Applet vs Canvas - Java vs JavaScript

Hi Luke Ward,

I could be wrong about this, but I think Java applets are generally falling out of favor. Most developers I talk to seem to be much more interested in producing games with canvas and JavaScript.

Andrew Chalkley and Jim Hoskins are pretty awesome at JavaScript, so they may be able to point you to some decent resources for this. :)

Thanks Nick I think I will just invest in impacts and see where it goes from there :)

The most popular game I know written in Java is Minecraft, but I think that's the exception not the rule.

Playing games on the net in the 90s games and apps, like chats, were primarily Java. Then the Web Community transitioned to Flash, and now to JavaScript and HTML5.

I know Randy Hoyt has been learning HTML5/JS games recently, I think he did one in LimeJS.

Several game engines have been ported to JavaScript too now.

You should definitely write it in JavaScript. I would recommend using a framework or library of some kind. Here's a great post comparing three different frameworks:

• JavaScript Game Engine Comparison

I'll be doing a workshop at Treehouse on using LimeJS, but all three of these are good. I probably wouldn't start with Impact just because it's not free; I'd probably build a simple game on a free one first just to get a feel for what it's like. Then you'll have a better idea of what you want out of a framework. There are new frameworks coming out all the time. Here are two that I'm really excited about:

• http://www.gameclosure.com/
• http://famo.us/

I have been looking at Limejs and would love to see the sorts of things you can do with it so ill probably have a go with it and see what I can do thanks for your help :)