What is good HTML5 application engine that is similar to Phaser?

[notalentgeek]

So I have a project to create a museum simulation and how to manage visitor regulation per exhibitions within the museum. I made this simulator using Phaser and you can see the prototype here http://notalentgeek.itch.io/e-phasermuseumvisitorsimulator (it is hard to explain what it is, I just done the the code yesterday from a day of programming, but feel free to ask).

 

My case here is that I need a HTML5 application framework that has similarity to Phaser, programming wise. I feel that Phaser cannot go beyond what I have done in term of creating simple and neat UI for non video game application. Perhaps, something like Unity GUI designer for two dimensional game. I have no background in HTML5 prior Phaser, so I would like to know if there is any UI framework to create simple application that similar to Phaser programming wise, so that I do not need to really learn it from scratch.

 

I have experience in Unity, Flixel, Phaser, GameMaker, Processing, and oF. I currently have my eyes on IonicFramework (http://ionicframework.com/) but I would like to know if there is better option to create HTML5 application (desktop and mobile).

[Skeptron]

I'm very surprised you've thought about Phaser (or any game engine) to do your application. I mean, it's just text and numbers. HTML is the most appropriate solution for that, I don't quite see the need for a game engine : you won't use physics, and you probably don't even need a canvas. I would do your thing with plain HTML and a JS framework like AngularJS.

 

Maybe using Phaser makes it easier to export to mobile. Using plain HTML would need some CSS work for app resizing and adaptability. But at least you texts would always be sharp and "copy/pastable". For such a simple setup (tables), I'm pretty sure there's a lot of UI frameworks out there that would do it easily.

[notalentgeek]

Phaser is the only HTML5 framework I have ever use and I have no knowledge on HTML things (css, js, etc) aside from Phaser. So I thought I can make a quick prototype using Phaser to see how far I can go. Now, I need a framework of which has support for user interface, like what Unity has for its user interface designer (https://unity3d.com/learn/tutorials/topics/user-interface-ui). 

[drhayes]

I'll second Skeptron here: don't build this in Phaser. There are many problems that are trivial in straight HTML that would be horrendous in Phaser. Seriously, it might *seem* easier from the start because you know Phaser but it will be *much* harder later when you reach Phaser's limits.

 

If you use something like Angular you'll find lots of tutorials out on the web that'll get you started.

[netcell]

Similar to Phaser, Unity didn't have a GUI functionalities for a very long time (there were plugins but no official components until recently).

 

Both Phaser and Unity are frameworks for game, using them for creating application is not only harder, but also make the application size larger (like Unity app with nothing but the core would easily takes 8 - 10Mb) and decrease the performance (The rendering system does not fit with efficient UI rendering, unlike DOM).

 

If you are targeting desktop application, I would recommend Angular.js. I personally use Angular.js and it is great, and the upcoming Angular2 is freaking awesome. Another option is Backbone, which support server rendering (required for SEO). The SEO problem is addressed in Angular2 and there are also work-arounds for Angular.js.

 

If you are targeting mobile, I would very much recommend Ionic (based on Angular.js) for it is very easy to use. Famo.us and Sencha Touch are well known for 60fps layout animation on mobile, both doesn't use HTML markup but generate DOM elements from javascript and the learning curve is much harder. React.js from Facebook is trending lately and with React Native is coming, you can write mobile html app with native UI rendering.

 

Have fun doing what you do, but I would say, take time and learn javascript and HTML5 first

[chg]

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