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Create a real 2D game from start to finish with ImpactJS, the JavaScript game framework that works with the HTML5's Canvas element. Making video games is hard work that requires technical skills, a lot of planning, and—most critically—a commitment to completing the project. With this hands-on guide, you’ll learn how to use Impact with other technologies step-by-step.
You’ll pick up important tips about game design, and discover how to publish Impact games to the Web, desktop, and mobile—including a method to package your game as a native iOS app. Packed with screen shots and sample code, this book is ideal for game developers of all levels.
Set up your development environment and discover Impact’s advantages
Build a complete game with core logic, collision detection, and player and monster behavior
Learn why a game design document is critical before you start building
Display and animate game artwork with sprite sheets
Add sound effects, background music, and text
Create screens to display stats and in-game status
Prepare to publish by baking your game files into a single file
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For more than 13 years, Jesse Freeman has been on the cutting edge of interactive development with a focus on the Web and mobile platforms. As an expert in his field, Jesse has worked for VW, Tommy Hilfiger, Heavy, MLB, the New York Jets, HBO, and many more. Jesse was a traditional artist for most of his life until making the transition into interactive art, and he has never looked back.
Jesse is a Technology Evangelist at Microsoft focusing on Windows 8 and Gaming. He is an active leader in New York's developer community. He is also active in the online community as a writer for several development sites including Adobe Developer Connection, O'Reilly Media, Inc., and Activetuts+. He can be found on twitter at @jessefreeman. Jesse also speaks at conferences and does workshops, which you can find schedules for on his website at http://jessefreeman.com.
This may well be a very well written and useful book for those interested in developing using the, commercial, Impact framework. However the title is extremely misleading, it is not a general introduction to HTML5 Game Development and even the subtitle ('Developing Games With Impact') is only particularly meaningful if you know that Impact is a JavaScript framework.
There may well be a lot of useful information for Impact developers here but I think that the title has been chosen to try and broaden the books appeal and to sell to those, like me, who were daft enough not to do enough research.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:4.3 out of 5 stars 15 reviews
21 of 22 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 starsIf you're curious about working with the Impact engine, this book's for you!6 Mar 2012
By Jason A. Salas - Published on Amazon.com
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
The title leaves out the fact that the book bases its development solely on the Impact game engine (...), which isn't open source and costs $99, and requires a LAMP environment to run/test projects locally, so it's not as easy as using the web stack out-of-box. So that needs to be stated upfront.
Aside from that, it features really cool chapters on managing players, maps, levels, audio, and packaging/publishing your game as an iOS application. The book's got a great introductory chapter on using Photoshop scripts to manage sprite sheets (which I can tell you from personal experience are a real pain to assemble manually), and a cool discussion of how easy it is to work with sound effects and background music. It also warns about how difficult using text and screen-swapping can be in Impact, and how a native HTML and JavaScript solution might be better for managing system fonts and custom typefaces.
It's a great quick read and a bargain if you're curious about the benefits of using Impact for your projects. Aside from the slight misdirection the book's title implies, it's wonderful writing and worth the money.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 starsExcellent for devs who want to learn how to make HTML5 games16 Mar 2012
By Elbert - Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
The book is really good at getting game developers up and running with HTML5 and ImpactJS. I would say it is a intro to HTML5 game development to existing game developers. However anyone new to game programming might be a little bit daunted by the topics in the book. It will not teach you the basics of javascript so having some understanding of it and the syntax will come in handy, not a requirement but it will make your life easier. Anyone though with experience with a c based programming language won't have much trouble.
This book is perfect for me since I am a c# xna game developer trying to transition to html5, but it might not be as easy to someone else starting out.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 starsGood For Beginners11 Mar 2012
By Elfa - Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This is a great book for people new to Impact JS, but it doesn't get much past the beginning.
I was really hoping for a variety of enemy AI codes. I was disappointed to find that the only example offered is the one that comes with the Impact JS jump and run demo: the Spike creature. I did learn how to modify a kill call, which was nice.
