is Not the Language You Think It Is
Chapter 2: Optimal Asset Loading
Chapter 3: High-Performance JavaScript
Chapter 4: Efficient JavaScript Data Structures
Chapter 5: Faster Canvas Picking
Chapter 6: Autotiles
Chapter 7: Importing Flash Assets
Chapter 8: Applying Old-School Video Game Techniques in Modern Web Games
Chapter 9: Optimizing WebGL Usage
Chapter 10: Playing Around with the Gamepad API
Chapter 11: Introduction to WebSockets for Game Developers
Chapter 12: Real-Time Multiplayer Network Programming
Chapter 13: The State of Responsive Design
Chapter 14: Making a Multiplatform Game
Chapter 15: Developing Better Than Native Games
Chapter 16: Mobile Web Game Techniques with Canvas 2D API
Chapter 17: Faster Map Rendering
Chapter 18: HTML5 Games in C++ with Emscripten
Chapter 19: Introduction to TypeScript: Building a Rogue-like Engine
Chapter 20: Implementing a Main Loop in Dart
Chapter 21: Saving Bandwidth and Memory with WebGL and Crunch
Chapter 22: Creating a Two-Dimensional Map Editor
Chapter 23: Automating Your Workflow with Node.js and Grunt
Chapter 24: Building a Game with the Cocos2d-html5 Library