Firefox OS Book and What's Next (Game Programming)

I've mentioned this before, but I've been thinking about publishing a book on Amazon covering beginning Firefox OS game programming. As you might guess, the book will consist of roughly 30 blog posts. I'll revise the posts and I'll let you know how I went about publishing a book on Amazon. In keeping with the tone of this blog, my focus will be for people who want to program games but who are not experts and who want to try making things with HTML5 on Firefox OS.

I've already edited about 15 posts/chapters and I expect to edit the rest and publish in about two weeks. Revising for a book takes extra time so I'm planning on cutting back on my posts and catch up on some game reviews.

Here's my tentative list of chapters:

1 -  Introduction - Hello World!
2 -  Pushing your Game to a Device
3 -  Measuring Screen Size from the Inside
4 -  Bouncing a Ball in CSS
5 -  Drawing with Canvas - Part 1
6 -  Drawing with Canvas - Part 2
7 -  Drawing with Canvas - Part 3
8 -  Bouncing SVG - Part 1
9 -  Bouncing SVG - Part 2
10 - Bouncing SVG - Part 3
11 - Touch and more SVG
12 - Screen Orientation
13 - CSS Shell
14 - CSS Collisions
15 - Canvas Collisions in Color
16 - SVG Collisions
17 - CSS, Canvas, SVG Compared
18 - HTML5 Audio - Part 1
19 - HTML5 Audio - Part 2
20 - HTML5 Audio - Part 3
21 - HTML5 Audio - Part 4
22 - HTML5 Audio - Part 5
23 - Vibration
24 - Device Orientation
25 - Local Storage
26 - Asynchronous Storage
27 - IndexedDB Storage
28 - Simple Complete Game - PaddleFox!
29 - Submitting a Game to the Marketplace
30 - Firefox OS Hardware
31 - Resources for Going Further

The code will be retested and will be reformatted so that it fits on Amazon devices (with short line lengths). I'm excited to publish this book and I'm hoping that it will help gain a wider audience for people who want to make games but are intimidated by the more complicated tools of Windows, Android, and Apple development.

What's Next?

After I get the book out, I'm back to writing about game programming. Here are my feelings at the moment:

I've been toying with the idea of writing a space shooter game but also I am seriously drawn to writing an RPG. I've always loved RPG computer games and I've always wanted to write one, but never got around to it. I think this will be what will be next.

I'm going to study Ultima II (my all-time favorite) and also some Gameboy RPG titles like Dragon Warrior, Final Fantasy Legends and Adventure, Ultima Runes of Virtue, Pokemon, and Azure Dreams. These simple tile-based games might just fit on a Firefox OS phone. As with earlier posts, I'll examine what works with CSS, Canvas, and SVG. I won't make a full-blown RPG, but I imagine that there will be a long series of posts. And I'm likely to go with some retro art to go with it.

I'll also keep reviewing games!

So definitely stay tuned, but not iTuned!

Sanctuary RPG (Game Review)

The purpose of this blog is to talk about Firefox OS games and game programming. However, every once in a while a game tickles my fancy just the right way and so I'm going to review a game that is only on Windows!

What is so special about Sanctuary RPG? Well, for one thing, the graphics are all in ASCII (or is it ANSI)? Making 3D games seem to me a lot easier, but there's something really cool about people like Black Shell Games. Crazy is also another word, but I prefer awesome when talking about ASCII graphics. And mix that with RPG and you get some fun stuff.

You can get this game, which is in Beta but is almost finished (version 0.92), from http://www.sanctuaryrpg.com. It hasn't actually been released, but they are looking for an official release around March 30. The cost is 100% free and donations are optional. (Simply click on "No Thanks" in the download prompt.) The minimum donation was $1 but I was happy give more. If you give enough, they'll make you a producer (which will impress your friends and you can put it in your resume or CV)!

Boot it up and here's what you see.

Press that Any key on your keyboard and you get this:

The ASCII art here really looks smooth and descriptive. Continue on to:

Please forgive the formatting. I had to make these screens big enough to read, so they stick out on the right side of the blog and cover up some of the outside text. But I like this enough to make it so you can read the text and admire the ASCII art.

Why do I like this so much? Well, it reminds me of a series of games for the Apple II called EAMON. In 1980, a madman named Donald Brown created a game called EAMON, but he made it into an engine and invited other people to create games with it. One of the cool features was that you could build up your character and play other games using equipment from earlier EAMON games you played. Sometimes that might mean you had a ray gun that you could use to mow down barbarians with, but it was relatively balance. There were about 200 EAMON adventures, but I had at least 50. That was back in the day when you didn't download things but sent away for floppies filled with games from a catalog. Sanctuary RPG isn't a game engine (yet) but it has the spirit of those early days and uses some nice ASCII art to wrap it in.

All this has made me think that it might be fun to create an RPG like Sanctuary and put it in the Firefox OS Marketplace. Maybe even make an engine! So I'll think about this, and if anyone knows of any text adventure games in the Marketplace, I'll review them for sure.

But on to this really well-done RPG that should be in the Marketplace. I wonder what it was written in. The original EAMON was written in Apple BASIC. But JavaScript is the new BASIC, but 1000 times better.

Back to Sanctuary RPG (or sRPG as they call it). Pick a Campaign by clicking on 1 and pressing Enter.

You choose the type of person you want to be. I always pick Barbarian for any new game and often call him Jughead. In this screen I had already picked Jughead, and am going to pick a new class. There are 6 choices. How about Paladin?

Ah, yes, Paladins are always angsty! No one understands them! But they have perks!

And

There's more than a bit of complication here, but remember, if you don't like your character, you can always roll another. Anyway, you then choose a gender and a name, and then how difficult do you want this to be.

So you can recover from death, but you get 10% less loot. Interesting choice! You then choose a category for your race

And then a race to go with it.




I picked Paladin and now I must pick a race. Not just D&D! So I picked a Silian. I like the subtle humor here. "Machine, robot, and biological; one of these they are not." How cool is that. My guess is that the Silians are robot machines!

Then you can get a nice introduction to the story. It has to do with a magic sword:

And someone named Cynthia who wanted it ... badly!

She gets the sword and becomes a monster. So a guy named Cyrus the Magnificent (really!) tries to stop her.

 Oops, it didn't work!

Cyrus is dead (or is he?)  So you must stop her. But you have some help from a mysterious stranger.

She gives you a key, gold, and a weapon.

And now the game begins. Here's a typical screen.

You'll travel, battle, find loot, and save the world from Cynthia (now known as the Matron). I really like this game and find it strangely inspiring. Text-based adventures could have a place on the phone, though the beautiful ASCII art is beyond me (though I seem to remember some programs that will convert a photo to ASCII art, so maybe ....

Cost: free (donations accepted). This game is still in Beta!
Genre: ASCII RPG
Score: 5 (out of 5)
Tested on: PC
Get it at: http://www.sanctuaryrpg.com

PS: you can also get the soundtrack for this game (a very cool one) by Rafael Smith at http://rafaelsmith.bandcamp.com/album/srpg-the-original-soundtrack for $3 or more.  43 songs!!!

Heroine Dusk (Game Review)

I'm really excited about this game. Heroine Dusk is a "retro turnbased rpg adventure game" (in the words of Dora at JayIsGames) and strongly reminds me of one of my favorite RPG games in the 80's called Might and Magic (on the Apple II). I didn't care for Wizardry, but did love Might and Magic (though ultimately, Ultima was the ... ultimate of computer RPG games).

Here's a typical screenshot from Might and Magic I - first-person point of view.
 

 and one from Ultima II - top-down point of view.

And here's a screenshot from today's game, Heroine Dusk - first-person point of view.

Like Might and Magic and Ultima, you will travel through a medieval setting with the the tap of your finger, battling monsters, getting gold, and in general, living inside a world that is inside your Firefox OS phone!

Here's the opening screen:

Nice and moody. If you're curious, here are your options:

The music, by Yubatake, is moody also, and sets the tone for an RPG. And if you needed more, there's a somber prologue:

Tap on the button to wake up.

By the way, you're a serf and if you press the I button at the top right, you'll find out that you are the heroine of the story.

The I button is info (or inventory) and tells you what you're carrying (a stick), wearing (serf rags), and how much gold (none). There's also a little blob on the center left that will turn out to be a map of where you have been. You'll also see your hit points (25/25 - if you go to 0/25, you'll die) and magic points (4/4). Magic is used for spells, and you'll pick them up but you start out with none. You're a serf, after all.

So next you hit the I button to get back to the story. The controls are really simple and I find much easier than using a mouse on a PC. Smooth and fun! You move by tapping in the center to move forward, or on the left or right to turn.

You're ready to  leave and you turn and see a door.

Go through the door and you're outside in a courtyard.

This is a monastery and you're told its not safe! So move west. Oh, oh, what's this?

Definitely not safe. A monster named "Shadow Tendrils" blocks your path. You can click on the sword on the right to fight or the smaller running figure to ... run away. Let's fight!

You attack and the enemy misses. Fight a bit more and with any luck, the monster is defeated.

You get 1 gold piece. Good for you. Keep going west until you come to Monks Quarters.

Inside you find a chest.

Open it and you'll find a wooden stick. Your first weapon. Next go back out and head north until you come to a building called Meditation Point.

Inside you'll find another chest.

It contains a spell that lets you heal yourself.

You're now ready to explore the world. Head South from the Meditation Point and leave the Monastery.

And so on. The game looks large and I'll be curious what lies within. I'll write up a followup review after I've played it a week or two!

If you want to know more about the game and its author, go to http://clintbellanger.net/. Definitely worth $0.99!

What's that, you say? $0.99? Yes! I paid for this game. Firefox Marketplace is now set up for payments. As I noted in my last game review at http://firefoxosgaming.blogspot.com/2013/12/orbland-labyrinth-game-review.html, Orbland was for sale but I just tried the free version.

I tried the free version of Heroine Dusk, but decided it was time to bite the bullet and plunk down $0.99. Here's the two versions:

The paid version is called "Heroine Dusk donate", and I did just that. The procedure to buy a game is pretty easy. Here's the procedure I followed:

After clicking on $0.99, I had to sign up at marketplace.firefox.com and become registered with Mozilla Persona system.

Then I had to make up a password.

Oops, it didn't like my password! It has to be between 8 and 80 characters.

They also wanted a PIN from me:

I then had to confirm my account by email and then give them my mobile number and carrier.

And then they sent me a SMS message that I had to copy a six-digit number from, all to prove I am a real person and not a thief. And finally, they wanted a credit card number and the relevant details.

After all that, my purchase was approved, and all this was able to be done on my trusty ZTE Open Firefox OS phone. Pretty cool, huh!

I'm curious if people can buy games in other countries. If anyone has, let me know.  This is so exciting!

Firefox OS is now real. If you can buy games in the marketplace, how much more real do you want? I am really excited about being able to buy a game, and very pleased that the first game I bought was a role-playing game that I'll spend hours playing! I'm especially impressed because this is a large complicated game but fits nicely on my low-memory phone and runs great. If anyone says you can't play real games on a Firefox OS phone, tell them about Heroine Dusk!

In case you haven't guessed, I'm a big RPG fan, which makes me bump this up to a 6 out of 5 and because it is a bargain but paid app, I'm giving it a 7 out of 5 because I'm so excited. Yippee!

Cost: Free for limited experience, $0.99 for full game.

Genre: RPG
Score: 7 (out of 5)
Tested on: ZTE Open (Firefox OS)
Get it at: Firefox Marketplace