ZippoLag

Seems that the url in the first post was missing the #gid=0 on the end, which led to the messed-up survey, so I changed it to match the link text, which led to the working survey.

 

Well, that would've saved me a lot of trouble! '^^
I'll keep that in mind next time I use google's forms, althought the lack of validation for text fields makes me want to try another service..

Hmm...

A dark game, not gritty, not neccesariously in the horror genra, but just offputting, about a man who keeps struggling against a very terrible luck, carring his zippo lighter which, for some reason, makes a flame appear wherever it was 5 seconds ago rather than were it is when it is lit.

 

LOL 

Indeed, I'm at a complete loss as to why that happened.. Thankfully I had a spare copy of the form so I didn't have to re-do it from scratch, I've updated the link to a working one in the first post.

 

Four people attempted to fill it in the broken state, sorry to you and please do it again if it's not a problem! '^^

Hi and thanks for the replies!

 

I actually read them right when you posted them all, but didn't have the time to reply at the moment.

 

Just to keep you guys posted (and to inform anyone who is in my same path) I've found those JS videos quite interesting, but the bulk of my learning's now been done in codecademy.com just like the MDN site suggests (https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/learn/javascript).

 

I've also been lurking around reading about SVG, since it seems like a nice technology to implement other game idea I have (starting with an Asteroids clone). Sadly I've found none really good sources for this, the MDN site has some tutorials but they are incomplete..

 

I'm still going with the plugin-less approach!

 

PS: to anyone struggling and hesistating to learn JS thinking "its a really horrible language! why do we even have to use this?" I highly reccomend watching Douglas Crockford's "JavaScript: the good parts" lectures on youtube, they really changed my perspective regarding this language.

First off, thanks to you both for the quick replies!

Second, indeed, I'm not trying to re-invent the wheel, but merely to implement already proven successfull patterns by myself while also using what I already know. But I have no clue how to implement the game loop in web technologies D:

As I said, I know only very little about web coding, so I'm applying a learning strategy I've found to be effective in the past: implementing a small project as means of gaining extra motivation to learn a new language. That's one of the two reasons I want to stay as away as I can from plugins, frameworks, SDKs and libraries unless they are the current de facto standard and there's no easy way to do whatever I'd want to without them, specially since the technologies are still so young and changing. Also I don't have a budget, this'll be strictly a hobbyst/educational project for myself.

One extra concern I have, of course, is what I should develop the server side mechanics with. Since I could host anything on my PC, but I don't want to leave it running and with open ports just like that all the time, but if I actually end up coding something "pretty" I'd like to leave it playable on the web. That's an extra reason why I'm not using C#/ASP.Net: I know of NO free hosting sites for such technologies, while I've been using some (pretty) decent hosts for PHP and I know of a few really cheap local companies to host PHP sites, altought I only know very little PHP and I don't know if I would be better off learning some other language for (multiplayer/interactive) server side.

A rough schedule for the weeks to come sound like this in my head:

1. Plan thru and define what technology to use.
2. Learn the basics!
3. Experiment!
4. If failure, go back to step 1.
5. Implement simplest version of the game mechanics.
6. Implement "full" single player mechanics, with dumbest/simplest of AI.
7. Add multiplayer capabilities. (this is the point I'd like to arrive at mid January 2013)
8. Polish game mechanics!
9. Implement real AI. (probably not gonna happen until June 2013)
10. See what lies beyond! (probably fiddling with mobile and geolocation)

The mechanics for the game would be fairly simple, as I said, there's no point in describing them beyond the concept of a tile-based, turn-based, single-unit-under-your-command "combat/strategy" game.

If your goal is to create a game than I strongly advise not to try to reinvent the wheel and to use some existing framework/library/tool as the basis for your game. If you want to start "from scratch" then something like: http://rhuno.com/fla...and-javascript/ may be a good starting point.

Good luck.

I'll check that out, and thanks!

Here are some videos that are a good crash course in JavaScript: http://www.newthinkt...ing/javascript/
He also has some of HTML/CSS as well.

Thanks! I'll watch it as soon as I can clear up half an hour in my schedule


PS: I've been checking out the following sites, also, just in case someone ever finds this thread by searching ;)
http://www.html5gamedevs.com/ (seems to be dead at the moment)
http://www.photonsto...g-money-from-it
http://www.html5gamedevelopment.org