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151

answers:

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Hi. I'm tasked with building an educational game for 6 - 10 year-old children using HTML5 for a non-profit organization. I've used HTML5/CSS3/jQuery to build a new site but have no experience building games. This project will have to be completed in about 2 months.

A few questions for the experts here:

  • Is this doable in 2 months?
  • Do I need to be fulltime on this for the two months to complete it? Having never done a game, I'm not sure about what will be involved.
  • Is there an HTML5/JS game engine out there that will make this easier?

Any other thoughts you have on this will be appreciated. Thanks.

UPDATE: We'd like to have this game work well on iPhone/iPad via Safari; in other words, to have it detect hand gestures.

+2  A: 

The answer to this question largely depends on whether the game has been designed as of yet, and how complex this game is. There are competitions in which teams of 3 or 4 people complete a game (design, graphics, sound, game-play and all) in the space of a (sleepless) weekend. They aren't generally very complex at that point, but they are by all means a complete game.

On the other hand, the people participating in these competitions are largely people who know what they're doing. They have someone dedicated to sound, someone dedicated to graphics, and at least one person dedicated to programming. If you have little idea what you're doing with any of those (either through lack of design or lack of experience), then that adds time, and that time could be significant.

Given this background, I believe your will be possible in two months, and you will not need to be full time to accomplish it, though you may need to dedicate a majority of your time to the project. There are several reasons for this:

  • Educational games are generally fairly simple
  • Games for that age bracket are generally fairly simple
  • A high level of graphics seems un-necessary
  • Educational games have a specific goal, and thus are less susceptible to over-design
  • You have experience with HTML5

Now, that last point could be valid, or it could not. If, for instance, you're required to use <canvas>, and you haven't before, you could be in trouble.

Otherwise, with the information given, and under the assumption that some direction is given as to the design of the game, I think you're in good shape.

Good luck!

Ryan Kinal
Thanks, Ryan. I've little experience with the CANVAS tag, though I used a library that employed it (Cufon). I'd be the only person working on this. Also, we're very early in the idea stage -- just trying to come up with some possible games and then choose one to use.
Alex
If there isn't much complexity, you should be able to spend around three weeks to a month designing the game, and still have time for development. Two key points: Don't get stuck in an infinite design cycle (I've seen it happen), and read up on game development. There are some nuances that aren't apparent until you've seriously thought about it (timing, pace, mechanics, etc.)
Ryan Kinal
+1  A: 

The original Scrabb.ly was build using HTML5 in under 48 hours for the Node.js knockout (as were many other games). So yes, it is very doable.

What are the requirements for this game? Are we talking pac-man type games, Mario Bros, Halo reach (lol).

Someone else (@ryan kinal) just answered the question better than I could. So I'm going to leave this answer as is.

Good luck!

David Murdoch
Thanks, David. We're early in the idea stage; it will deal with one of three areas: reading; comprehension; bullying. It needs to have input from the community during the requirements gathering, development, and testing/deployment. We'd like to keep it fairly simple but with interactivity, sound, and graphics. I've designed this site using HTML5 elements: http://bit.ly/9x5nl0We're thinking along the lines of the kids maybe clicking on different elements and having the colors change and sounds play. The main goal is for them to learn in one of those three areas (haven't decided yet which).
Alex
+1  A: 

As a followup to Ryan's excellent answer, I cannot stress enough how important is going to be for you if you insist on using HTML5 and the goodies that go with it. Beware though. It is often commented that HTML5 took us back to 1995 ideals of graphics. Be prepared for anything.

BenJolitz