Building a Windows Store Game Using HTML and JavaScript available from Lynda.com

Via DaveDev.net…

 

 

Building a Windows Store Game Using HTML and JavaScript

I am proud to announce my first course with Lynda.com is now available for viewing!  The course runs a little over two hours in length, includes complete source code, and step-by-step labs for each chapter.  I’ve never been a fan of having to spend hours going through an SDK and the intent of this course is to learn from example.  I move you from having no tools installed on your machine to a complete game you can then download and modify as you wish.  In fact, I published the game created in the course to the Windows Store recently so if you have a Windows 8 machine be sure to check it out.

Via Lynda.com course summary…

Write your first Windows Store app with HTML5, JavaScript, and CSS. In this course, author David Isbitski shows how to use these technologies to build a game engine that runs on Microsoft devices and desktops. First, learn about the Microsoft web stack and the capabilities offered in HTML5—the foundation of your app. The course then covers each step of the build in detail, from designing the game interface and setting up a game loop to adding support for multiple screen sizes and touch interaction, incorporating music and sound effects, and accessing data from the camera and accelerometer. Along the way, discover how to personalize the look of your game with CSS3.

Topics include:

• Setting up your Visual Studio 2012 development environment

  Using JavaScript with WinJS

  Laying out the interface with Canvas

  Creating a game loop

  Adding a menu

  Supporting snapped, filled, and full-screen modes

  Working with the Touch API

  Playing music

  Creating a scoring and leveling system

  Working with the Application Bar

  Accessing the camera and accelerometer

  Debugging and deploying your application

Running on an ecosystem of Windows devices

Part of what I tackle in the course is getting the game to run across all of the various Windows 8 devices consumers can now buy.  Multi-Touch, Mouse, Pen, tablet sizes screens, laptop screens all the way up to 80” Multi-Touch screens the game will run on all of them.  It was fairly simple to code the game in a way where it scales up or down no reworking needed for each device.  All Windows apps automatically scale up based on a formula of your current screen size and resolution.  You can include multiple sources for your images that are rendered at different resolutions.  This includes not only in game graphics but also the images used on the Windows Store, the Live Tile as well as the icons for search or sharing.

The result is a game that can run on older desktop hardware with a keyboard and mouse.  Here is a photo of my five year old playing Balloons on my older Vista era desktop with a keyboard and mouse.  Yes my office is that messy but isn’t a mess a sign of a great thinker? <smile>

Not to be outdone by her sistser my eight year old decided she wanted to check it out on our Surface.  I get a kick out of her using all ten fingers when I tell her it supports multitouch.

 

 

Or, it can be run on an 80” Multi-Touch Windows 8 Screen!  I had fun watching my friend Dani try and pop the balloons quick enough.

If you have a Windows 8 device you can download the app for free from the Windows Store here.

 

If you are not currently a Lynda.com subscriber they also offer a 7 Day trial to the entire library here.  I hope you enjoy the course as much as I did creating it!

 

-Dave