Phaser is a fast, free and fun open source game framework for making desktop and mobile browser HTML5 games. It uses Pixi.js internally for fast 2D Canvas and WebGL rendering.
Version: 2.0.2 "Ghealdan" - Released: 28th March 2014
By Richard Davey, Photon Storm
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The great thing about running an open source project are all the awesome contributions from the community, and this release reflects that. Aside from a raft of small but important ArcadePhysics fixes we've also had the entirely library jshinted and tidied up by xtian. We have had jshint configs in place for a while now, but he's forced us to make them part of the build process and helped tidy-up a number of things that had crept in.
We've also updated the included tutorial (and the web version) so it's now fully compatible with Phaser 2 and re-published and updated all of the API documentation, which you'll find in the docs folder in this release.
6 months ago we released Phaser 1.0 into the world. Suffice to say that since then we've been overwhelmed at the huge surge of developers taking to it! Our github repository is consistently in the top JavaScript lists, we've over 3200 stars at the time of writing, and a wonderful, vibrant and friendly community. Phaser 2 is a natural evolution of what we started. We've focused specifically on performance and expansion with this release. Lots of developers have already reported to us considerably speed increases just by swapping to Phaser 2 (reports of 200% faster speeds on mobile aren't unheard of!). There's also a full-body physics system available now, in the form of the excellent p2.js. The upgrade to Pixi 1.5 under the hood bought lots of new visual effects in, including blend modes and tints.
And we're also really pleased to have closed down over 550 issues reported on github. We literally went through every last bug reported to us, and fixed it. All kinds of little things that as a whole make the library that much more solid. With the 2.0 release we're now freezing the API. Before we have to admit that the API changed somewhat on a whim, and we moved things around and changed things without too much consideration for fellow developers. With 2.0 that stops - we've spent long enough on this release that we're now extremely happy with the organisation of classes and methods, and while we may still need to make small tweaks in the future, none of them will be API breaking without prior community approval first. This means if you're using Phaser to teach in classes, or writing a book / tutorials around it, this is the version to base off.
If you want to port a Phaser 1.x game over to 2 then do read our Migration Guide first.
So what's next? We have a roadmap (which you can find at the bottom of this document), but we're going to sit back and take stock for a while, building up the tutorials and sample games. We will of course jump on bug fixes quickly, but this is definitely the best release of Phaser ever. The most features, the fastest, the most stable and just generally the most fun to use.
Happy coding everyone! See you on the forums.
We have a new Getting Started Guide which covers all you need to begin developing games with Phaser. From setting up a web server to picking an IDE. If you're new to HTML5 game development, or are coming from another language like AS3, then we recommend starting there.
There is a comprehensive How to Learn Phaser guide on the GameDevTuts+ site which is a great place to learn where to find tutorials, examples and support.
There is also an un-official Getting Started Guide.
Version 2.0.2 - "Ghealdan" - 28th March 2014
Bug Fixes
- Sprite would glitch if it had an ArcadePhysics Body that was re-positioned out of loop.
- Sprite would "fly off" if it had an ArcadePhysics Body that was re-positioned during an input handler.
- Tween.generateData would enter an eternal loop if the total resulted in a float. Now wrapped in Math.floor.
- ArcadePhysics.Body preUpdate has been modified to stop Sprites with non-1 scaling from gaining delta and moving off the screen (fix #644).
- ArcadePhysics.Body deltaMaxY wasn't being correctly applied.
- P2.World - Removing tilemap layer retrieval for object layers in convertCollisionObjects() (thanks bmceldowney, fix #653)
- Calling Keyboard.stop() wouldn't let you call Keyboard.start() later on in the same game
Updated
- The "Build your First Phaser Game" Tutorial has been updated for Phaser 2
- Line.fromSprite now sets "fromCenter" to false by default as Sprite.center is deprecated in 2.x. Documentation and Examples updated to reflect this.
- All the documentation has been re-published for 2.0.2.
- Lots of ArcadePhysics.World methods have been marked as private where they shouldn't be called directly (separateX, etc)
- xtian jshint fixed nearly every single file in the repository!
New Features
- Sprite.overlap lets you quickly check to see if the bounds of two display objects are intersecting or not, without having to use a physics system.
- Keyboard.destroy will now clear all event listeners and any custom set callbacks or Keys.
There is an extensive Migration Guide available for those converting from Phaser 1.x to 2.x. In the guide we detail the API breaking changes and approach to our new physics system.
The full Change Log is at https://github.com/photonstorm/phaser/blob/master/changelog.md
We provide a fully compiled version of Phaser in the build directory, in both plain and minified formats.
We also provide a Grunt script that will build Phaser from source along with all the examples.
Run grunt to perform a default build to the dist folder and update the examples.
If you replace Pixi or p2 then run grunt replace to patch their UMD strings so they work properly with Phaser and requireJS.
You can 
If you use bowser you can install phaser with:
bower install phaser
Nice and easy :)
Thanks to a community member Phaser is now available on CDNJS. You can include the following in your html:
http://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/phaser/2.0.2/phaser.min.js
Or if you prefer you can leave the protocol off, so it works via http and https:
//cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/phaser/2.0.2/phaser.min.js
Games created with Phaser require a modern web browser that supports the canvas tag. This includes Internet Explorer 9+, Firefox, Chrome, Safari and Opera. It also works on mobile web browsers including stock Android 2.x browser and above and iOS5 Mobile Safari and above.
If you need to support IE9 or Android 2.x then you must use a build of Phaser that doesn't include P2 physics. You'll find these in the build/custom folder.
For developing with Phaser you can use either a plain-vanilla JavaScript approach or TypeScript using the provided TypeScript definitions file. We made no assumptions about how you like to code your games, and were careful not to impose any form of class/inheritance/structure upon you.
Phaser is 576 KB minified (including all 3 physics engines, 311 KB without) and 128 KB gzipped (67 KB without physics libs).
Ever since we started Phaser we've been growing and expanding our extensive set of Examples. Currently over 250 of them!
They used to be bundled in the main Phaser repo, but because they got so large and in order to help with versioning we've moved them to their own repo.
Please go and checkout https://github.com/photonstorm/phaser-examples
Phaser comes with an ever growing suite of Examples. Personally I feel that we learn better by looking at small refined code examples, so we created over 250 of them and create new ones to test every new feature added. Inside the examples repo you'll find the current set. If you write a particularly good example then please send it to us.
The examples need to be run through a local web server (in order to avoid file access permission errors from your browser). You can use your own web server, or start the included web server using grunt.
Using a locally installed web server browse to the examples folder:
examples/index.html
Alternatively in order to start the included web server, after you've cloned the repo, run npm install to install all dependencies, then grunt connect to start a local server. After running this command you should be able to access your local webserver at http://127.0.0.1:8000. Then browse to the examples folder: http://127.0.0.1:8000/examples/index.html
There is a new 'Side View' example viewer as well. This loads all the examples into a left-hand frame for faster navigation.
You can also browse all Phaser Examples online.
WebGL & Canvas
Phaser uses both a Canvas and WebGL renderer internally and can automatically swap between them based on browser support. This allows for lightning fast rendering across Desktop and Mobile. When running under WebGL Phaser now supports shaders, allowing for some incredible in-game effects. Phaser uses and contributes towards the excellent Pixi.js library for rendering.
Preloader
We've made the loading of assets as simple as one line of code. Images, Sounds, Sprite Sheets, Tilemaps, JSON data, XML and JavaScript files - all parsed and handled automatically, ready for use in game and stored in a global Cache for Sprites to share.
Physics
Phaser ships with our Arcade Physics system, Ninja Physics and P2.JS - a full body physics system. Arcade Physics is for high-speed AABB collision only. Ninja Physics allows for complex tiles and slopes, perfect for level scenery, and P2.JS is a full-body physics system, with constraints, springs, polygon support and more.
Sprites
Sprites are the life-blood of your game. Position them, tween them, rotate them, scale them, animate them, collide them, paint them onto custom textures and so much more! Sprites also have full Input support: click them, touch them, drag them around, snap them - even pixel perfect click detection if needed.
Groups
Group bundles of Sprites together for easy pooling and recycling, avoiding constant object creation. Groups can also be collided: for example a "Bullets" group checking for collision against the "Aliens" group, with a custom collision callback to handle the outcome.
Animation
Phaser supports classic Sprite Sheets with a fixed frame size, Texture Packer and Flash CS6/CC JSON files (both Hash and Array formats) and Starling XML files. All of these can be used to easily create animation for Sprites.
Particles
An Arcade Particle system is built-in, which allows you to create fun particle effects easily. Create explosions or constant streams for effects like rain or fire. Or attach the Emitter to a Sprite for a jet trail.
Camera
Phaser has a built-in Game World. Objects can be placed anywhere within the world and you've got access to a powerful Camera to look into that world. Pan around and follow Sprites with ease.
Input
Talk to a Phaser.Pointer and it doesn't matter if the input came from a touch-screen or mouse, it can even change mid-game without dropping a beat. Multi-touch, Mouse, Keyboard and lots of useful functions allow you to code custom gesture recognition.
Sound
Phaser supports both Web Audio and legacy HTML Audio. It automatically handles mobile device locking, easy Audio Sprite creation, looping, streaming and volume. We know how much of a pain dealing with audio on mobile is, so we did our best to resolve that!
Tilemaps
Phaser can load, render and collide with a tilemap with just a couple of lines of code. We support CSV and Tiled map data formats with multiple tile layers. There are lots of powerful tile manipulation functions: swap tiles, replace them, delete them, add them and update the map in realtime.
Device Scaling
Phaser has a built-in Scale Manager which allows you to scale your game to fit any size screen. Control aspect ratios, minimum and maximum scales and full-screen support.
Plugin system
We are trying hard to keep the core of Phaser limited to only essential classes, so we built a smart Plugin system to handle everything else. Create your own plugins easily and share them with the community.
Mobile Browser
Phaser was built specifically for Mobile web browsers. Of course it works blazingly fast on Desktop too, but unlike lots of frameworks mobile was our main focus. If it doesn't perform well on mobile then we don't add it into the Core.
Developer Support
We use Phaser every day on our many client projects. As a result it's constantly evolving and improving and we jump on bugs and pull requests quickly. This is a living, breathing framework maintained by a commercial company with custom feature development and support packages available. We live and breathe HTML5 games.
Battle Tested
Phaser has been used to create hundreds of games, which receive millions of plays per month. We're not saying it is 100% bug free, but we use it for our client work every day, so issues get resolved fast and we stay on-top of the changing browser landscape.
Beyond version 2.0 here are some of the features planned for the future:
Version 2.1 ("Shienar")
- Enhance the State Management, so you can perform non-destructive State swaps and persistence.
- A more advanced Particle system, one that can render to a single canvas (rather than spawn hundreds of Sprites), more advanced effects, etc.
- Ability to control DOM elements from the core game and layer them into the game.
- Touch Gestures.
- Support for parallel asset loading.
Version 2.2 ("Tarabon")
- Comprehensive testing across Firefox OS devices, CocoonJS and Ejecta.
- Integration with third party services like Google Play Game Services and Amazon JS SDK.
- Flash CC HTML5 export integration.
- Massively enhance the audio side of Phaser. Take more advantage of Web Audio: echo effects, positional sound, etc.
Beyond version 2.2
- Test out packaging with Node-webkit.
- Game parameters stored in Google Docs.
- Look at HiDPI Canvas settings.
- Multiple Camera support.
- DragonBones support.
- Cache to localStorage using If-Modified-Since. See github request
- Allow for complex assets like Bitmap Fonts to be stored within a texture atlas.
- Look at XDomainRequest for IE9 CORs issues.
Nadion is a set of powerful enhancements for Phaser that makes level building even easier. It includes features such as Trigger, Area, Alarms and Emitters, debug panels, state machines, parallax layer scrolling, 'developer mode' short-cuts and more.
We now have a full Contributors Guide which goes into the process in more detail, but here are the headlines:
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If you find a bug then please report it on GitHub Issues or our Support Forum.
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If you have a feature request, or have written a game or demo that shows Phaser in use, then please get in touch. We'd love to hear from you! Either post to our forum or email: [email protected]
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If you issue a Pull Request for Phaser, please only do so againt the
devbranch and not against themasterbranch. -
Before submitting a Pull Request please run your code through JSHint to check for stylistic or formatting errors. To use JSHint, run
grunt jshint. This isn't a strict requirement and we are happy to receive Pull Requests that haven't been JSHinted, so don't let it put you off contributing, but do know that we'll reformat your source before going live with it.
Please add them to the Issue Tracker with as much info as possible, especially source code demonstrating the issue.
"Being negative is not how we make progress" - Larry Page, Google
Phaser is released under the MIT License.