Introducing MoveableMap

March 18th, 2008

I posted this on my other, more tech/web-dev oriented blog, but since it’s a great tool (or at least example to learn from) for web-based game developers, I figured I’d mention it here.

MoveableMap is a javascript library (open source, MIT license) that allows you to turn any block of HTML into a draggable, moveable entity within a viewport. Similar to the draggable behavior of Google Maps, but hopefully very easy to implement.

More information and demos can be found here: MoveableMap

Posted by RangerSheck Filed in PBBG

2 Responses to “Introducing MoveableMap”

  1. overklokan Says:
    May 7th, 2008 at 12:23 PM

    i personally don’t use prototype.js … yes, it’s fine and one can do a lot of things with it but it’s BIG, too big for me to even think about making it necessary part for my game! movable map is great really but as i said it comes with rather high “cost” ...

  2. RangerSheck Says:
    May 16th, 2008 at 01:40 PM

    That’s a pretty common complaint about prototype. With gzip compression (pretty standard on most web servers today) you’re really only talking about 30 kb though (plus a few more if you’re adding scriptaculous to the mix). That’s all stuff that gets pulled down once and then cached by the browser. In this day, when people are regularly loading Flash files that range from a couple hundred KB to a few MB, a little it of js is nothing :)

    I gotta say though, it’s that big library that makes everything else easier. If not for prototype, some scriptaculous, and lowpro, MoveableMap wouldn’t be so light and skinny. And the beauty of MoveableMap is in the fact that it’s so unobtrusive. In my opinion, the cost of using prototype up front is heavily out-weighed by the returns in the end: cleaner, easier-to-use code for the developer.

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