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App Should Have Been a Website (and Probably Your Game Too)

rogueengine.io

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Re: App Should Have Been a Website (and Probably Your Game Too)

#101

Post by alexpotato »

One of my kids recently started playing travel basketball and being a nerdy, into stats tech dad I wanted to take stats on the game.

Instead of downloading an existing app, I decided to see if I could write my own web app with the following constraints:

- no frameworks

- just basic javascript

- track multiple stats

- be able to enter stats via phone and only using one hand

- while also holding a 4 year old in my other arm

It was a fun exercise and I actually got it working! It can track multiple players, multiple stats and even saves the data to a server for later viewing or more analysis.

"You can just build things" also includes fully functional web apps using old school technologies to solve your own needs/constraints.

Re: App Should Have Been a Website (and Probably Your Game Too)

#102

Post by anderber »

perons wrote: post #98

One comment that I haven't seen yet and that puts PWA for Games in jeopardy: the maximum caching allowed for Safari PWA's (thus the whole iOS ecossystem) is only 50mb. Most mid-core / hardcore mobile games are bigger than that after downloading remote assets when the app loads for the first time, and this means a player of a mid-core PWA game would have to redownload a good chunk of the assets everytime the game load…

Safari has always hampered PWAs, and probably for the reason that they want you to use the appstore instead ($$$).

Re: App Should Have Been a Website (and Probably Your Game Too)

#103

Post by ukoki »

jbombadil wrote: post #67

As a consumer, I understand the need of a native app for something that is performance intensive or that requires a level of OS access that the website doesn’t provide. OTOH, in tired of everyone pushing apps that could easily be a website. I had an xfinity technician aggressively pushing me to install their xfi app when they came to install the service. They told me it was the only good way to configure the WiFi (!)…

I don't think it has anything to do with performance. Apps make it far easier to advertise to users.

You can send the users a notification even when they aren't using the app

It's much harder or impossible for users to block in-app advertising

It's easier to track users via apps, and your tracking data will be richer, more accurate and therefore more valuable.

Until this changes, we'll get stupid apps that should have been websites.

Re: App Should Have Been a Website (and Probably Your Game Too)

#104

Post by xcv123 »

rubymamis wrote: post #53
oneeyedpigeon wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Any text editor that struggles to load a large text file... Define "large". If it's bigger than the biggest text file I'll ever open, then I don't care. My point is that "efficient" code isn't absolutely necessary in many, many cases.

The problem with that mentality is that you start seeing inefficiencies spring everywhere (why loading Discord takes so long? Slack? etc, etc).

It’s a third world mindset where we end up with the software equivalent of public defecation, living in squalor and filth.

Re: App Should Have Been a Website (and Probably Your Game Too)

#105

Post by DrBenCarson »

anderber wrote: post #102
perons wrote: post #98

One comment that I haven't seen yet and that puts PWA for Games in jeopardy: the maximum caching allowed for Safari PWA's (thus the whole iOS ecossystem) is only 50mb. Most mid-core / hardcore mobile games are bigger than that after downloading remote assets when the app loads for the first time, and this means a player of a mid-core PWA game would have to redownload a good chunk of the assets everytime the game load…

Safari has always hampered PWAs, and probably for the reason that they want you to use the appstore instead ($$$).

Is Android dramatically better for PWAs?

Re: App Should Have Been a Website (and Probably Your Game Too)

#106

Post by [deleted] »

jampekka wrote: post #19
mertbio wrote: post #16

> But fast-forward to today, and browsers can do all that. Browsers can't access all the APIs in iOS. > Developers pay hefty app store fees You pay 99$ per year and 15% for each sale. Apple handles VAT, refunds, distribution and so on. > They’re faster, more flexible, and work seamlessly across devices. Native apps? Not so much. Enabling iCloud sync for your app is just a single click on Xcode. > Why Web Apps Are the…

There are other platforms than iOS.

[deleted]

Re: App Should Have Been a Website (and Probably Your Game Too)

#108

Post by e12e »

mertbio wrote: post #16

> But fast-forward to today, and browsers can do all that. Browsers can't access all the APIs in iOS. > Developers pay hefty app store fees You pay 99$ per year and 15% for each sale. Apple handles VAT, refunds, distribution and so on. > They’re faster, more flexible, and work seamlessly across devices. Native apps? Not so much. Enabling iCloud sync for your app is just a single click on Xcode. > Why Web Apps Are the…

>> They’re faster, more flexible, and work seamlessly across devices. Native apps? Not so much.

> Enabling iCloud sync for your app is just a single click on Xcode.

How well does that work on Android, Linux and Windows desktop, ChromeOS?

Re: App Should Have Been a Website (and Probably Your Game Too)

#110

Post by [deleted] »

adastra22 wrote: post #3
gazchop wrote: post #2

I disagree. The problem is more nuanced. A well implemented (native) app is always better than a well implemented web site. The problem is poorly implemented apps which are just UI wrappers hitting dumb APIs or embedding entire web stacks which hit dumb APIs. A well implemented web app isn't much better than that. They don't work offline, they use way more resources than anything native and they leak data like a siev…

> at Rogue Engine, we’re committed to being the go-to game engine for Three.js and the web and there you go, author has a vested interest in you making web apps.

[deleted]
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