Hey all.

so here i am, late 30s, and I have recently decided that i would like to career change to be a web developer. I already had a strong understanding of html and css but never learnt Javascript so i have been focusing on this.

During the learning stage i got interested in game dev as a hobby. i started a couple games using pure javascript to learn and have been able to make a player run and jump and a pong/breakout game and then i found phaser unity and godot.

i need a little help deciding on which i want as a beginner. I know unity is very popular but ive decided i dont want to use it, unsure why i just dont.

i've narrowed it down to phaser and godot, i see that godot is a game engine with drag and drop elements and phaser is more a framework and full code (i believe they have a editor now)

My entire reason for originally looking at these things was to make games whilest learning javascript

I hear alot of people praise phaser but what i wonder, as a beginner, because there is no drag and drop elements, is it the best choice for me?

i would go with godot in an instance if it used javascript but alas i dont want to be learning javascript and gdscript and balance work and life on top of that.

I'm leaning towards phaser because then i get to code it all, i am running linux for the OS, Krita for graphics, i have tiled for tilesets and phaser and xampp setup

is there any reason why i wouldnt want to use phaser? is it too hard? is it the better choice? should i be using godot instead.

for my first original game ive got the art work ready and music and planned the levels etc but now i need an engine and to put it all togeather.

Any help, tips, stories, anything would be greatly appreciated.

If you're going to get into programming you need to be willing to dive in and try new things. You'll certainly get people's feedback using one tool over another, but I believe you should try both yourself and see what you enjoy more. If you want to use (x) language but (x) tool doesn't allow it then you've made your choice by process of elimination.

Run through some basic tutorials for both, and see what clicks more for you. Either way programming is transferable, and a programmer will use a variety of tools throughout their career.

NibzAU said:
is there any reason why i wouldnt want to use phaser? is it too hard? is it the better choice? should i be using godot instead.

This is 100% subjective… Who knows if it is too hard or not a “better” choice for you. You'll have to come to that conclusion first hand.

NibzAU said:
but never learnt Javascript so i have been focusing on this

You can read here 2D breakout game using pure JavaScript this recommendation:

Starting with pure JavaScript is the best way to get a solid knowledge of web game development. After that, you can pick any framework you like and use it for your projects. Frameworks are just tools built with the JavaScript language; so even if you plan on working with them, it's good to learn about the language itself first to know what exactly is going on under the hood. Frameworks speed up development time and help take care of boring parts of the game, but if something is not working as expected, you can always try to debug that or just write your own solutions in pure JavaScript.

Ask yourself what kind of games do you want to make? 2D or 3D? Web, mobile or desktop? What language is the best for you? C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, TypeScript, Python and so on? May be do you hate to write code and you prefer use visual scripting without programming? How to Make a Game Without Coding What engine is the best for you? Unity, Godot, Unreal Engine, CryEngine and so on? Try some engines and choose one of them. Do you like Math and Physics? Do you like to study how to program from scratch in pure Math, shaders and pure OpenGL/WebGL/DirectX? Do you want to start by making your own game engines? What programming language do you love? I love Math. I love to study Linear Algebra and game physics. I study C#/OpenTK for Desktop (Win, Linux, macOS), Mobile(Xamarin) and TypeScript/WebGL for Web (all platforms). And I study Blender Python API to generate 3D graphics using Math to import to my engines. You can embedded games to websites using WebGL and they will available by one click. You do not need to download them. But some games is better to build to native apps because performance. What kind games do you want to build? First Person Shooter with very good graphics from the box for Desktop? Maybe UE4 and Blueprint is the best for you? UE4 has very good default shaders for First Person Shooters and a build-in multiplayer support for shooters.

@NibzAU If you want to learn JavaScript use Phaser, but if you want to make games use Godot.

bronlund said:

@NibzAU If you want to learn JavaScript use Phaser, but if you want to make games use Godot.

I want to learn JavaScript AND make games ?

8Observer8 said:

NibzAU said:
but never learnt Javascript so i have been focusing on this

You can read here 2D breakout game using pure JavaScript this recommendation:

Starting with pure JavaScript is the best way to get a solid knowledge of web game development. After that, you can pick any framework you like and use it for your projects. Frameworks are just tools built with the JavaScript language; so even if you plan on working with them, it's good to learn about the language itself first to know what exactly is going on under the hood. Frameworks speed up development time and help take care of boring parts of the game, but if something is not working as expected, you can always try to debug that or just write your own solutions in pure JavaScript.

I actually did start with this exact tutorial which is what got me into looking at games to find html5 games are kinda big out there. That's where i found phaser, while obviously looking other engines came up and godot was one.

I think im more concerned about phaser not being drag and drop if that makes it harder or not.

I believe in godot if you want a character to have physics and obey gravity then you just attach it to a rigid body or something like that… i Assume phaser may have something like this just not visual, it would be code… but then we all know what they say about assumptions ?

NibzAU said:

bronlund said:

@NibzAU If you want to learn JavaScript use Phaser, but if you want to make games use Godot.

I want to learn JavaScript AND make games ?

@NibzAU Then Phaser it is ?

NibzAU said:
i Assume phaser may have something like this just not visual, it would be code…

Phaser has build-in easy to use Physics engines but Phaser is for 2D games only. You can find a lot of 3D engines with JS scripting: Babylon.js, Three.js, PlayCanvas and so on. Some of them: A collection of WebGL frameworks and libraries · GitHub