Let's have a little playtime

Now that you have this task out of the way, close Monk again. Why? Because we should first see what kinds of games you could create, and then get familiar with Monkey and its feature set.

Game developers should always play other computer games, not only to have fun but also to study them. When you play a game, try to analyze how it could be done; how a certain feature affects gameplay. Or look at the technical aspects of a game, such as what kind of graphic effects a game uses, how the game rewards the player, and so on. You can get so much information out of a game, that it really can help you become a better game developer and designer.

And to get a better picture of Monkey's abilities, you should take the time now to play some games that have already been created with Monkey. As two of Monkey's target platforms are HTML5 and Flash, we can do this inside your browser.

Just make sure you have installed Internet Explorer 9, Firefox 4, Safari, or Google's Chrome browser. Chrome seems to feature the best performance when it comes to HTML5, but it is up to your personal preference.

Ok, head again to Monkey's website, and from there into the apps section. Have a look and play the first game we want to try.