The basics of an HTML5 word game – Phaser version

I am always been interested in word games. In 2009 I released WorDrop, built with Flash, AS3 and Box2D, which has been played more than 4 million times before MochiMedia closed.

In 2013, I released worDrop, my first HTML5 game built with Construct 2, which I eventually licensed to Softgames.

I also wrote a couple of posts about the basics of word games.

Now it’s time to show you something more up to date, so let’s start with a fresh list of english words thanks to dawyl.

I used the list in JSON format, because it’s easier to convert into a JavaScript Oject I can use inside Phaser.

Look at the example:

Write a word with your keyboard, and see it in green if it’s included in the list of english words, or in red.

This has been made in literally a couple of lines, have a look at the commented source code:

let game;

window.onload = function() {
    let gameConfig = {
        type: Phaser.AUTO,
        scale: {
            mode: Phaser.Scale.FIT,
            autoCenter: Phaser.Scale.CENTER_BOTH,
            parent: "thegame",
            width: 600,
            height: 120
        },
        scene: playGame
    }
    game = new Phaser.Game(gameConfig);
    window.focus();
}

class playGame extends Phaser.Scene {

    constructor() {
        super("PlayGame");
    }

    preload() {

        // import english words
        // thank you dwyl! - https://github.com/dwyl/english-words
        this.load.json("words", "words_dictionary.json");
    }

    create() {

        // import json object into a variable
        this.data = this.cache.json.get("words");

        // just a static text
        let staticText = this.add.text(10, 10, "Write a word: ", {
            font: "32px arial",
            fill: "#ffffff"
        });

        // this is the text we are going to write
        this.wordText = this.add.text(staticText.getBounds().right, 10, "", {
            font: "32px arial"
        });

        // keydown linster to call updateWord method
        this.input.keyboard.on("keydown", this.updateWord, this);

    }

    updateWord(e) {

        // delete last letter
        if (e.keyCode === 8 && this.wordText.text.length > 0) {
            this.wordText.text = this.wordText.text.substr(0, this.wordText.text.length - 1);
        }

        // add a letter
        else {
            if (e.keyCode >= 48 && e.keyCode <= 90) {
                this.wordText.text += e.key;
            }
        }

        // set text color to red if the world is not included in the list, green otherwise
        this.wordText.setColor(this.wordText.text in this.data ? "#00ff00" : "#ff0000");
    }
}

I think I am going to build a modern version of my worDrop game, optimized for mobile. Stay tuned and download the source code, word list included.