Foundation Game Design with HTML5 and JavaScript

Can’t wait to use this book in my classroom.

I purchased this book early this year but have not had a great deal of time to get through it due to school. Now that I've been in the middle of winter break and finally have had a chance to sit down with it... I honestly feel this has been the best purchase I have made since I've been a developer.A few reviews here have mentioned an abundance of code errors and editorial problems, or issues with their copy of the book but in my experience - this just isn't so. I am halfway through this book and have only found three very insignificant errors so far so if you somehow end up with a bad copy, just contact the publisher or return it for another copy... Keep in mind is is also available through Safari for free if your a student, or you may purchase the eBook edition through Apress.I've found the Author to explain things very well, the projects throughout the book are incremented in difficulty just perfectly and he keeps things very entertaining. If your not a gamer you may not fully appreciate this book, but then again what are you doing trying to program games then? While you may not end up making the next big console FPS, you will get a handle on basic programming concepts and feel a lot more confident using JavaScript.I think it is important to understand this book is kind of focused on a niche market, this isn't designed to make you great with graphics, web development, or programming in general. It is purely focused upon using JavaScript to build games... but if you know a thing or two about game development, the logic that is used is fairly difficult and can be applied in other areas once you get a handle on things. An example from the book regarding programming an interactive fiction game explains later that the logic that was used to create items and interact with them is exactly the same type of logic used in databases... so even non-gamers may get something out of this.I highly recommend this if your looking to understand the logic behind games, if you really want to get involved with the advancement of web based gaming, or are just new to game development and have a web developer background. While this is a great entry level book to this subject, I suggest not picking it up until you at least have some basic programming skills... even Code Academy tutorials should be enough to get prepared for this.

I'm currently teaching a new JavaScript course to my middle-schoolers this year and I have been looking for resources related to games that I can work with. Most online sources are aimed at experienced programmers. I don't have a background in computer science and much of my learning has been through tutorials, trial and error, and discussing code with my husband, who is an expert. This was the first resource that really helped lay out a structure for introduction to game design.The format of the book is fantastic. Each new concept is embedded with learning to create a type of game. Each lesson builds upon the previous strategies, one after another. And the author walks you through all the code, allowing you to see it all at once and how it connects, as well as breaking it down. I had first read this through a subscription service and loved it so much I purchased a hard copy and the follow-up book. It is a little advanced for my students, but this provided me with the foundation I need to scale it down further for them. Although, I do have a couple of students who may already have enough skill to try.I highly recommend this book to those who want a structured format to follow, who want to get right in to making some basic games, and who want to learn some concepts for maintaining readable code. I would recommend some experience with JavaScript or programming in general because the quick tutorial in the beginning is a lot to take in, but even some minor skill will make the rest more understandable. Or if you just have a thirst for it, the explanations cover everything. You may have to refer back to past lessons if you forget certain concepts. But that's what books are for. After reading a dozen other references, this one really hit home.

Unfortunately, I've been stuck on the Forest of Lyrica for DAYS and have no idea what I'm supposed to type next. The problem is the order. I think it might be easier to follow in the actual paper book because I find myself flipping back and forth between my file, the source files, the final source file, and the the cloud reader for HOURS.The order in the book is: Post a large section of code at once, explain in more detail than needed, and then post the snippets AGAIN. I don't know if parts of the code are posted more than two times at some points because it's THAT confusing to follow. It would be easier it the book said, type these few code snippets NOW and test your file. Explain briefly. Repeat. Smaller games would help, too -- smaller scope. It also takes too long to introduce the 'on mouse click' event. I don't think I've ever typed anything in an online game besides my name.It's not easy to tell what has happened between source file 1 and source file 2, etc, because the new code for source file 2 is mixed in -- not added to the top nor the bottom. So, you have to go through the whole thing line by line to try and find what's been added.There is inconsistent formatting in the ebook. For example, HTML source files are (supposed to be?) in bold. But, to be really specific, "lyrica3.html" isn't / wasn't, so I ended up flipping between "lyrica2.html" and "lyrica4.html" files, looking for the bolded text for "lyrica3.html", and wondering why I couldn't fid it. You can use the search function (in the e-book), but it's stuff like that which throws me off, especially when you're tying to type code exactly as it's presented.I'm not new to software development and have worked with various (including proprietary) scripts before, but I AM getting older and honestly, it IS more difficult to follow along for me now than it used to be. That being said, I feel like I shouldn't have to come up with a strategy to read and type the exact same text from the book. So, I'll have to be moving on to something else -- maybe a kids' book or something until I'm more familiar with javascript. I rented this ebook until December, so I may try to come back to it or just get the paperback (used). I would still consider Spuy's other advanced books after I've completed more projects.

I don't like buying Kindle versions of text books, particularly programming books, as it's generally easier to see code laid out in full, and be able to flip backwards and forwards. Having said that, I decided to buy this one on Kindle for two reasons - one, it was a bargain price, and two, I'd read reviews by others about the poor printing of the hard copy version.Admittedly I've only read about 15% of the Kindle version so far, but I have only as yet noticed a couple of very minor typos - very different from the paperback reviews. The content is excellent, straight to the point and very clear in my opinion. The author often lists a piece of code in full, gives an overview, then breaks it down line by line to explain it (repeating each line of code). This works extremely well for the Kindle, as there is only so much you can see on a Kindle page, and you are not forced to click back several pages to compare the line of code he's talking about with his explanation.I would normally have waited longer to review a book, but I wanted to let people know that (at least the first 15% of) the KIndle version is free of the hundreds of errors reported for the print version. (And to help correct the star rating based on content.)

Fantastic book, anyone wanting to learn JavaScript this must be one of the first books you pick up. It’s so simple to read and has helped me massively in my understanding of the language.

As other reviews have pointed out this book has a huge number of printing errors. Pretty much every subtitle is spaced incorrectly and words are merged together. How this has managed to get released to the public is beyond me. The content of the book is irrelevant if the person who has purchased it must spend significant amounts of time translating the text.

I would have given this book a lot more stars as it is well written and very informative. However there are no examples of a Start Screen, Menu system or even a start button. In one of the examples the timer for the game Time Bomb Panic starts immediately the browser opens with no start button or menu. This I feel is a oversight on the author's part as this is quite an important part to building a game.

Just a quick note to say that my version is free from typographical errors. It provides an excellent introduction to html5 game programming, with a strong emphasis on teaching the reader the basics involved. The complexity of the more difficult topics is broken down so that a clear understanding is provided. Highly recommended.