MDM Theme created with Phaser Framework and Phaser Editor

MDM Theme created with Phaser Framework and Phaser Editor

I decided to try something completely different and wanted to for awhile now.

I decided to switch from java and opengl for android and try html5 instead.

After much research I decided to use phaser html5 framework.

I then wanted a IDE to code it in, after trying a few (XDK, Sublime and a few others) I decided to give the phaser editor editor a go and decided to use it over all the rest.

Main reason, I am used to eclipse and from working with libgdx it was similar for me.

Plus it has a nice texture packer and assets loader built in which saves a ton of time and it creates the json files to go with it which is easily called for in the code.

Enough of the reasons why, I always wanted to try a gaming framework as the background for mdm themes and decided to give a go.

There was always an issue with canvas and mdm so I sceptical so I threw a 5 minute sample together threw it into the login screen, logged out and crossed my fingers and hoped for the best.

Well to my surprise it worked great, the canvas loaded and ran perfect.

So why use a gaming framing for mdm?

Well it gives you tons more options to create really nice animated login screens, not just basic css animations but all out full blown animations.

Box2d, P2 physics, particles, tweens, animations etc etc etc.

Pretty much anything that can be done in a normal game animation can be done.

So I decided to come up with a quick tutorial to anyone started making them with phaser framework and the phaser editor.

To you started first get the editor here: http://phasereditor.boniatillo.com/blog/

It is free with a nag screen but fully functional, if you use it for your work please donate as it is well worth it.

Drop it into your home directly (it is a standalone version no install necessary), and open it up.

You can start a new project by following the tutorial on the phaser editor site

http://phasereditor.boniatillo.com/blog/quick-start/010-first-steps

Use basic.

Now what I did was just use one file for the whole sample I presented here since it was a one page animation but you can make it as detailed as you wish.

I just used the Main.js file to create the whole animation.

All the files I use in this sample plus the base mdm theme files can be downloaded here
http://samriggs.deviantart.com/art/MDM-Theme-created-with-Phaser-Framework-and-Phaser-600449516

First I deleted all the sample stuff (images, other javascript files in the js folder) I kept only the Main.js and assets-pack.json which I changed later to load my atlas and background image.

If you walk through these two tutorials it will teach you how to add images to the texture packer here

http://phasereditor.boniatillo.com/blog/quick-start/050-texture-atlas

and the assets load tutorial here

http://phasereditor.boniatillo.com/blog/quick-start/020-asset-pack

I don't see any need in rewriting these tutorials here as it is done great on the website tutorial.

The object of the quick tutorial is only to show you how to bring in the created animation into mdm itself.

Here is the main.js code I wrote for this sample.

window.onload = function() {

// Create your Phaser game and inject it into an auto-created canvas.

// We did it in a window.onload event, but you can do it anywhere (requireJS

// load, anonymous function, jQuery dom ready, - whatever floats your boat)

//var game = new Phaser.Game(1920, 1080, Phaser.CANVAS, '');

var game = new Phaser.Game(1920, 1080, Phaser.CANVAS, '', { init: init, preload: preload, create: create, update: update, render: render });

function init() {

game.input.maxPointers = 1;

// Setup the scale strategy

game.scale.scaleMode = Phaser.ScaleManager.SHOW_ALL;

//you can try resiz to see which one fits best show_all scales nicely

//but might show letterbox

//this.scale.scaleMode = Phaser.ScaleManager.RESIZE;

game.scale.pageAlignHorizontally = true;

game.scale.pageAlignVertically = true;

}

function preload() {

game.load.pack("level", "assets/assets-pack.json");

}

var meteor1;

var meteor2;

var meteor3;

var meteor4;

var meteor5;

var movex = 0;

var movey = 300;

function create() {

this.add.image(0,0,"background");

this.add.image(1060,120,"myatlas","planet");

meteor1 = this.add.sprite(movex,movey,"myatlas","rock7");

game.physics.enable(meteor1, Phaser.Physics.ARCADE);

meteor2 = this.add.sprite(movex - 100,movey + 300,"myatlas","rock8");

game.physics.enable(meteor2, Phaser.Physics.ARCADE);

meteor3 = this.add.sprite(movex + 100,movey + 200,"myatlas","rock9");

game.physics.enable(meteor3, Phaser.Physics.ARCADE);

meteor4 = this.add.sprite(movex + 400,movey + 150,"myatlas","rock5");

game.physics.enable(meteor4, Phaser.Physics.ARCADE);

meteor5 = this.add.sprite(movex + 700,movey + 100,"myatlas","rock6");

game.physics.enable(meteor5, Phaser.Physics.ARCADE);

}

function update() {

meteor1.angle += .1;

meteor1.body.velocity.x=100;

if(meteor1.x > 2500){

meteor1.x = -150;

}

meteor2.angle += .2;

meteor2.body.velocity.x=120;

if(meteor2.x > 2500){

meteor2.x = -200;

}

meteor3.angle += .3;

meteor3.body.velocity.x=140;

if(meteor3.x > 2800){

meteor3.x = -250;

}

meteor4.angle += .4;

meteor4.body.velocity.x=180;

if(meteor4.x > 2700){

meteor4.x = -200;

}

meteor5.angle += .6;

meteor5.body.velocity.x=170;

if(meteor5.x > 2900){

meteor5.x = -220;

}

}

function render() {

//you can add debug stuff here for testing

// game.debug.spriteInfo(s, 20, 32);

}

};

I decided to use the screen size of 1920x1080 for my image size, you can make it whatever you want.

Phaser has a nice scale manager with quite a few options, I was going to use RESIZE but after testing I opted for SHOW_ALL

This resizes or sizes the screen once loaded in the window.

game.scale.scaleMode = Phaser.ScaleManager.SHOW_ALL;

You can check out the scale manager for phaser here

http://phaser.io/docs/2.4.4/Phaser.ScaleManager.html

The preloader:

function preload() {

game.load.pack("level", "assets/assets-pack.json");

}

This will load all the images in the assets loader json file that the editor created (all the texture packer json is in this also so it's all in one neat file and can be loaded from this one file.

Here is an image of the texture packer:

Here is an image of the assets loader

Alright then, once you made your creation and are satisfied with it, it is time to bring it on over the your mdm template folder.

Go into your directory where you saved the game files you created and then into the WebContent folder.

Choose all files in this folder except the index.html file, leave that one out.

Copy paste them into your mdm theme folder like below.

Now that your creation is in the folder we need to add the javascript into the head tags of the main index.html file in the mdm folder that runs the mdm files.

Go into your phaser creation in the webcontent folder again where you just copied all those files over from and open up the index.html file and copy the javascript links and paste them into the mdm index.html like below

 

now that that is done save your mdm index.html file and close it. 

Next change the name in the theme.info file to what you named it (it should be the same name as the folder that holds all these files) like the image below.

Save it and close it.

Now it's time to test out your creation and hopefully it works.

Load the mdm emulator, in linux mint you type in 

mdm-theme-emulator

into your terminal as in the image below

This loads the emulator click on open and find your mdm index.html file and open it, this will load your newly created mdm/phaser theme so you can check it out like below.

volia it works, you can test it here before going live. 

While your at it take a screenshot of this because you need it for your screenshot file in the mdm folder.

Bring in that screenshot into gimp or your program of choice.

Crop around the emulator and open the screenshot.jpg file into gimp also under a new file. Paste this huge image over and select the layer in gimp and under layer resize it to fit the screenshot size so it ffits the same size as below

Some cropping might occur and overwrite the file so it saves your new screenshot and close the mighty gimp.

Now you are ready to go live.

Select the folder that holds your mdm creation, right click --> compress

compress it as a tar.gz as in the image below

Now that you have that done you can go live if you like, go to settings the click on the login window as in the image below

It will ask you for your password, once it opens just drag your tar.gz into the window and install it as in the image below

Select it and next time you log in your ready to see your new mdm login screen.

I included the base mdm file you'll need in the download along with my sample.

Just add your own phaser creation and replace the files I added and your ready to roll.

If you want to learn more about phaser and learn how to make some cool effects and animations they have a ton of examples and you can also download the master file that has tons of examples in it for you to play with.

The site has tons of tutorials to teach you all you'll need to know.

You can check out the examples here

http://phaser.io/examples

Here is a short video of it in action in the emulator

Happy coding.

Sam

Edit: thanks to MegMut over at the phaser forums http://www.html5gamedevs.com/topic/21659-phaser-tutorial-for-linux-mdm/

I am adding the random code  MegMut added if you wanted to use this mdm yourself or just to use the random part on your own.

Here it is from MegMut:

"I took a good look at your code, and I think I've been able to tweak the performance. There isn't any need to enable the physics engine, as all you're doing is moving the sprites body, also, I went and made it a little bit more dynamic. I hope you don't mind  Here's the code

create() {
 // create the meteor group
 this.meteorGroup = this.game.add.group;
 this.rocks = [5, 6, 7, 8, 9];
 this.numOfMeteors = 5

 for (var i = 0, i <= this.numOfMeteors; i++) {
  // generate random x value between -150 and the games width
  var x = this.game.rnd.integerInRange(-150, this.game.width);
  var y = this.game.rnd.integerInRange(0, this.game.height);
  // pick a random rock from the rocks array 
  var rock = this.rocks[Math.floor(Math.random()*this.rocks.length)];
  // create the sprite
  var meteor = this.game.add.sprite(x, y, "myatlas","rock8")
  // pick a random speed for the meteor to travel at
  meteor.speed = this.game.rnd.integerInRange(200, 250);
  // pick a rancom spin for the meteor
  meteor.spin = this.game.rnd.integerInRange(-3, 4);
  this.meteorGroup.add(meteor);
 }
}

update() {
 for (var i = 0; i < this.meteorGroup.children.length; i++) {
  this.meteorGroup.children[i].x += this.meteorGroup.children[i].speed;
  this.meteorGrou.children[i].angle += this.meteorGroup.children[i].spin;
  // use world wrap to allow the sprites to go off on side, and continue back on the other
  this.game.world.wrap(this.meteorGroup.children[i], this.meteorGroup.children[i].width, false, true, true);
  // alternativly, set start and x positions for the sprites individually and perform a check on every update loop
 }
}

it will allow you to create as many meteors as you want by changing one variable. It also randomsies a lot of the positional data, meaning every time you go the login screen, it will never look the same. The only thing I've not tried before, is the world.wrap function. I checked the docs and that should work fine, but if it's an issue, you can just do what the button commend of the update loop says"

Thanks MegMut :)