Can You Make a Game with P5js? Fractal Finder Devlog

Play Fractal Finder right now: barneycodes.itch.io/fractal-f...
P5js is a really great creative coding library for JavaScript, which I use a lot in my videos.
Is it possible to make a game with P5js and upload it to itch? Absolutely, but is it a good idea? That's a bit more complicated.
Join me in this devlog as I take you on the journey of developing, and publishing my P5js + JavaScript game "Fractal Finder" to itch.
There are definitely pros and cons to trying to use P5js to develop a game. P5js is really easy to use so it's quick to get started, but it's lack of UI and other features makes it tricky to finish and make a complete project.
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Chapters:
0:00 What's the game?
0:33 Initial code
0:58 Generating a target
1:47 Detecting a win
2:05 Adding menus + UI
2:35 Additional features
3:33 Polish
3:56 Uploading to itch
4:19 Pros/cons of P5js for game dev
#gamedev #p5js #devlog

[@BarneyCodes]

If you'd like to see what else I'm working on, it would be great if you could wishlist my game Star Mining Co. on Steam! s.team/a/2584800/ Play the game here: barneycodes.itch.io/fractal-finder Leave a comment with your feedback!

[@ProgramSam]

Nice! But what I love about p5js is that it is JavaScript, and just works per-fect-ly with default html and css. linking that with p5 to create buttons, menus tooltips... really is a breeze and is why I love to use it for developing games 😁 But it is cool to see what you have made!

[@BarneyCodes]

That's a really good point and I'm sorry I didn't bring that up in the video!! I think because I wanted to have the target displayed in the UI area I (for some reason) dismissed the idea of using html for the UI. Definitely something I'll keep in mind for the future, thanks for the comment!

[@ProgramSam]

@@BarneyCodes Good luck! would love to see what you come up with :)

[@juneru2]

Cool game! I survived 3 rounds in 1-min mode. I'm so glad I discovered P5.js, I'm using it to make my first game, and since it uses HTML canvas it'll work on browsers, Android, and iOS! Great library for beginners like me

[@BarneyCodes]

Wow that's really good, the timed mode is pretty tricky! Hope your game goes really well!

[@GlennLewis]

Your videos are always beautifully done and a pleasure to watch. Some day it might be cool just to see your workflow and tools on how you create these really beautiful videos for KZbin.

[@BarneyCodes]

Thanks so much, that's very kind! That's a great idea, thanks for the suggestion! In the meantime, the tools I use are OBS for screen-recording, Audacity for audio, and Davinci Resolve for editing. Thanks again for the comment!

[@DrTWG]

I'll have to look at shaders . I've just been coding some stuff in p5 - like the Mandelbrot - i.e complex plane iterated function stuff & some of them take up to 30s to render ! They look incredible though .

[@BarneyCodes]

Fractals are so much fun aren't they, Definitely slow to do on the CPU though! I've got an introduction video to shaders and also one about making the Mandelbrot with shaders if you want to learn more!

[@Console.Log01]

I've made tons of games in p5js, most notably a terraria clone (not the one I'm working on now, however). I could share the link here, it's got 7 defeatable bosses, but it's also not very polished and very bad.

[@BarneyCodes]

That's great, would love to check it out! I unfortunately don't think I made my point very clear in the video, I think it all comes down to the goals you have in mind. If you want to learn then using p5js is a really great way to go because you HAVE to do it all yourself, from collisions to rendering UI. But if your main goal is to create a finished product then there are tools available that provide all those things so you can focus on what makes your game unique. Great job on your own projects, it's always great to see what people create!

[@Console.Log01]

@@BarneyCodes I have been recommending p5js, mainly for people who are looking to learn written languages over other forms of pseudocode, but I definitely would not recommend it for full games. It works well to pass time if you only have access to a chromebook, though.