I was wondering if my 2D Pixel Art platformer HTML5 game(a lot of words there..) should have loading screens for maps.
My game has different maps and I don't know if a loading screen should be implemented to transition to those maps, they are already loaded when the page finished loading right?
The framework I am using is Phaserjs.
Thanks for your help :')
On some consoles, it is required to have a loading screen if it takes more than x seconds to load, and the loading screen has to have a 'loading' animation if it takes more than x+y seconds to load.
This is on console, where you know the device and can be quite certain that the time it takes to load a part of the game will be the same for all users.
Since this is in JavaScript, you don't have such control, so the time to load a part of the game will vary a lot from a user to another.
If you're not able to stream content while the user is playing the game, and your game is made in such a way that the player could be waiting for a part of it to load, it would be advisable to plan to use a loading screen.
That depends on how you load your maps and how long it takes. Depending on how it is programmed, a Javascript application can either start downloading a resource on pageload or when it actually needs it. Both can optionally be hidden behind a loading screen with a bit of effort.
When your application has a lot of resources to load (or is on a slow server), there are two possible ways it could react (again, depending on how you programmed it). It either shows a blank page or it looks really broken because it tries its best to run even though not all images are loaded yet. The first makes the user think your game doesn't work at all and the second makes them think it's super glitchy. Both will result in the user closing the browser tab before they got a real impression of your game.
But when you add a preloader which immediately shows a nicely designed loading bar, it gives the player the immediate impression "Yes, this game is working fine, just keep the tab open for a moment. I promise you won't regret it". And when the loading is finished you can be sure that all resources are there and the player experiences your game as you designed it.
When you add preloaders, there are two options: Either one in the beginning which loads all resources at once or one before every level. The first option means it will take longer until the title screen appears. Some players will get impatient and close the browser tab. But on the other hand, loading during the game can also be an annoying interruption. This is a decision you have to make on a case-by-case basis.
By the way, when you want to test how your game would load with a bad internet connection, I recommend the question "How can I simulate a bad internet connection for testing purposes?" (the question applies to stand-alone games, but the answers can be applied when you install a local webserver to put your game on).
