Learning HTML5 Game Programming: A Hands-on Guide to Building Online Games Using Canvas, SVG, and WebGL

HTML5 will transform web and mobile gaming. As new browsers rapidly adopt it, HTML5 will do everything “legacy” technologies such as Flash and Silverlight have done—and much more. In Learning HTML5 Game Programming, pioneering developer James L. Williams gives you all the knowledge, code, and insights you’ll need to get started fast!

Williams combines detailed explanations of HTML5’s key innovations with examples, including two case study applications that address the entire development process. He guides you through setting up a state-of-the-art HTML5 development environment; making the most of HTML5’s canvas tag, SVG vector graphics, and WebGL 3D; and targeting diverse mobile and social platforms. It’s all here: from the essentials of online game design to the nitty-gritty details of performance optimization.

About the Website

All code samples and answers to chapter exercises are available for download at www.informit.com/title/9780321767363 and on Github at https://github.com/jwill/html5-game-book.

Coverage includes

· Understanding the HTML5 innovations that make it possible to create amazingly rich games

· Setting up a state-of-the-art open source HTML5 game development environment

· Using JavaScript to drive sophisticated interactions between users and games

· Building basic games fast, with the prototype-based Simple Game Framework (SGF)

· Generating movement and gameplay with the canvas tag and surface

· Creating games with SVG vector graphics using the RaphaëlJS Javascript library

· Using Three.js to build powerful WebGL 3D games with far less complexity

· Developing games without JavaScript, using Google Web Toolkit (GWT) or CoffeeScript

· Building a complete multiplayer game server using Node.js and WebSockets

· Planning and choosing tools for mobile game development with HTML5

· Optimizing game performance with offline cache, minification, and other techniques

Learning HTML5 Game Programming is the fastest route to success with HTML5 game development—whether you’re a long-time game developer or a web/mobile programmer building games for the first time.