VU Web Coding: Intro to Web Development and Game Prototyping

Abstract

This course will introduce you to modern web development basics in a playful approach by (re)creating simple web-based game prototypes. Throughout this course you will develop your own skills to develop websites and simple games that can be run in (almost) any web browser and be integrated into (almost) any web page. (Note: This course was formerly known as "Artful Coding 1", and is now rephrased into "Web Coding: Intro to Web Development and Game Prototyping" to reflect more specifically the Web and the Browser as coding environments.)

Description

The course will get you up to speed with the basics of web development, based on HTML5, CSS and modern Javascript (ES6>). While the first few sessions aim at getting everyone to a point where you have basic coding skills and are able to solve our entry level challenge. After that we will use a few session to introduce more advanced concepts in modern Javascript. In the sessions from December onward, we will create two simple web based game prototypes: a typing game, and a memory game. At the end of the course you will be tasked with a final project, the contents of which will be chosen throughout the course. The minimal version of a final project is an individual adaptation of one of the two game prototypes implemented before in the course (e.g. build your own experimental extension, quirky and whacky mechanics, reflective/engaging/provocative content, ...). As a teaser, this course also readies you to attend the web-based game prototyping workshops in summer semester at the Coding Lab. There you can learn to create a simple physics-based jumping block game prototype, or to facilitate a professional and mobile ready HTML5 game engine and follow a more open approach to creating your very own kind of web based game from scratch.

Lecturer