Snake Game for the Web (Holiday Sale: Book + Code)
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Snake Game for the Web

Journey into Nodejs, HTML5, CSS3, MySQL & Docker

About the Book

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!

  • Share this book

  • Categories

    • DIY
    • Software
    • Node.js
    • Computers and Programming
    • Game Development

About the Authors

Jaakko Vanhala
Jaakko Vanhala

A software developer from Finland. After developing embedded systems for many years, he is now interested in web applications development.

Anssi Gröhn
Anssi Gröhn

Anssi Gröhn is a Lecturer of Game Programming in Karelia University of Applied Sciences, Finland. He is a professional in online pedagogy. He has several years of experience in teaching state-of-the-art online courses related to game programming and producing high quality material to support them. He is a former software developer, with eye to real-time-rendering, computer graphics in general, object-oriented programming and software architecture.

You can reach him by email: nodebooks@gmail.com

Table of Contents

  • Foreword
  • The Big Picture
    • Game description
    • System architecture
    • Setting up the development environment
    • Hack it like a Penguin
  • Implementing the Alphaworm
    • Where to start…
    • …and what to do?
  • Iteration One - Get Online
    • Client
    • Server
    • Iteration One Summary
  • Iteration Two - The Players
    • Client
    • Server
    • Iteration Two summary
  • Iteration Three - Going Social
    • Client
    • Server
    • Iteration Three Summary
  • Iteration Four - The Game of Worms
    • Client
    • Iteration Four summary
  • Iteration Five - The Educational Flavour
    • Server
    • Client
    • Iteration Five Summary
  • Iteration Six - Event Evolution, Revolution
    • Which events take place?
    • Registration events
    • Login events
    • Chat events
    • Player list events
    • Challenge events
    • Game start, update and end events
    • Word completion and collecting alphabets
    • Iteration Six Summary
  • Iteration Seven - Back To Basics
    • Login window
    • Visible elements after login
    • Player information
    • Alphaworm logo placeholder
    • In-game view
    • Chat window
    • Challenge window
    • Iteration Seven summary
  • Iteration Eight - The Look And Feel
    • Game over message
    • Hiding game board
    • Iteration Eight summary
  • Iteration Nine - It’s All About The Worm
    • Create a worms graphics tileset
    • Splitting sprites
    • Game area
    • Worm graphics
    • Iteration Nine summary
  • Iteration Ten - Taking One For The Theme
    • Space, the final frontier
    • It’s full of stars!
    • A worm shall cometh
    • Stuff of legends
    • Fonts have many faces
    • When it clicks
    • Keep borders secure!
    • Let’s leave a mark!
    • Iteration Ten summary
  • Iteration Eleven - Ease Me, Please Me
    • Word completion effect
    • Letter collection effects
    • Appearances is everything
    • It’s bouncing in!
    • Effects for logging in and out
    • Iteration Eleven summary
  • Iteration Twelve - Adding Some Juiciness
    • Particle library
    • Letter collection effect
    • Breaking game board
    • Iteration Twelve summary
  • Iteration Thirteen - Let The Beat Go On!
    • Audio theming
    • Playing sounds and music
    • Iteration Thirteen summary
  • Iteration Fourteen - It Ain’t What You Do, It’s How You Do
    • Construction of game area
    • The art of insulting
    • Who wants a trophy?
    • Score! Count me in!
    • Set your course by the stars
    • Looking good in first contact
    • Pulling a rank
    • Iteration Fourteen summary
  • Conclusion
    • The Good, the Bad, the Ugly
    • TODOs
    • Let’s Face It - We Have Issues
    • What next?
  • Playing with the Docker containers
    • Dockerfile
    • Docker Compose
    • Conclusion

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