As a result of my work with multiplayer HTML5 gaming, I propose a series of workshops that teach people how to make these games themselves. I need your feedback to make them happen, so make sure to read the full proposal and leave a comment.
A little background information
Over the last two years or so I've been creating games in some shape or form. I originally started with augmented reality in ActionScript, but this quickly moved into creating browser-based games with HTML5 and JavaScript as a direct result of my work with canvas. My most recent work has been with a multiplayer space shooter called Rawkets, created using nothing but the open Web technologies mentioned previously, as well as others like Node and MongoDB (apart from audio, but I have a reason for that).
My proposal
I've learnt a lot over the course of these projects and it's now time to give something back. To do this I propose a series of multi-day workshops in which I will teach a small group of people how to create a multiplayer game from start to finish using HTML5 and JavaScript. Simples!
The purpose of the workshops will be to teach you the fundamental concepts and issues surrounding game development, specifically with multiplayer. You'll learn everything needed to create a multiplayer game; from the initial set up, right up to the final spit and polish required to get everything working nicely. Yes, you'll end the workshop with a fully functional multiplayer game, but the point is more about learning the how and why behind what's going on, not to leave with a bunch of code that you don't understand. It's a tall order to achieve in just a few days, but one which I think that can be pulled off with anyone eager to learn.
Putting on a workshop like this is also a good excuse to show off the epic 2 metre tall Rawkets banner and to sell copious amounts of my book on canvas (that's a joke, but seriously, buy it).
Location
Eventually these workshops will happen in a variety of cities across the UK, but for the first one I will keep things simple and put it on in the beautiful sea-side resort of Bournemouth. Who doesn't want to develop a multiplayer game in close proximity to a 9-mile beach?
If they prove popular, and all goes well, there is also scope for taking the workshops outside of the UK. Let's not get ahead of ourselves though.
Size
Each workshop will be limited to a small number of attendees, probably in the range of 10 to 15 people. The reason behind this is that I want to offer one-to-one support for any issues and complications that arise during the event and there's only one of me, surprisingly.
Taking a leaf from Seb Lee-Delisle's amazing Creative JavaScript workshops, these smaller groups tend to work well for group bonding and communication. It's also easier for organising food and other logistical issues, like a venue.
Who should come?
I'm not going to lie, this isn't something for programming novices. As much as I'd love to, I won't have the time to teach the fundamentals of JavaScript programming alongside the game development. I will be assuming that you know about things like data types and concepts like object oriented programming. I will also assume that you at least know about HTML5, but you don't need to have used it.
On the flip-side, you won't need to be a super nerd either (damn those super nerds!). The workshops will be structured to suit both hardcore developers, as well as Web developers and general programmers who are interested in creating games. In short, the workshops are for anyone who knows how to code.
Cost
I'm in a fortunate position where I don't need to make a profit from these workshops (I love my job). However, that doesn't mean that they are free to actually organise and put on, so I'm currently in negotiations with Mozilla (my employers) and potential sponsors about negating the cost of the event so that I can offer it to you for free, or as cheap as possible.
However, an issue with the free model is that there are no ramifications to attendees for taking a place on the workshop (which are severely limited) and than cancelling at the last minute. I need to come up with a way that works for me, so I can be sure about who is actually going to turn up, and that works for you, the attendees, so that you don't miss out on a place. This may require me to charge a small fee to guarantee you a place on the workshop, unless another solution can be devised. I'm all ears!
Workshop structure
Here is a rough outline of some of the things that you can expect to learn during the workshop. This list is by no means definitive and it's highly likely to change as I plan further.
- The core elements needed to create a game
- The fundamentals of multiplayer game development
- Common issues with multiplayer gaming and the subsequent solutions
- How cheating can happen
- Preventing cheating with the authoritative server model
- Optimising network communication to reduce bandwidth
- Dealing with latency through client-side prediction and interpolation
- Using Node to perform game logic on the server
- Using Socket.IO for WebSocket network communication between client and server
- Using a server-side storage system to persistently store game data (probably MongoDB)
- Visualising the game world on the client with HTML5 canvas
- Implementing sound with HTML5 audio (if looping is fixed in time, otherwise with Flash)
This is where you come in
So now it's down to you guys. What do you think about this proposal? Do you want to see a workshop like this happening? If it has to cost, how much would be too much to charge? What cities would you want to see the workshop put on at?
Please use the comments below to give me your feedback and questions, or email me.
Transmissions Received
Gareth Ablett
Firstly I think the idea of a workshop about this subject is super interesting.
Letting people know some of the technicals before is good giving them a chance to brush up on the basics of the tech that will be used.
I think a fee of something like £50 is enough to stop people cancelling and at the same time not be too expensive to prevent people from coming.
Luke
Sounds like a pretty good format, one thing I could say is to teach all of these concepts whilst actually making a simple game, letting the participants do the same.
I would definitely like to see this, I’ve just scratched the surface of games with canvas in my spare time, as I’m sure many have. I’d say for cost, seeing as it sounds like a good few hours, maybe £30-50, not including travel costs. But then I am a student so I would say that!
London firstly, maybe a few there. Just finishing studying in Kent and I reckon there would be some interest down here, maybe in Sussex/Surrey to capture most of the South-East.
Looking forward to hearing more!
Jack Franklin
That sounds like an awesome idea, and would be one of the first to book my place. With travel & everything to Bournemouth I’d say about £50 for a ticket seems pretty reasonable!
As for other places, the South West is a pretty big hub so I’d say Bristol or Bath (bias from me there) would be a good choice. London too, the issue of course is if people travel they need to find somewhere to stay for the night.
Anyway if you do get these up and running, I will most certainly see you at one :)
Tim
Sounds like an awesome idea. I would be very interested in this.
As for costings I don’t want to look like an absolute cheapskate before anybody else puts a figure down but I think somewhere around £50-100 would not be an unreasonable request for a few days training on this. At least I would be willing to pay that. In all honesty that is just plucked out of the air though, I have no idea of the costings or other figures involved.
I would be interested in a workshop somewhere down south between Bournemouth, Southampton, Portsmouth and Brighton.
Ross Gledhill
Sounds like a great idea Rob. I’d be really interested.
I also agree with Gareth, I’d happily pay £50, and it would be great if you could summarise what we need to know before hand to give us a chance to brush up.
And as for a venue, a workshop in Scotland would be appreciated if you can get the numbers, though I wouldn’t mind travelling.
Jim Sangwine
This is an awesome idea, and I would love to attend. Unfortunately, I live and work in the Netherlands so time off work plus travel back to the UK plus hotel bills would make it prohibitively expensive. I’m sure there are plenty of people like me who would love to take part but can’t for similar reasons.
Would there be any possibility of making the materials available online, perhaps along with videos of you explaining the main points? I realise this would totally break the workshop format, but I’m also sure that people would appreciate whatever you could manage to make available!
Mike Stephens
Hey Rob,
The proposal sounds awesome.
I have attended Seb’s CreativeJS workshop in Manchester and I have to agree that small numbers definitely work better. I think there was around 20 or so of us - small enough so Seb could spend a quick 5 mins one-on-one.
In regards to cost, I am inclined to say £50 but then I have to remember you are proposing a multi-day workshop. Therefor i’d be prepared to spend around £100 ex travel.
I think it would also be important to consider whether you would host the events on a weekday or weekend. Personally I’m more inclined to attend weekend events as I can not always leave the studio on a weekday.
Finally, location. I realise you would start in Bournemouth and I would probably be willing to travel and source accommodation, however don’t forget about us devs up in the North, especially Manchester :)
Kel(Vamsmack)
Rob it’s an awesome idea and one which I have already told you requires you to come to Australia(If Rob’s Mozilla bosses are reading this you should make this one of his Key Deliverables for the first year performance review).
Being very new to this HTML5 games thing I can see it being a little beyond me right this moment(I just finished your book but I need to bone up on that collision detection insanity) but what would be awesome for me and I am assuming other international people is if it could be recorded with video, code and slides. Obviously this wouldn’t come with the same kind of support etc but it would provide a way for those of us outside of the UK or who are unable to make it on the day a way to still check it out later on or at our own pace. Possibly for a token fee to help with hosting and your time or the extra work it would be to produce this.
There needs to be some fee structure involved even if it is more as a measure to ensure people have some investment in the day otherwise it is too easy to wake up in the morning a little hung over and decide to sleep instead of coming along and thus depriving someone else of a spot. 50 to 100 bucks should do it. That would then also cover the costs of any physical materials, some food and then when you buy everyone beer after the workshop you don’t end up too far out of pocket.
I agree with Gareth on the giving people a heads up on the technicals so that if they need ot they can brush up before coming along. I find when I am sigining up for conferences I can never really gauge how technical things are going to get so that sometimes turns me off, if you could give people a heads up on what tech is going to be used and maybe a ‘You should be able to do this…’ or something along those lines just so people can grok the technical skill level required.
Jim Sangwine
By the way Rob, in your comment form it says “Mail (will not be published)” but I’ve just noticed that clicking someone’s name hits a mailto: link… with their email address (unless they supplied a website)!!
I’m wondering if this is why my spam load has gone up a bit recently…
Can you please remove my email address from my previous comments? Thanks.
Tom Robinson
Sounds interesting though I’d have to make sure my JavaScript was up to scratch. I’m looking at developing my first HTML5/JavaScript game this year sometime.
Danny Murphy
Would be great to be able to purchase the video of the workshop for all of us down under.
Ian Cooper
Rob,
Great idea. On the no-show list, one option is to ask for a deposit and refund it if that person attends. Or don’t make it refundable, but put it toward beer or a meal, so that if folks don’t turn up, everyone else gets to drink to their generosity.
Ian
William Dias
Hi Rob, the workshop proposal sounds awesome!
Unfortunely, I’m from Brazil and can’t have in touch with this kind of event for now.
Could you record an video of this workshop? I would glad to purchase this material!
Keep doing your nice job Rob.
Best regards,
William.
Alan Ayoub
great idea, im interested!
Nick Morgan
I would definitely pay £50 for this. If I can make the dates then count me in!
Gareth Visagie
Fantastic idea! If this happens in London then I’m definitely interested ^_^
Gavin
defiantly interested but not sure I could make a trip to Bournemouth unfortunately :(
make sure you pop Manchester on your list of future cities to visit, either for this tutorial or that #StandardsNext talk I mentioned the other month. MadLab is the perfect venue for this type of thing, and I know a few people that would come along. See I have it all sorted for you already :)
Is it a multi-day workshop as in the same group over a couple of days or couple of groups doing a full day? If you are throwing in food and maybe a post workshop pint you could probably push this up to £70, but like people have said £50 is a nice number and you will get a lot of people wanting to attend for that price.
Jared Williams
I’d love to go, so come do one in Boston!!
I would most likely be able to get my company to pay for me to attend, so price probably wouldn’t be an issue.
Loved the book though, and hope I get the chance to attend one of these workshops.
Fabryz
I would be really interested in these kind of workshops: the only problem is that I’m not in the UK (Italy here).
I’d maybe prefer following you in a “digital way”: screencasts, live tutorials or daily/weekly posts about game making.
I have bought and read your HTML5 canvas book, learnt a lot, and so I have now started from scratch my multiplayer game: Wander, made up with Node.js, Socket.io, HTML5 canvas, and JQuery.
It’s still on a very early phase (currently developing after work at night or during weekends), developing slow but steady =)
Give a look on my github repo, every advice is welcome.
https://github.com/fabryz/wander
Mohammad El-Abid
Oh I so hope that this happens and that’s close to me!
Simon Griffiths
Hi. I’d love to attend a workshop like this, the structure looks good to me. Please put me on your mailing list, if you have one :)
Sarah
Hi I’m so interested please add me in your mailing list. and I will pay what u want.
Dan Shahin
I’m definitely interested. I was at your HTML5 Games meetup last week and got a lot out of it.
Tom
Yes, I would love a video! Please capture the event or maybe record a video in private so everybody can watch who’s not visiting / can’t visit.
I would pay for that too.
Shane Hudson
Hmm your proposal mentioned it being free or at least very cheap… how about seeing how much it would cost to host at Universities? I have just started at the University of Kent (Canterbury campus) and I am sure they would love to have something like this be hosted there.
Abhijit
Any progress with the plan?
I’ve done some weird(having to support IE8 and FF2.2) stuffs with html5 canvas in 2010. I left the job in frustration then. I think its time I come back. ;)
I’m based in London.
Jim
Hi Rob,
I just started working back at a previous employer in the Netherlands (in the Hague), and it just so happens they have excellent (big) conference / workshop facilities.
I talked to my boss & other colleagues, and we would like to offer you free use of the building (and infra) including laying on a buffet for all attendees.
We might even be able to swing transport & accommodation costs for you if that is an issue. For sure I can chauffeur you to & from the airport at the very least.
It would be amazing if we could set this up for all the enthusiastic up-and-coming front end engineers over here in Holland - we are too often left out in the cold when it comes to events like this.
Please get in touch & let me know if you think this could fly.
Thanks!
Jim
Rob Hawkes
Jim: That sounds awesome! I still very much want to put on these workshops but it’s not a priority for me right now. I’m still working on the new Rawkets and want to get that to a decent level before preparing the workshop in full.
I’d love to talk more about this though, my email is rob [at] rawkes.com
Rob Hawkes
Everyone else: Sorry for the delay in responding, I’ve been meaning to reply to everyone but things got busy.
In short, I’m still going to put on a series of workshops like this and I hope to do the first one sometime this year. I’ll update on the blog when I know more.
Jim Sangwine
Brilliant, thanks Rob!
Pinging you an email now :)