BrowserQuest is a HTML5/JavaScript multiplayer game experiment.

It has two major parts:

• the server side, which runs using Node.js
• the client side, which runs in your browser

Getting the server up and running is pretty easy. You need to have the following installed:

• Node.js (v0.8.x works, v0.6.x series should work, other versions are unknown - let us know if you test them!)
• gcc-c++
• GNU make
• zlib-devel <-- this is the Fedora/RHEL package name, others may be slightly different

Clone the git repo:

$ git clone git://github.com/browserquest/BrowserQuest.git
$ cd BrowserQuest

Then install the Node.js dependencies by running:

$ npm install -d

Then start the server by running:

$ node server/js/main.js

The BrowserQuest server should start, showing output like this:

$ node server/js/main.js
This server can be customized by creating a configuration file named: ./server/config_local.json
[Thu Sep 13 2012 17:16:27 GMT-0400 (EDT)] INFO Starting BrowserQuest game server...
[Thu Sep 13 2012 17:16:27 GMT-0400 (EDT)] INFO world1 created (capacity: 200 players).
[Thu Sep 13 2012 17:16:27 GMT-0400 (EDT)] INFO world2 created (capacity: 200 players).
[Thu Sep 13 2012 17:16:27 GMT-0400 (EDT)] INFO world3 created (capacity: 200 players).
[Thu Sep 13 2012 17:16:27 GMT-0400 (EDT)] INFO world4 created (capacity: 200 players).
[Thu Sep 13 2012 17:16:27 GMT-0400 (EDT)] INFO world5 created (capacity: 200 players).
[Thu Sep 13 2012 17:16:27 GMT-0400 (EDT)] INFO Server (everything) is listening on port 8000

That means its working. There should not be any warnings or errors.

Using a browser, connect to port 8000 of the server entered above. The BrowserQuest start page should appear, and the game should work.

• Firefox (any recent) - Works well.
• Safari 6.x - Background music doesn't play. Everything else works well.
• Chrome - Sounds effects don't work.
• Chromium - Varies wildly. Some releases display using BrowserQuest's "mobile" layout, with very small screen. Not recommended.
• Opera - Doesn't work, no WebSocket support.
• IE (any version) - Untested.

On Fedora 16 and RHEL 6/CentOS 6, the rpms here are known to work:

http://justinclift.fedorapeople.org/nodejs/

Note, those rpms are ugly, unofficial builds by @justinclift. You are most welcome to improve on them. :)

Lots of useful info on the wiki.

The mailing list for development is at browserquest@librelist.com. (archives)

To subscribe, just send an email to that address. Your initial email will be dropped, but will start the subscription.

#browserquest on irc.synirc.net

Code is licensed under MPL 2.0. Content is licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0. See the LICENSE file for details.

Originally created by Little Workshop:

• Franck Lecollinet - @whatthefranck
• Guillaume Lecollinet - @glecollinet

All of the music in BrowserQuest comes from Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC BY 3.0) sources.

• Aaron Krogh - beach
• Terrel O'Brien - boss, cave, desert, lavaland
• Dan Tilden - forest
• Joel Day - village

Many other people are contributing through GitHub:

• Myles Recny @mkrecny
• Ben Noordhuis @bnoordhuis
• Taylor Fausak @tfausak
• William Bowers @willurd
• Steve Gricci @sgricci
• Dave Eddy @bahamas10
• Mathias Bynens @mathiasbynens
• Rob McCann @unforeseen
• Scott Noel-Hemming @frogstarr78
• Kornel Lesiński @pornel
• Korvin Szanto @KorvinSzanto
• Jeff Lang @jeffplang
• Tom McKay @thomasmckay
• Justin Clift @justinclift
• Brynn Bateman @brynnb
• Dylen Rivera @dylenbrivera