This page is only for students in Williams College course ART | CS 107. Morgan hopes to release a version for general use in summer 2012.

To start making desktop, browser, and mobile game apps in JavaScript with codeheart.js:

  1. Download play.html and game.js to a folder on your computer (you'll have to right-click or control-click and select Save As...).
  2. Load play.html in your web browser.
  3. Edit game.js in any plain text editor, like TextEdit or Notepad. If you use a programmer's editor, like the free VCExpress (Windows) or Xcode/Dashcode (OS X), then your code will be easier to indent.
  4. Reload the browser page to see your changes.
  5. Read the JavaScript Cheat Sheet and Reference documentation when you need a refresher.
To make another game, just download it again to another directory. Do not rename any of the files.

codeheart.js currently supports the following web browsers: Safari 5.1.5, Internet Explorer 9.0, Chrome 18.0, and iOS Safari (iPhone/iPad/iPod). Firefox cannot be supported due to bugs in its implementation of HTML 5 Canvas.

The game library requires a network connection so that it can keep itself up to date. To develop without a network connection, just download codeheart.js and put it either in the same directory as your game or the parent directory.

codeheart.js is an open source JavaScript framework designed and implemented by Morgan McGuire with additional development by Lily Riopelle.