Developing a Cross-Platform Mobile Game with React Native and Phaser #GameDev #ReactNative #Phaser

Table of Contents

Day 1: Introduction & Setting Up Phaser with React Native

In this 10-day tutorial series, you’ll learn how to build a cross-platform mobile game using React Native and Phaser, combining the power of mobile app development with a full-featured 2D game engine. Each tutorial will build progressively, with fully working code at every step.

🔧 What You’ll Learn Today

Introduction to Phaser and React Native
How to set up a React Native project with Expo
How to integrate Phaser using a WebView
Test a simple Phaser “Hello World” scene inside your mobile app

🧠 Why Phaser + React Native?

Phaser is a popular JavaScript game engine for creating 2D games. React Native is the go-to framework for building cross-platform mobile apps. When combined using a WebView, you can run full Phaser games inside a mobile app, giving you the best of both worlds.

✅ Prerequisites

Node.js installed (download here)
Expo CLI: npm install -g expo-cli
Basic knowledge of React Native
A mobile emulator or Expo Go app installed on your device

📦 Step 1: Initialize Your React Native Project

Use Expo to create the project:

expo init react-native-phaser-game

Choose blank (JavaScript) when prompted.

Navigate into your project:

cd react-native-phaser-game

Install WebView:

expo install react-native-webview

🎮 Step 2: Add a Phaser HTML Template

Create a folder assets/phaser inside your project:

mkdir -p assets/phaser

Create a file game.html inside assets/phaser:

<!-- assets/phaser/game.html -->
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
  <meta charset="UTF-8" />
  <title>Phaser Game</title>
  <script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/[email protected]/dist/phaser.js"></script>
  <style>
    body {
      margin: 0;
      overflow: hidden;
    }
    canvas {
      display: block;
    }
  </style>
</head>
<body>
  <script>
    const config = {
      type: Phaser.AUTO,
      width: 320,
      height: 480,
      scene: {
        preload,
        create,
      },
    };

    function preload() {
      this.load.image('logo', 'https://labs.phaser.io/assets/sprites/phaser3-logo.png');
    }

    function create() {
      this.add.image(160, 240, 'logo');
    }

    new Phaser.Game(config);
  </script>
</body>
</html>

📱 Step 3: Load Phaser Game via WebView in React Native

Open App.js and replace its contents with:

import React from 'react';
import { WebView } from 'react-native-webview';
import { Platform } from 'react-native';

export default function App() {
  const source = Platform.select({
    ios: require('./assets/phaser/game.html'),
    android: { uri: 'file:///android_asset/game.html' },
  });

  return (
    <WebView
      originWhitelist={['*']}
      source={source}
      javaScriptEnabled={true}
      domStorageEnabled={true}
      style={{ flex: 1 }}
    />
  );
}

⚠️ Note for Android

To make it work on Android:

You need to manually copy game.html into the correct android/app/src/main/assets/ directory using a postinstall script or custom script during build.
You can also host game.html temporarily on a local server using python3 -m http.server or use the uri method to fetch it.

🚀 Run the App

Start the Expo server:

expo start

Scan the QR code in Expo Go (iOS/Android) and you should see the Phaser logo rendered inside your app.

✅ What You’ve Achieved

Created a React Native + Phaser development environment
Displayed your first Phaser game scene in a WebView
Set the stage for building an interactive game experience

📌 Up Next

In Day 2, we’ll create a basic game loop, handle user input (touch/tap), and render sprites dynamically. We’ll also refactor code into separate files for better organization.

Stay tuned as we build a fully working mobile arcade game over 10 days!

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