Build an HTML5 Game: Some Reviews

Build an HTML5 Game CoverI’ve found three decent reviews for my book “Build an HTML5 Game“, and especially pleasing is the fact that two of them seem to be from exactly the target audience i.e. developers with existing web skills who didn’t realise how easy it would be to use those skills to build a game.

First up, there’s Matthew Helmke’s review which you can read on his site:

I really enjoyed reading Build an HTML5 Game. The writing is clear and easy to follow, the examples are good, and the concepts provide a solid foundation on which you can build. This is not a comprehensive “everything you will ever need or want to know about game programming” sort of book, but rather a clean and enjoyable entry that helps you over the first hurdle of writing that first game. It then gives you ideas and tips to help you know what else is out there so you have a bit of a roadmap to continue learning as you figure out what sorts of games you want to create.

And then there’s a review on I Programmer:

The descriptions of all of the ideas are clear and easy to follow but only if you already know something about the technologies being used. This is not a book for trying to learn JavaScript or even HTML/CSS. It would make a good second level course on the techologies, but only if you were interested in building a game.

And finally this review by Sandra Henry-Stocker on IT World:

The starting point of Build an HTML5 Game: A Developer’s Guide with CSS and JavaScript is something that completely snuck up on me. In my time as a volunteer webmaster, I’d never considered taking my web skills much further than a church web site with just a tad of moving text and a slide show “walk” along the nature trail. The features of HTML5 that have made it a contender for game development were simply lost on me. With this book, the proverbial lights came on. And while I haven’t yet jumped in and tried to build my own game, I now understand what is required and might just give it a shot.

Fingers crossed that this helps the book sell, of course, but they’re great to see in their own right.

4 thoughts on “Build an HTML5 Game: Some Reviews”

  1. Hi. I’ve noticed that you have mistake on 62 page. You calculate distToCenter1 and distToCenter2 variables but below you use another ones (distToCollision1 and distToCollision2)

  2. Gah! You’re right. No matter how many times we went through it all… The full code listing is correct at least, so it’s only the explanation breakdown that has the error. Well spotted, though.

  3. Karl Bunyan, I’ve found two mistakes.

    1. On page 77 in bubble.js animatePop method you add code for removing sprite:

    setTimeout(function(){
    that.getSprite().remove();
    },200);

    but in game.js popBubbles method you already have code to also remove bubble:

    setTimeout(function() {
    bubble.getSprite().remove();
    }, delay + 200);

    So you remove same bubble twice.

    2. In board.js findOrphans method you have unused `groups` variable.

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