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TIGSource ForumsPlayerGeneraltop-down game in javascript?
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Neucifer
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« on: July 30, 2018, 08:25:40 AM »

hey all, I'm a junior web dev by trade but really interested in starting a game project.

I'd like to do a top-down game, something like a roguelike or zeldalike, and I was wondering if a language like javascript would be a good fit or handicap, and also what resources I could use to get started.

thanks so much for any help. Smiley
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MSThalamus
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« Reply #1 on: July 30, 2018, 08:49:09 AM »

Hey there! What language you use will depend to a large extent on the engine you choose. Unity, for example, supports javascript and C# natively. Personally, I would choose C# over javascript, but I understand that people have their preferences and working within what you already know has its benefits. But to answer your question more directly, yes, javascript can be a viable option if your game engine natively supports it.
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Neucifer
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« Reply #2 on: July 30, 2018, 09:13:32 AM »

Hey there! What language you use will depend to a large extent on the engine you choose. Unity, for example, supports javascript and C# natively. Personally, I would choose C# over javascript, but I understand that people have their preferences and working within what you already know has its benefits. But to answer your question more directly, yes, javascript can be a viable option if your game engine natively supports it.

with a little digging, it seems unity users are discouraged from using js in lieu of c# -- their js-like unityscript is being removed.

but! I still want to try and get something started using javascript as the foundation, as it's a language I work with everyday. are there any options for frameworks, engines, etc that aren't unity?

(one day, of course, I'd love to learn c# for software development, but I'm just not there yet)
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Tumetsu
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« Reply #3 on: July 30, 2018, 10:14:21 AM »

For Javascript development Phaser seems like the best library at the moment. Keep in mind though that when working with JS you have to setup your tools like Webpack etc. yourself. Many other engines support HTML5 export (Unity, Godot etc.) but leverage other languages for scripting.

As for Unity, avoid UnityScript and use C#. Unityscript afaik is quite far from modern javascript (ecmascript standards) so you probably won't get much benefit of it anyway.

Finally, I'd advice to not really worry too much about the language. It is good practice for you to learn a new language if you only know some JS atm.
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Karlipoppins
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« Reply #4 on: August 01, 2019, 08:08:36 PM »

If you are a web dev, then JavaScript is probably the language in which you're most comfortable with as of now. This alone makes it the best tool for you to work with to start making games.

There are A LOT of JS game engines, the most popular these days being PhaserJS (https://phaser.io/), a free/open source game engine. Unfortunately, the documentation is a bit all over the place these days as they are moving from v2 to v3, but it's still in a decent spot... Phaser is pretty easy to use and has a solid community / list of examples / tutorials to get started.

If I were you, I would go with Phaser and start with a very small scope (remake of pong or arkanoid), then gradually move towards more complex items where you add camera scrolling, physics, etc. to do your top-down game.
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ProgramGamer
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« Reply #5 on: August 02, 2019, 05:55:38 AM »

Hi!

If you're just getting started and want to make simple games for fun, then my personal recommendation is to get Game Maker Studio 2 and follow a few tutorials. The full version is paid, but the free version doesn't have a time limit and only removes some advanced features as well as the ability to publish game executables. The advantage of GMS2 over JavaScript, in my opinion, is that almost all the tools you need to make games are integrated, meaning you won't have to depend on very many external tools, other than music and sfx creation ones.

Don't worry too much about choosing the correct tool right away since the purpose of the first few games you'll make will be to teach you about game programming. Once you feel more confident about making your own games, then it'll probably be time to switch to something more robust. But in the meantime, just focus on learning stuff!

Hope this helps!
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fluffrabbit
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« Reply #6 on: August 02, 2019, 08:05:55 AM »

You can use babby's first game engine, or you can use the canvas API and make an engine yourself, learning lots of helpful things in the process.
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