“This course in game making allows you to dive into programming to make your own games and - most importantly - to make your games your own.”
—Main Writer, Mick Chesterman
Learning to code can be tricky sometimes - like a puzzle to solve. At times you get stuck. It helps to have a project you really want to get working. In this book creating a Retro Platform Game is that project. Part one of this book is a structured start covering the basics. Part two encourages you to choose your own adventure, offering you a choice of many missions with supporting working code examples. This lets you add new features, complexity and style to remix a starting javascript game project into your own designed game experience.
We make our games using Phaser.js in an online code playground called Glitch.com. This means that we can easily share our games as web pages with friends and family to play and test.
Phaser Game Making in Glitch was written to support teaching Game Making to Families and Primary School Students by Mick Chesterman and colleagues in Manchester, as part of the MMU EdLab project and is written using the FLOSS Manuals writing platform. Please feel free to use and adapt all materials for your own learning or teaching.
Collaborators:
Core writing and Code examples: Mick Chesterman and Dave Potts.
Workshop resources and extra material: James Keating, Fortunate Muwonge, Sonya McMaster and Adam Morrison;
Many thanks to EdLab students 2017-2019: who have contributed to this guide especially Rukia for inspiration on a process drama and Courtney for a key workshop activity.
Many thanks for the EdLab and MMU staff support: Nicola Whitton, Mark Peace, Mark Sackville-Ford, Juliette Wilson, Sarah McNicol and Cathy Lewin.
A big thanks also to Eleanor Overland and Louise Hayes for giving me opportunities to test material on PGCE students and recruit them to deliver workshops and further develop materials. To Mr Collinson and Mr Quilian and the Student from Rolls Cresent for trying out course materials. And to all the Home Education families who have taken part.
Website Design: Mushon Zer-Aviv designed and coded this website.
