Automating Your Workflow with Node.js and Grunt - HTML5 Game Development Insights - page 372

Create a reproducible build process : If you are working as part of a large team, or even
on your own, you will want to make sure that you can quickly set up and run the game's
code at the same time whenever you set up a project from scratch or share it with another
developer.
As you can see, there is a lot that you can take advantage of with automated build scripts, but it's not easy work.
It requires you to sit down and map out your process and how to optimize that process. In this chapter, I will walk you
through the basics of how I create my own build scripts and give you suggestions on how to apply these solutions to
your own project. To get started, you will need to download and install Node.js .
Installing Node.js
One of the reasons I picked Node.js to build my automation solution was because of how easy it is to install locally.
When most people hear “Node,” they think “server side.” Little do they know that Node.js features a powerful
command-line integration with an operating system (OS) that can be run locally. Moreover, Node.js runs on
Windows, MacIntosh, and Linux, making it ideal for any developer's coding platform of choice. To get started, you will
need the correct installer for your OS. You can get it from the official Node.js web site ( http://nodejs.org ) . As you
can see in Figure 23-1 , you simply click the Downloads button, and the site will automatically detect your OS.
Figure 23-1. You can get the latest build of Node.js at http://nodejs.org
Once the installer has downloaded, run through the installer wizard, leaving the default settings, as shown in
Figure 23-2 .