Forums » Impact Engine » On the fence about ImpactJs, have a few questions before deciding

Hi guys,

I am really new to HTML5 gaming and I am trying to self study. I just wanted to ask if Impactjs is geared towards platform games, could it be used for card games and/or board games as well? Many thanks in advance for the help and enjoy the rest of your day!

Impact is really versatile. We've made platformer games and puzzle games, and I think I even saw someone make a calendar app with Impact. After you learn the structure of the engine (relatively small learning curve) you are pretty much open to whatever kind of game you want to make.

It's great for beginners also :D

Demo Puzzle game: http://boomtown.appmobi.com

I started making a chess game in impact before i realized how difficult chess ai would be for me, but i got the boards and everything set up just fine. I've also done platformers, sidescrollers, and top-down bullet shooters.

it's versatile, you'll probably be fine.

It works surprisingly well for slot games as well!
Extremely versatile imo

It's worth every penny.

I agree, it's very versatile and among the existing HTML5 engines it is easily the most well-documented and high-performing. I'm a total newb with the engine and I'm finding it very easy to learn.

If I was creating an HTML5 card game, I would probably use the DOM, not canvas. Impact uses canvas.

I think impact is worth the investment just to see a very well written and clean game engine in JavaScript in general.

It's true that for more interface focuses games (e.g. more control via buttons on screen compared to key strokes), it might be better to use DOM elements, than canvas. Because simulating the whole mouse click behavior as people are used from HTML in canvas is not exactly simple. However, everything that needs more advanced animations and the usage of sprites (with sprite sheets) is better off using canvas. Simply because here the DOM approach brakes when using a different zoom level than 100% in your browser (I have to know, because my zoom is always at 120% ... full 15 inch laptop with full HD display, bad idea....)

A combination of DOM and canvas is of course also possible and doable with impact as well. That might be the best choice.

I am also on the fence about purchasing ImpactJS.

I am mainly looking at Impact JS for a multi player browser/Mobile game. (16 to 32 Players at most)

Here go my Questions -

How well would Impact JS fit a newbie to JavaScript?

Does Impact JS have any form of Networking/Multi player Capabilities?

I am also reading that a version 2 is coming out soonish is there going to be an upgrade fee for that?

HeadClot:

Using ImpactJS without knowing much Javascript will present a big challenge. It will also help of you have a sense of how game programming works since it's not your typical web site scripting.

In general, ImpactJS doesn't hand hold much, but it does provide an excellent and clean API to get a lot done, plus it was designed to be easily extended allowing you to elegantly re-write the bits you need.

There isn't really anything in the way of networking or multiplayer support. A good knowledge of Javascript will however allow you to work around this, but you will need to be familiar with technologies like XMLHTTPRequest or WebSockets.

+1 for what @amadeus said.

I absolutely agree with the above in regards to ImpacatJS not hand holding. You need to know JS as soon as you open the box. Not much will make sense if you're not capable of understanding the Class Reference:

http://impactjs.com/documentation/class-reference

Once you get your head around what makes things tick then everything should come naturally.

In terms of multi-player support. There&039;s a great #node.js and socket.io plugin that would/should lead you in the right direction:

http://pointofimpactjs.com/tutorials/view/10/how-to-make-a-game-with-impact-and-node-js

I must say, I have played with a good handful of game engines and none are as exciting as Impact. The level editor and API are simply... awesome. They do pack a nice punch.