Roguelike Development with JavaScript

Go on an adventure and build a roguelike from scratch using JavaScript. With the help of the battle-tested Phaser library, you’ll go through all the steps to build a small, fun, playable web roguelite game. The author will guide you on how to add further features to the game such as populating the game with enemies, adding treasures, and so on. You will acquire technical knowledge about procedural generation and tile-based mapping as well as learn game design skills such as what makes dungeons fun and how to evoke an emotion in your game.

Roguelikes are very popular with indie developers because of their focus on gameplay over graphics. You’ll see why they appeal to game designers on a budget and discover that they serve as a good platform to experiment with novel ideas and designs. Along the way, you’ll cover the increasingly popular roguelite genre that provides a hyper casual form of the genre that is approachable and often mobile.

After reading this book, you’ll be ready to create your own roguelikes, to dive deep into procedural generation, and also to bring some of the techniques shown here into other genres and game projects.

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN

* Make use of procedural generation for dungeons, mazes, monsters, and treasure
* Pick up skills to use Phaser to build games
* Implement turn-based mechanics
* Use tile-based graphics

WHO THIS BOOK IS FOR

Game developers who want to build something fun and who have at least some prior JavaScript programming experience. Andre Alves Garzia is a developer who loves web and game development. In recent years, he has published books about building games for Firefox OS and managed a web literacy program in vulnerable neighborhoods of Rio de Janeiro. He is a firm believer in empowerment through technological experimentation and thinks game development should be on everyone’s bucket list. He lives in London and wonders if the UK procedural generator is biased toward raining. Chapter 1: Before We Begin

CHAPTER GOAL: Introduces the reader to roguelike and the technologies used.

SUB -TOPICS

· Roguelike history

· Why develop roguelikes

· Why use web technologies

· Why Phaser

Chapter 2: Introduction to Phaser

CHAPTER GOAL: Provide a quick introduction to Phaser

SUB - TOPICS

· Displaying a scene

· Game loops

· Controlling a player character

· Tile-based maps without procedural generation

Chapter 3: Enemies and Permadeath

CHAPTER GOAL: Populating the game from the previous chapter with enemies and providing the initial game mechanics

SUB - TOPICS:

· How to build enemies

· Turn-based action

· Enemy AI

· Combat

Chapter 4: Treasure and Upgrades

CHAPTER GOAL: Adding rewards for the player and how to provide gameplay progression

SUB - TOPICS:

· Multiple levels in a dungeon

· Adding treasure

· Adding upgrades

· Adding monster loot

· Inventory screen

Chapter 5: Character Classes

CHAPTER GOAL: Create multiple character classes with different abilities and double check how that affects gameplay

SUB - TOPICS:

· Character classes

· Wizard

· Cleric

· Elf

· Necromancer

Chapter 6: Procedurally Generated Dungeons

CHAPTER GOAL: Introduces you to procedural generation. Replace the current maps with procedurally generated dungeons

SUB - TOPICS:

· Procedural generation introduction

· Generating dungeons

· Bias

· Different types of dungeons

Chapter 7: Procedurally Generated Monsters and Treasure

CHAPTER GOAL: Use procedural generation to customize the monsters and treasures according to the dungeon layout

SUB - TOPICS:

· Custom monsters

· Custom treasure

· Changing parameters depending on dungeon layout

Chapter 8: The Power of Storytelling

CHAPTER GOAL: Tie the features we currently have in the game together in a cohesive experience through the power of storytelling

SUB - TOPICS:

· Storytelling concepts

· Non-player characters

· Adding storytelling to a dungeon crawler

· Pacing

Chapter 9: Finished Game

CHAPTER GOAL: Add the final touches to have a publishable game

SUB - TOPICS:

· Intro screen

· Winning conditions

· Multiple objectives

· Publishing to the web

Chapter 10: Extra Chapter - Monetization

CHAPTER GOAL: Briefly explore potential routes for monetizing the game

SUB - TOPICS:

· Selling the game on your site

· Itch.io

· Steam

· Web monetization APIs