lifeGL

source | demo

My goals:

• Simulate Conway’s Game of Life in high detail
  • 1 pixel per cell
  • 60 FPS at full screen
• Get my hands dirty with WebGL
• Adjust GoL rules in real time
• Keep codebase simple and maintainable
  • Use Guard, Coffeescript, Sass, and Haml

Lessons learned:

• WebGL is complicated. Definitely use a library next time.
• WebGL still is not ready for primetime.
  • Not everyone has a MacBook Pro or a $300+ video card.
  • Mobile is still far from supporting WebGL.
  • My Ubuntu machine does not play well with Radeons :(

The Lone Clone

source | demo

My goals:

• Make a ‘decent’ game (i.e. one with music, beginning/middle/end, smooth gameplay)
• Participate in the Github Game Off
• Leverage a physics engine box2dweb
• Present simple rules with elaborate possibilities
• Keep codebase simple and maintainable
  • Use Guard, Coffeescript, Sass, and Haml

Lessons learned:

• RequireJS is awesome and can do just about anything you want.
  • Configuration can be frustrating, but payoff is worth it.
• Learn quickly the limitations of vendored libraries.
  • box2dweb freezes the browser when objects exceed their space.
  • Should have researched & stress-tested more libraries
• Deadlines are very good motivators.

NutBuggered

source | demo

My goals:

• Make my first fully HTML5 game
• Participate in the Pokki Challenge
• Keep codebase simple and maintainable
  • Use Guard, Coffeescript, Sass, and Haml
• TDD with Jasmine

Lessons learned:

• Don’t leave difficulty configuration to the last minute.
• I’m both a better and worse artist than I thought.
• RequireJS can unintentionally serve as a decent namespace pattern
• Accept the fact that “sucking is the first step to being sorta good at something” - Jake the Dog, Adventure Time