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Basic concepts

Basic concepts

Ct.js is a modular library written in JavaScript, coupled with a visual editor. The editor is also referred to as ct.IDE. Games in ct.js are written in JavaScript as well: it is the programming language of the web, is flexible, easy to learn, and infinitely deep. You can also use CoffeeScript to write your game's code, and it will be compiled in JavaScript automatically.

Any ct.js game consists of textures, copies, templates, and rooms.

  • A texture is an image that doesn't do much by itself but is used by copies and can be drawn with code. This asset is also referred to as a sprite, but it can also be a tileset, a background, etc.
  • A copy is a logical entity in your game that can interact with user inputs and other copies. Enemies, trees, bullets, gems, bonuses, cats — everything is a copy. Copies are often called "objects", "actors" or "instances" in other game engines.
  • Each copy corresponds to a specific template. A template is a template for new copies with common settings and behavior. It may be called a class or an object in other game engines.
  • A room is a 2D space in your game where you place your copies. Rooms may have their own additional behavior (level scripts). Rooms are also often referred to as levels or maps. A notable difference is that rooms in ct.js are boundless when other 2D engines tend to set a specific size to it.

There are additional resources that help make games juicier, better, fun to play, and easier to develop:

  • Actions that combine different input methods into one API, so you can code once for keyboards, gamepads, virtual joysticks, and other stuff.
  • Behaviors are used to add shared logic for rooms or templates. It is edited in the same way as templates, but with them you can also define additional options for templates besides just the events, and then add these behaviors to any templates or rooms.
  • Catmods are additional modules that hack on the core library and add new tools for programming and new features to the engine.
  • Content types and content tables are like a local database for your game's static data.
  • Custom fonts allow you to use .ttf files in your games, so your game looks nice in every browser or PC.
  • Emitter tandems, or simply particle systems, are flexible visual effects made of textures. Explosions, magic effects, rain, snow, and many other special effects may be made with these.
  • Scripts can be used to create functions you can reference in templates, rooms, content types, or be called directly with scripts.scriptName().
  • Sounds are audio assets that are played by code.
  • Styles are templates for drawing labels that are used while making the user interface.