JavaScript on Dave Voyles

Examples of apps published with the Web App Template

Fri, 18 Jul 2014 00:00:00 +0000

A few months back, I wrote a piece on a high level overview of Microsoft’s Web App Template. I’ve recently learned that it not only works on Windows 8, but is also applicable to Win Phone 8, with Universal support coming soon.

So why would anyone ever wrap their site and turn it into an app? Well for one thing, it can quickly and easily net you 300+ 4+ star reviews on the store, and takes no more than an hour to create.

Apache Cordova integrated in Visual Studio for Multi-Device Hybrid App development

Mon, 12 May 2014 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve been pushing HTML5 cross platform applications for some time now. I frequently give talks on how to use tools like Telerik’s App Builder, Adobe’s PhoneGap Cloud, and my personal favorite, Intel’s XDK. You can find my open sourced Cordova app here.

Previously, Cordova was a cumbersome command line tool for building cross platform HTML5 mobile apps. it was not fun, and was incredibly painful to use, due to the constantly outdated documentation. Even worse, even if you did get an HTML5 app running on Windows Phone, you didn’t have a debugger!

How to write engaging second screen experiences, using SmartGlass or Win8

Fri, 07 Feb 2014 00:00:00 +0000

This ties into my previous post, where I spoke about how to get your game or app on Xbox One.

Microsoft unveiled quiet a bit of information regarding SmartGlass during BUILD 2012, and much of it is available **via this Power Point presentation.**Ignore most of the C++ in there; I never had to touch any of that. All of my work was done via JavaScript and it worked fine.

I also spoke about SmartGlass development on this week’s Hanselminutes podcast.

Super Rawr-Type Redux is released for the browser

Sun, 03 Nov 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Click here to play Super Rawr-Type Redux

Source Code: https://github.com/DaveVoyles/Super-Rawr-Type-Redux

I’ve spent the last 3 months working on the follow up to my previous game, Super Rawr-Type. It was a simple side scrolling 2D shmup, which I wrote in JavaScript and also ported to Windows 8. One bug prevents me from getting it into the store, and I’m not able to replicate it, so who knows if it will ever be released there.

Adding touch controls for Windows 8

Thu, 09 May 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Loading Super Rawr-Type within the Win8 touch simulator

For the last two weeks or so I’ve been working out bugs in Super Rawr-Type and integrating touch controls for the Windows 8 port. This is the first time I’ve ever created touch controls, so it took a bit to understand how they work, specifically with toggling the joystick for movement and stationary buttons for shooting, switching weapons, and activating powerups.

What proved most difficult for me really was not having a machine to test my controls on. I’ve had to rely on the simulator thus far, which basically runs a virtual machine on your desktop, wrapped a shell that appears like a Win8 tablet. The buttons on the right hand side emulate figure gestures, so you can view and understand how your own touches will affect the game.

Creating the random enemy spawner, improving performance

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 00:00:00 +0000

When building my Win8 port of Super Rawr-Type, I ran into all sorts of performance issues, due to lack of optimization. This was to be expected, as I on gave myself 1 month to complete the base game, then I would take the second and final month to port it to different platforms and worry about optimization.

The design of my levels is where most of my issues came from. I explain it pretty well in this post here. The gist of it is this: When the map loads, it is filled with ~150 enemies, which are constantly being updated. Obviously this comes with quite a bit of overhead. The browser version played well, but on a dedicated OS it chugs.

Object pooling optimizations – not so much [yet]

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 00:00:00 +0000

[UPDATE] Clarified that I have two classes for my bullet. One which uses pooling, and another that does not use pooling.

So my object pooling optimizations don’t seem to be working.

I thought I would have seen some improvements in terms of my performance, but I’m just not seeing it. I think one issue is due to the fact that with more objects lying around, the garbage collector takes longer to run. Essentially, the pooling reduces how often the collector runs, but makes those runs more noticeable.

Video update of my 2D shmup using the JavaScript framework Impact.js

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 00:00:00 +0000

So I’m quickly progressing in my newest game, Super Rawr-Typeand am just about to put the finishing touches on it. I’ve given myself one month (30 days) to work on this bad boy. GDC and PAX took up quite a bit of time recently, so I’ve got a few days left to go. It’s far from perfect, but it’ll do.

Next month, I’ll focus on publishing to The Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 Stores, as well as wrapping the code in the iOS wrapper.