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Have you ever wondered what would it be like to be a game developer. We have, and we actually wrote a book how to get started.

What you'll learn

A compact, yet informative book seemed to be a good alternative to share the experience and the experiments we have writing games in JavaScript. By reading this book, you learn how to

set up a virtualized Ubuntu Linux development environment with all the necessary tools,
do iterative and incremental software development,
sketch and design your software using UML,
create a browser UI for a game,
style your UI and generate fancy effects,
utilise Docker for easy deployments.

The system setup is explained in the first few chapters - which you may skip, if you are already familiar with node.js development. The game architecture is sketched at high level, giving you a good overview what we are up to, as well as some tips for designing games and software architectures. The implementation is done in small steps, iterations, which are explained in detail. This book is actually \"quite an authentic handwriting\" how we designed and implemented our game.

There are many comments and \"TODOs\", e.g. alternative ways of implementations or minor to major tasks for you to implement. We would be proud if we are able to make you think and question our way of creating our game. Feel free to share your thoughts about this book via email nodebooks@gmail.com and you may have your ideas added to the last chapter: \"The Good, The Bad, The Ugly\".

And stay tuned for more books about game programming!

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Kick off your book project, get started with GhostAI, get better at marketing, or spend the day doing all three! Free live workshops on Zoom. Saturday, June 27, 2026.

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