Beginning Facebook Game Apps Development

Beginning Facebook Game Apps Development

by Wayne Graham
Released March 2012
Publisher(s): Apress
ISBN: 9781430241706

Read it now on the O’Reilly learning platform with a 10-day free trial.

O’Reilly members get unlimited access to books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.

Start your free trial

Book description

Today's Facebook is emerging to become tomorrow's operating system, according to some. Certainly, a WebOS. Web standards-based apps using HTML5, JavaScript, CSS3 and more are now possible on Facebook. Why not get started with developing and selling Facebook game apps on Facebook's App Store?

Beginning Facebook Game Apps Development gets you started with building your first game apps that run on Facebook. Become your own "Zynga" and create your own "Civilization" or "Farmville" and more. Build rich Web-based apps that you can sell on Facebook's App Store.

Because these apps are built on Web standards, you can build and run on many browsers and—more interestingly—more computers, tablets, smartphones and even other devices and appliances that are Web-connected or enabled.

What you'll learn

  • Build your first Facebook game apps!

  • What HTML5 and JavaScript techniques, tools and frameworks have to offer to do this

  • Enhance your first Facebook game app with social media, location-based services, etc.

  • Obtain a basic framework for a Facebook game app that you can build upon and customize for your own specific app design and development needs

  • Package, deploy and sell your first Facebook game app on Facebook's new App Store

Who this book is for

This book is for those new to Facebook apps development and even for those new to apps development. Readers should have some basic knowledge of HTML5, JavaScript, CSS and PHP.

Table of contents

  1. Title
  2. Dedication
  3. Contents at a Glance
  4. Contents
  5. About the Author
  6. About the Technical Reviewer
  7. Acknowledgments
  8. Introduction
  9. Chapter 1: First Steps
    1. Gaming in the Browser
    2. HTML5 and the Canvas Element
    3. Game Terminology
    4. Game Genres
    5. Summary
  10. Chapter 2: JavaScript Boot Camp
    1. What Is JavaScript?
    2. Testing Out JavaScript
    3. Comments
    4. Data Types
    5. Variables
    6. Operators
    7. Data Structures
    8. Flow Control
    9. Loops
    10. Functions
    11. Document Object Model
    12. Guess the Number Game
    13. Getting Good with JavaScript
    14. Summary
  11. Chapter 3: It's All About Context: Canvas Basics
    1. Canvas: The 2D Context
    2. Debugging Tools
    3. What About Mobile?
    4. Summary
  12. Chapter 4: The Plan: Idea to Design
    1. The Design Process
    2. Brainstorming
    3. Identify Your Audience
    4. Identify Your Competition
    5. Artistic Direction
    6. Project Review
    7. Feature Cull
    8. Planning Milestones
    9. Code
    10. Deployment
    11. User Testing
    12. Launch
    13. Summary
  13. Chapter 5: Essential Game Components
    1. Types of Graphics
    2. Graphics Tools
    3. Graphics Design Process
    4. Techniques
    5. Creating Sounds
    6. Understanding Copyright
    7. Summary
  14. Chapter 6: Your First Game: Alien Turtle Invasion
    1. Defining the Game
    2. Boilerplate
    3. Coding the Engine
    4. Adding Textures
    5. Adding Sound
    6. Summary
  15. Chapter 7: Social Components and HTML5 Games
    1. Social Mechanics in Games
    2. Tic-Tac-Toe
    3. Summary
  16. Chapter 8: Introducing the Facebook Platform
    1. The Facebook Development Platform
    2. Creating Applications with the Facebook Platform
    3. Software Development Kits
    4. Your First Facebook Application
    5. Using the Graph API
    6. Facebook Query Language
    7. Facebook SDKs
    8. Summary
  17. Chapter 9: Facebook Developer Tools
    1. Developer App
    2. Open Graph Protocol
    3. Credits
    4. Roles
    5. Insights
    6. Summary
  18. Chapter 10: Creating Your First Facebook Game
    1. Project Planning
    2. Developing the HTML Game
    3. Facebook Integration
    4. 2.0 Ideas
    5. Summary
  19. Chapter 11: Adding Facebook Components
    1. Adding Levels
    2. Adding a Timer
    3. Working with Databases on Heroku
    4. Recording Puzzle Information
    5. Tracking Achievements
    6. Customizing the Authorization Dialog
    7. Deployment Concerns
    8. Summary
  20. Chapter 12: Launching Your Game
    1. Website
    2. Facebook Pages
    3. Advertising
    4. Driving Likes
    5. Launch Checklist
    6. Summary
  21. Chapter 13: HTML5 Game Engines
    1. Development
    2. Open Source
    3. Paid Game Engines
    4. Summary
  22. Chapter 14: Facebook Fuzed
    1. Game
    2. Tiled Map Editor
    3. melonJS Framework
    4. Facebook Score API
    5. Summary
  23. Index

Product information

  • Title: Beginning Facebook Game Apps Development
  • Author(s): Wayne Graham
  • Release date: March 2012
  • Publisher(s): Apress
  • ISBN: 9781430241706