December, 2010

Gamma is a new JavaScript library for creating 2.5D games.

Gamma employs numerous “default” classes for making a developer’s life a touch easier – platformEnemy, patrolEnemy, etc. For example, if you have set up a canvas already, spawning a few enemies would look like:

entities : [
    gma.platformEnemy({bottom:0, left:45, width:3, height:6}),
    gma.patrolEnemy({bottom:0, left:6, width:3, height:6, limitLeft: 3, limitRight:12}),
    gma.jumpingEnemy ({bottom:0, left:7,  width:1, height:2}),
    gma.jumpingEnemy ({bottom:3, left:8,  width:1, height:2}),
    gma.jumpingEnemy ({bottom:6, left:9,  width:1, height:2})
]

Although the library looks like it’s for making arcade games, it has a number of functions which make it possible to create other kinds of games (miniature strategy games, tower defence, etc).

Gamma is great for developers who want to create a traditional arcader without the hassle of structuring a library on their own, and the extensive documentation will ensure that you never get lost in the library’s features.

abduzeedo.com have published a set of 10 awesome “grungy” textures.

Although the textures are unlikely to be used in website designs, they are remarkably beautiful and can find their place in your photo manipulations and modelling projects.

The license is forgiving, but you have to register at sxc.hu to download them.

These textures are a great addition to your textures collection.

validVal is a jQuery plugin for making simple, yet highly effective forms.

validVal, unlike many other validation plugins, works on most ready-made forms (even AJAX ones).

Furthermore, it has a number of nifty features not every validator has: automatic number formatting; auto skip to other input fields on reaching the required value; and allows using your own handlers for validation.

validVal supports three validations by default – required, numeric, and e-mail format.

Flurid is a new CSS Framework for creating flexible grid systems.

Unlike other grids, the plugin doesn’t hide pixels in margins.

Flurid automatically updates the dimensions of the grid depending on the size of a window.

The framework is easy to use, as it divides the page into grids that separate the row into different parts, like 1/2, 1/6, etc.

There are, however, some “caveats” (or hacks if you prefer) that make Flurid work on some less-compatible browsers.

For example, for IE versions below 7, you must apply a “last” attribute to the last row for the framework to work correctly.

• Bulding Large Scale jQuery Applications

  Welcome to the last Mashup in 2010!

  And now, this article is a way to start the last Mashup.

  Addy Osmani has written a really great tutorial about the thought (and functional) processes behind large jQuery apps. Just bookmark it if you don’t need it now–it might come in handy someday.

• 25 Free High-Quality Minimalist Icon Sets

  
  Some might ask, “What’s the fuss about ‘minimalism’ and similar ‘designs’?”.

  Truth is, minimalism is the current trend on the web–everyone expects a nice, clean site from you.
  That includes icons. Search for them in the post above.

• 30 Free Fantasy Fonts

  Sometimes you need a cartoonsy touch  to a website, a game, or a design.

  Cartoony fonts can vastly help you in achieving the desired feel, by adding a touch of fantasy, in this case. :)

• 15 Free Sites to Download Vector Graphics

  
  The best things in this world are free, but you have to know where to find ‘free’.

  This is a nice wrap-up for finding the best vector graphics–for free.

• 16 Javascript Game Engines

  
  Frankly, I couldn’t name more than two of these. And that should mean something.

  You’ll be surprised at how many options there are available for making games with GitHub’s most popular language.

HTML5 and CSS3 represent the near future of the web. The last versions of all major browsers support many of the new features introduced by these versions.

If you want to try the new HTML5 properties (Canvas, Geolocalization, …) or new CSS3 rules (media queries, …) you can also use the frameworks examined in this article.

These frameworks are used to create your HTML5/CSS3 templates, to develop your mobile applications, to draw graphs easily and much more.

Read on to choose your next framework.

Read more