CoffeeScript is “a little language that compiles into JavaScript.”1 It aims to smooth over some of JavaScript’s rougher edges while highlighting and augmenting the impressive flexibility at the core of the JavaScript language. It’s clean, concise, and maintainable, and makes writing client-side code really, really fun.

Jump Start CoffeeScript is a book about CoffeeScript. Its goal is to help you become productive with CoffeeScript as quickly as possible. From the first line in the book, you’ll be writing code that shows just how easy it is to take the plunge into this delightfully addictive world.

Along the way, we’ll make a game. Not just the outer husk of a boring space-based shoot ’em up, but a complete, extensible HTML5 game with tile maps, particle effects, AI, and (of course) ninjas. You’ll see how CoffeeScript’s succinctness and elegance is the perfect partner for effectively prototyping and refining your ideas.

That’s it. By the end of this book, you’ll know how to make HTML5 games, and proficiently code (and think) in CoffeeScript, as well as have a deeper understanding of the power and beauty of JavaScript itself.