I wanted to access the current build number for analytics, but there seemed to be no easy way to get at the info that Cordova puts into the plist file (Xcode) and AndroidManifest.xml (Android Studio). My solution is to copy those to files into the www folder at build time and then load them with …
I’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 …
My Build An HTML5 Game book is finally on the way, and the website to go with it is live too. As well as info about the book it serves three main purposes: A place to see and play the Bubble Shooter game developed in the book Assets such as images and sounds to make …
My book Build an HTML5 Game in going to be out in a couple of months, and until around 4pm on January 31st 2015 you can get 40% off with the discount code BRIGHTANDEARLY if you buy it here: http://www.nostarch.com/html5game The discount applies to ebooks or the physical copy too, although it’s only if you’re …
My new venture, Wedu Games, is up and running. Or at least the site is as there are no games finished yet. There are a few things in development, though, including an interactive storytelling table app (that isn’t a game at all) and a stud/hold-em poker hybrid to launch on mobile and Facebook together. Everything’s …
Ever since programming BASIC on the Spectrum I’d wondered why it was possible to seed a “random” number generator. But then I found I wanted to do something that would produce repeatable results, but look like a random sequence. Strangely, although JavaScript alongs you to specify a seed for Math.random() the numbers that follow aren’t …
I wanted to have a function called after data was returned to the page from a .Net AJAX call. (The idea was to fade out when you pressed “submit” and then redraw when data came back.) It turns out there are handy handlers already there to, erm, handle this: Sys.WebForms.PageRequestManager.getInstance() .add_beginRequest(StartRequestHandler); Sys.WebForms.PageRequestManager.getInstance() .add_endRequest(EndRequestHandler); Those little …
Solutions to the problem of PNG alpha transparency in IE6 have been around for a while, as exemplified by this post on Cross-Browser Variable Opacity with PNG on A List Apart. This solution uses script to write in the correct html, or to pass variables to a script and set a property of an object. …
I first published a JavaScript haiku called ‘Fear of tomorrow’ here. Well, I’ve written some more. Apparently these are more likely to be classed as Senryuu, but what do I know. Anyway, here are some others that I’ve written, with the code first and the way it’s supposed to be read following it, and then …
Here’s a handy(?) script to delete pieces of any page you’re on when you click on them: javascript:document.onclick=new Function(‘e’,’document.all?src=event.srcElement:src=e.target;src.parentNode.removeChild(src);return false’);void(0); Go to any page on the web, paste it into the address bar of your browser and then start clicking around. It works okay in IE6 and Firefox – I haven’t tried it in anything …