Matthew Bullard - Programming A Browser Game: Building the Tomb Treasure Game

This book was written to show people how tomake a browser based game using PHP and MySQL.This book will cover a real game from start to finishshowing the reader all the necessary code and provide the instructions they need to create a fully functionalgame.

The code presented in this book does not rely on any pre-built PHP frameworks and leans on the idea of a programmer creating and using their own collection of functions. With this in mind, there should be no learning curve of how to use a pre-builtPHP framework and trying to understand what you can and cannot do with it. Plus you will not be dependenton a PHP framework strengths or limited by its weaknesses. There are times when you may want touse a framework for your programming projects, and after you read this book you may want to modify thebook code to utilize one. I will not be using one in this book primarily because I do not like to use themand feel when teaching something new it is best to learn from scratch. I like to code from scratch, and Ilike to be able to understand all the code I write and feel that if I used a framework, then there would beparts of code that I do not understand.

I will not be coding any object oriented code for this project in an effort to keep it simple. Somewill argue that OOP is easier, but for this project I believe a simpler procedural method of coding isbetter. After reading through this book, if you prefer OOP, you may modify the book code as you see fit tomake it object oriented. As with frameworks, I believeit is easier to teach basic straightforward code whenthe student is learning something new. When the student has fully grasped the ideas of the project,then more advanced code can be written.

In my opinion, programming is a form of art and everyone does it different. I do not try to adhere to any standard protocol when I code. That attitudemay not be the same for you. There are some peoplewho had to learn to code a certain way to get through a college class, or get a job, may be even a promotion. That wasnt me. I got jobs, promotions, and other career opportunities based on the end results of my programs not how I got to the end results. No twopeople will paint a picture of a tree the same way and there are several ways to code an application and achieve the same results. I believe there are multipleways to get to the same goal with programming. Do not let this book force you into a style of

programming that is not comfortable for you. Enjoy your programming. It is all about creating somethingnew that you can be proud of.

Many programming books provide the source code for their readers to use and learn from. Thesource code for this book will not be provided by mein a digital form because I feel that the best way for you to learn is to actually type the code into yourcomputer yourself. I do not believe that cutting and pasting code from a digital source teaches a person how to code it. The code I provide in the book variesfrom chapter to chapter and leaves room for improvement and the book encourages areas thatneed improvement. You cannot improve the code, ifyou do not enter the code. I am sure through the power of the internet that someone will type all thecode in the book and provide it for free or may even charge you for it, but I ask that you do not accept the code for the book this way because it limits what you can learn with the provided material. If you take the time, you can take some pride of ownership of the code that you type. You will even understand how itworks and why it works. If you just copy the source code off a DVD or download it from the internet youwill not learn as much as you could if you put in the time and typed as you read.

I did not intentially put any bugs in the code that is printed in this book but I cannot claim that it is all 100% bug free. If you type the code into your machine and execute it from time to time you may find a bug or two. You will definanly find places that needimprovement and easier ways to accomplish the samegoal throughout the book and I encourage you to do so. If you feel that an improvement is so great that itshould be shared with other readers, please let meknow so I can put it in any future editions of thisbook.

In an effort to help spark a bit of imagination in you, the reader, I will not cover every aspect of the game design with this game, but intrigue you just enough so that your want to add your own creativityto it. You can take what I provide in this book as a starting place and add your own twists and turns to the game and make it your own. Remember theprogrammer is an artist, and this project should be no different.

The goal of this game is to have the player gointo a maze-like tomb and carry out its treasures. The tomb is not so willing to give up its treasures so the players will have to fight their way in and fight theirway out in order to stock pile their treasure. Players compete with each other by trying to pull out the mosttreasure with the smallest amount of effort. The gamewill count the number of steps a player takes while in the tomb. If the player can go into the tomb, earn some treasure and leave the tomb alive with it their score will be reflective of the value of the removedtreasure divided by the number of steps it took to get it.

There will be an overall theme of fantasy in this game. The tomb will have multiple levels in it and asthe player dives deeper into the tomb, they will get stronger as well as the monsters they fight. Of coursethe deeper into the tomb the players travel, the value of the treasures will also increase to encourage deeper travel.

The tomb is a collection of rooms and hallways. Every room has a single monster and some treasuregenerally in the form of money, some precious stones,equipment, or the coveted exit scroll.

Once a room is cleared on a single level of thetomb, it remains clear until the player leaves that level. When the player returns to that same level everyroom will be inhabitant with another random monster and more treasure.If the player can find an exitscroll they will be able to use it to leave the tomb from any level which prevents the player from having to fight their way back out.