Leveling Up: Building Retro 2D Games with JavaScript and Phaser
summary
Claim: you can build a game in a weekend using JavaScript and Phaser. The talk shows concrete code: a tiny config object plus preload, create, update functions and an example called Catch the Apples that runs and is playable, and a larger project Totally Awesome built with Phaser, Tiled, Phaser Editor, Visual Studio Code, assets from itch.io and Midjourney, and occasional AI art. It demonstrates collision, arcade physics, random level arrays and proposes LLM-driven level generation; the demos work as shown.
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chapters (14)
- 0:00Gamer to developer journey
- 3:55Retro dev barriers in 90s
- 6:02Modern game creation tools
- 7:27Barebones Phaser game
- 12:25Live Catch the Apples demo
- 13:35Retro dev essential tools
- 14:57Level design with Tiled
- 16:22Phaser Editor templates
- 17:27Phaser game core components
- 19:153D racing game with AI
- 21:00JavaScript games with AI future
- 22:01Why build retro games
- 23:05Community resources on itch.io
- 24:30Closing remarks
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