8 replies to this topic

[jp.fernandz]

Hello, I'm trying to develop a web game, for now I'm studying a javascript's framework, LimeJs, to build a kind of engine for my game.
Well, the first thing that I want do develop for the game is the battle. I want a kind of battle like Minetrooper's battle(a browser game, please see the battle to understand what I'm trying to make ).

They made that game using Haxe, anyone knows if is it a good language to use?


Please give me some tips about tools, language, framework that can help me.

thanks

[greenvertex]

I wouldn't worry too much about whether or not Haxe is a "good" language or not. All languages are good at their particular domain of problems, those domains may not necessarily match up with what you're trying to do every time, but that doesn't make them "bad".

The better question is: is Haxe a good language for your particular problem? Do you necessarily care if your code can be compiled to other platforms or do you just want to do your web game? Do you want to learn Haxe or do you prefer JavaScript?

The best advice I can give: don't worry about what everyone else is doing. Find the language you want to use and use it. It may not even be the best language for the particular problem you're trying to solve but that's OK if your main concern is learning something new. In fact, that might actually be more valuable in the end as things that break tend to teach you far more than things that don't.

[Serapth]

To help with your research, check out this list. It's a pretty comprehensive list of game development libraries for HTML5 development.


To actually answer your question; um, I am not really familiar with HaXe from a users perspective. That said, HaXe is not HTML5, it cross compiles to HTML5, rather like PlayN does from Java to JavaScript. So, if you are doing this as an exercise to learn web game development, I would recommend a different platform.

If you are simply hoping to target HTML, by all means, give HaXe a shot. The one major problem I see though, it's a proprietary language (like Flash's Actionscript ), with a much smaller community. As a transferable skill... it will be rather... minimal.

Edited by Serapth, 13 August 2012 - 01:29 PM.

[93i]

To help with your research, check out this list. It's a pretty comprehensive list of game development libraries for HTML5 development.

shameless plug: or you could try mine: http://gamvas.com (which is not on this list :-/ ) , which was born out of more then 21 years of game development experience, but its quit at the beginning. Just in case you are missing something, do not hesitate to contact me

Edited by 93i, 13 August 2012 - 01:43 PM.

[jp.fernandz]

I see that Haxe isn't the best for me, I prefer use Javascript.

I'm seeing the list, very good thanks, I'll try to look a little bit of each library, including gamvas!

Well, and about the battle's style of Minitroopers, does somebody know any tip to make it? I already have some ideias to implement, but I don't know if there is a better way to follow.

[greenvertex]

I didn't play much of it (a couple battles just to get the gist). What are your ideas? I think it'd be more useful to start there and see what suggestions come from that rather than you simply being told how others might implement it. That being said here's a couple things to help get you started:

• Look into Priority Queues. They might be good at one very particular thing about these battles. What might that be?
• How do you plan on doing the map?
• What other systems do you want to have in place? How do they work? Are there trooper stats? What do they do?
• If you're using JavaScript: what does your code architecture look like? What objects are involved? How do they interact?

Sorry if that looks like a test, just trying to point out some of the things you'll want to consider before diving into code.

[TopHattedCoder]

it's a proprietary language

Nope, it's open source.

HaXe is not HTML5, it cross compiles to HTML5

Actually, Haxe compiles to clean and easy-to-use Javascript complete with a source map. It is able to manipulate the DOM, mess with WebGL etc, but with much cleaner code and many more features.

As a transferable skill... it will be rather... minimal.

Actually, because of Haxe's platform-agnostic approach, it can be applied to game developing, file manipulation, command-line tools, GUIs, web servers, encryption, encoding/decoding tools and much more!
It seems to me you didn't even check it's front page! Have a mess around here if you want to see what Haxe is capable of.

Edited by TopHattedCoder, 09 September 2012 - 06:16 PM.

[Bacterius]

Actually, because of Haxe's platform-agnostic approach, it can be applied to game developing, file manipulation, command-line tools, GUIs, web servers, encryption, encoding/decoding tools and much more!

I don't see your point, any programming language is platform-agnostic by definition - though code (including standard libraries, although those are usually.. well.. standard) that calls specific system API's may not be. And while perfect cross-platform support sounds nice, sometimes it isn't a requirement (while often desirable).

Found these in some of the code snippet samples, "Neko target only", "#if flash", so much for being platform-agnostic

To be fair the language syntax looks a lot like Java, too, which I guess is a good thing but ultimately makes it yet another class-based language, and I think we have enough of those around already; what we need is a paradigm shift!

EDIT: just so there's no confusion, I'm not "hating on Haxe" or anything, just disagreeing with your statement and making some quick personal observations.

Edited by Bacterius, 09 September 2012 - 06:43 PM.

[Serapth]

it's a proprietary language

Nope, it's open source.

HaXe is not HTML5, it cross compiles to HTML5

Actually, Haxe compiles to clean and easy-to-use Javascript complete with a source map. It is able to manipulate the DOM, mess with WebGL etc, but with much cleaner code and many more features.

As a transferable skill... it will be rather... minimal.

Actually, because of Haxe's platform-agnostic approach, it can be applied to game developing, file manipulation, command-line tools, GUIs, web servers, encryption, encoding/decoding tools and much more!
It seems to me you didn't even check it's front page! Have a mess around here if you want to see what Haxe is capable of.

Proprietary is perhaps the wrong word, non-standardized or non-industry I suppose might be more correct. So far as a transferable skill, or something to put on your CV, Haxe is nowhere near as recognizable or value as JavaScript/HTML5. This may not be an important determining factor for you, but it could be for many people.

Otherwise I am with Bacterius in not seeing your point.