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Why HTML5 is the best platform for rapid game development

austinhallock.com

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Re: Why HTML5 is the best platform for rapid game development

#31

Post by varelse »

All IMO of course, but programming HTML 5 Canvas apps today feels like having a late 1980s vintage CPU strapped to an early 2000s GPU. This is a really unbalanced combination IMO.

Given this imbalance, when I was at a recent employer, I suggested that exposing OpenCL or CUDA within the browser could lead to some really cool games and web apps. I was soundly shut down. Right around the same time, WebCL was announced: http://www.khronos.org/webcl/.

But it doesn't seem like it's moving particularly fast, sigh...

Re: Why HTML5 is the best platform for rapid game development

#34

Post by nextparadigms »

varelse wrote: post #31

All IMO of course, but programming HTML 5 Canvas apps today feels like having a late 1980s vintage CPU strapped to an early 2000s GPU. This is a really unbalanced combination IMO. Given this imbalance, when I was at a recent employer, I suggested that exposing OpenCL or CUDA within the browser could lead to some really cool games and web apps. I was soundly shut down. Right around the same time, WebCL was announced:…

OpenCL is going to become a big thing for games going into 2013 now that all new mobile GPU's will support it. Thew new GPU's will also support OpenGL ES 3.0, so I'm curious what kind of mobile games we'll see within a year or so.

Re: Why HTML5 is the best platform for rapid game development

#35

Post by riffraff »

sil3ntmac wrote: post #22
riffraff wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>it's certainly possible to create a quality game under time constraints in C++, Java, what-have-you, my thoughts however are that HTML5 is the optimal platform for that. you should probably substantiate that, at least in the article if not here, as you have not given any reason for why this would be true (I have no idea if it is or not). It may well be, but nothing of what you wrote in the article supports this. EDI…

I would argue that "not a plugin" and "not controlled by a single corporation" are more than "irrelevant". Here's a few reasons: - Want to port your game to a new platform (game console? embedded device?) - just get webkit/mozilla/ to compile. Although this is no small task, in many cases it can be easier and way faster than rewriting the code for an entire game. not to mention this mandates one port per console, rat…

they are mightily important concerns but not relevant to "create a quality game under time constraints".

Take flash, which is evil in a plugin and controlled by a cruel corporation and runs on unicorn blood. You will still be able to create a game in 24 hours and put it on the market, people do it all the time. No ipad? Sure, read the end of my previous comment.

Also, while this is still irrelevant (cause the statement is that html5 is better than all the others, but there are plenty of open source things), I don't see how finding a bug in the iOS sdk is any different than finding a bug in a browser's canvas implementation. You work around it in both cases cause you can't control your users software setup.

And the fact that iOS apps have to go through an approval process bears no weight in the generic statement that a proprietary platform causes slow time to market.

Re: Why HTML5 is the best platform for rapid game development

#38

Post by dsirijus »

As a rapid game producer, I'm calling this bullshit.

Fastest rapid game dev is with Flash, and nothing has come even close to it (just poke around game dev jams).

Now, if you need mobile support, go with HaXe, it has HTML5 target too. As well as native iOS and Android and much more.

Re: Why HTML5 is the best platform for rapid game development

#39

Post by pjmlp »

jiggy2011 wrote: post #6

With HTML5 you also have to worry about the cross browser compatibility mess , which doesn't seem to work well as "rapid" development. Not to mention that I think writing something like a scene graph in JS would make me rage.

This is exactly why the only place for applications is the desktop with native applications.

The gain in productivity wins hands down against the mess of having JavaScript+HTML+CSS working the same way across browsers and OS.

Re: Why HTML5 is the best platform for rapid game development

#40

Post by Dove »

I don’t think anyone will argue the fact that the only other platform I would’ve been able to rapidly develop and deploy games like Nick vs Bus and Word Wars would be Flash.

I would argue it. The speed with which you can develop simple games has much more to do with how well you understand the platform itself (its tools, libraries, capabilities) than what the platform is.

I'm not saying platforms and languages don't intrinsically affect your pace. They do. But it also depends a lot on what you're doing. One language lets you write a web server in an hour; another allows fast and robust mathematical analysis. Writing a fun game in 24 hours is such a pliable goal that you could clear it with, say, a graphing calculator, an industrial robot, or a Word macro. To say nothing of languages people actually write games in!

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