Phaser Tutorial: creating your own Phaser plugins

Talking about Game development, HTML5, Javascript and Phaser.

One of the most interesting things provided by Phaser is the capability of extending its features thanks to a smart Plugin system which allows you to code external libraries to be used in more project or shared around the web.

I am going to show you how to create a plugin which will allow you to fade your screen to a given color in a given amount of time, then call a given state.

The example is the same shown in the post Phaser Tutorial: understanding Phaser states but this time, apart from resetting the score to zero when you restart the game, you will notice “fade to black” transitions when you press “play” button both in game title screen and in game over screen.

It’s just a tween and there’s nothing difficult in doing it, anyway from this simple effect you will be able to see how does a plugin work.

In showing you the source code, I will highlight the difference between this project and the original post about states.

First things first, I am loading the plugin in index.html:

<!doctype html>
<html>
	<head>
    		<script src="phaser.min.js"></script>
    		<script src="src/boot.js"></script>
		<script src="src/preload.js"></script>
		<script src="src/gametitle.js"></script>
		<script src="src/thegame.js"></script>
		<script src="src/gameover.js"></script>
          <script src="src/plugin.js"></script>		
    		<style>
    			body{margin:0}
    		</style>
		<script>
			(function() {
				var game = new Phaser.Game(320, 480, Phaser.CANVAS, "game");
				game.state.add("Boot",boot);
				game.state.add("Preload",preload);
				game.state.add("GameTitle",gameTitle);
				game.state.add("TheGame",theGame);
				game.state.add("GameOver",gameOver);
				game.state.start("Boot");
			})();    
		</script>
    </head>
    <body>
    </body>
</html>

Once I boot the game, in boot.js, the plugin is loaded:

var boot = function(game){
	console.log("%cStarting my awesome game", "color:white; background:red");
};
  
boot.prototype = {
	preload: function(){
          this.game.load.image("loading","assets/loading.png"); 
	},
  	create: function(){
		this.scale.scaleMode = Phaser.ScaleManager.SHOW_ALL;
		this.scale.pageAlignHorizontally = true;
		this.scale.setScreenSize();
		this.game.state.start("Preload");
		this.game.plugin=this.game.plugins.add(Phaser.Plugin.FadePlugin);
	}
}

gametitle.js and gameover.js call plugin’s fadeAndPlay method passing the color to fade to, the duration in seconds and the game state to call once the fade is completed. This is gametitle.js:

var gameTitle = function(game){}

gameTitle.prototype = {
  	create: function(){
		var gameTitle = this.game.add.sprite(160,160,"gametitle");
		gameTitle.anchor.setTo(0.5,0.5);
		var playButton = this.game.add.button(160,320,"play",this.playTheGame,this);
		playButton.anchor.setTo(0.5,0.5); 
	},
	playTheGame: function(){
		this.game.plugin.fadeAndPlay("rgb(0,0,0)",0.5,"TheGame");		
	}
}

and this is gameover.js:

var gameOver = function(game){}

gameOver.prototype = {
	init: function(score){
		alert("You scored: "+score)
	},
  	create: function(){
  		var gameOverTitle = this.game.add.sprite(160,160,"gameover");
		gameOverTitle.anchor.setTo(0.5,0.5);
		var playButton = this.game.add.button(160,320,"play",this.playTheGame,this);
		playButton.anchor.setTo(0.5,0.5);
	},
	playTheGame: function(){
		this.game.plugin.fadeAndPlay("rgb(0,0,0)",0.5,"TheGame");
	}
}

Now it’s time to have a look at the core of the whole project, the plugin itself written in plugin.js:

Phaser.Plugin.FadePlugin = function (game, parent) {
	Phaser.Plugin.call(this, game, parent);
};

Phaser.Plugin.FadePlugin.prototype = Object.create(Phaser.Plugin.prototype);
Phaser.Plugin.FadePlugin.prototype.constructor = Phaser.Plugin.SamplePlugin;

Phaser.Plugin.FadePlugin.prototype.fadeAndPlay = function (style,time,nextState) {
	this.crossFadeBitmap = this.game.make.bitmapData(this.game.width, this.game.height);
	this.crossFadeBitmap.rect(0, 0, this.game.width, this.game.height, style);
	this.overlay = this.game.add.sprite(0,0, this.crossFadeBitmap);
	this.overlay.alpha = 0;
	var fadeTween = this.game.add.tween(this.overlay);
	fadeTween.to({alpha:1},time*1000);
	fadeTween.onComplete.add(function(){
		this.game.state.start(nextState);
	},this);
	fadeTween.start();
};

While lines 1-6 are required by plugin engine in order for the plugin to be registered, fadeAndPlay function – lines 8-19 – creates a bitmap image of the given color covering the full game screen, initially sets it transparent then tween to fully opaque to give the “fade to color” effect.

In the end, the given state is called. Organizing the fade effect this way, as a plugin, will allow you to use this effect everytime you want, in any project, saving a lot of coding time.

Download the source code of the full project.

Never miss an update! Subscribe, and I will bother you by email only when a new game or full source code comes out.