I've created an HTML5 RTS Game with Multiplayer & Map Editor

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Started by jb_ December 11, 2013 01:49 AM

18 comments, last by kiteflyingmonkey 10 years, 4 months ago

jb_

114

Author

December 11, 2013 01:49 AM

Hi,

Ive created (and am still creating) an HTML5 RTS Game, called "Littlewargame"

Littlewargame.com (you can play without registering or downloading or anything)

The game is written in Javascript / HTML5, has a medieval / fantasy setting and working multiplayer.

This is my first html5 project and the game is still beta, but its playble.

Right now this is the moment where i put it "out there" for the first time and id love to hear some feedback, to see if this is the right direction im going.

The game itself is a pretty simple but smooth-feeling multiplayer RTS. The overall theme is a little WarCraft like. I figured there are not really too much up & running good HTML5 multiplayer rts games, so i decided to start this one. Its also easy to access and easy to understand, but of course comes with the natural complexity of any RTS game.

edit: some screenshots:

jbadams

26,386

December 11, 2013 02:02 AM

Pretty cool, runs reasonably smoothly for me in Chrome on Windows 7.

Loading took a moment, if it's possible you might improve the loading screen a little by including a progress bar or percentage indicator to show that something is definitely happening.

Game-play is basic but solid -- pretty familiar from early RTS games. Nothing really special about it yet, but I think you've got a good solid foundation to potentially develop a great game if you continue to add good content and create some interesting maps to play on.

Does the multi-player work yet? I was able to enter a lobby, but there were no other players listed to try it out with -- obviously understandable.

Congratulations on getting it this far, I'd love to hear some more about the development process if you have a blog or developer journal -- or if you don't yet you could perhaps consider starting one here.

- Jason Astle-Adams

jb_

114

Author

December 11, 2013 02:22 AM

thx for your feedback.

Yes multiplayer works. ive played some matches with friends. But not tested too much, there might be bugs.

Im actually thinking about starting a blog soon.

Buster2000

4,310

December 11, 2013 08:43 AM

Awesome game. Runs fine on firefox in OSX. I didn't see any loading progress the game just started almost instantly for me. I also second what jbadams has said about a dev blog it would be great to here more technical info as you progress with development.

AlanSmithee

2,102

December 11, 2013 09:44 AM

Hi.

Played a game vs the AI and I loved it!

This game behaves very well.. bug free as far as i can tell and controls and UI are intuetive!

I just ordered the book "pro html5 games" yesterday to get started on my own html5 multiplayer rts game.. Have you read it?

Btw, I noticed that when I am tabbed away from the game, it "pauses", which is fine when facing the AI, but maybe you should move all logic to the server side of it, to allow for tabbing while playing? Html5 games lends themself to casual playing.

Anyways, great job so far!

LorenzoGatti

4,648

December 11, 2013 11:00 AM

The screenshot are very good, but I think the game would look even better with highly visible shadows: from trees (drawn below adjacent trees or above adjacent grass), from buildings (drawn on grass tiles, which can be added as a mandatory part of the building) and from rocks and bushes (self-contained in their tiles). The current shadows are missing in many cases, and far too light and soft when present.

Omae Wa Mou Shindeiru

ShadowFlar3

1,258

December 11, 2013 11:22 AM

From visual point of view (I'm not an RTS person) you could try decreasing the contrast in grass texture and making the contrast between grass and trees more visible. It's hard to see where the walkable space is clipped. And shadows would be great to bring depth into the game but I understand that could take you quite a bit of time.

Nice project and looking forward to seeing more and more htlm5 games these days :)

jb_

114

Author

December 11, 2013 11:23 AM

thx for all the feedback so far.

i have not read the book "pro html5 games".

The pausing when tabbing away is one of the things that bothers me most right now. I just cant find a solution for it. In html5 you use "requestAnimationFrame(mainLoop)", which is pretty much "call mainLoop 60 times per sec". But as soon as the tab becomes inactive, requestAnimationFrame stops calling. Browser implemented this to save energy and stuff. Its the same for any other functions that call periodically. They ale get throttled by browsers when tab is inactive. As you said this is very annoying im multiplayer games.

I will have a look into the shadows and play around a little bit, guess you may be right. Im not the best graphic artist unfortunately :(

DpakoH

1,204

December 11, 2013 11:36 AM

Superb work! :)

https://github.com/yanislavgalyov

AlanSmithee

2,102

December 11, 2013 11:46 AM

jb_ as i said, you should move the logic to the server side of things (i guess you are running a nodejs server?) so that only the rendering is done on the client (ie only rendering will be paused when tabbed out and the logic of the game will keep running since that is done on the server)

This is even more important from a multiplayer pov since anything happening on the client is open for manipulation (cheating)

I've created an HTML5 RTS Game with Multiplayer & Map Editor

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