3 ms·

An Onslaught of Mobile HTML Games

17 points by borismus 16y ago

citricsquid 16y ago
> In the short term, HTML as a gaming platform is emerging as a real Flash killer. ha ha, good joke.
- lukifer 16y ago
  This is true, but mostly because Flash currently has better authoring tools which many creatives and game designers already know, as opposed to HTML5, which requires significant programming skill. But in pure performance, I'd say that <canvas> already outperforms Flash for sprite graphics, at least on Linux and Mac. Long-term? The writing is on the wall for Flash. Hopefully Adobe will realize how money they could make transitioning to selling authoring tools that use open web standards.
  - citricsquid 16y ago
    If we assume that authoring tools don't matter and that the average game will be at the complexity level of Scrabble, sure HTML(5) is a "Flash Killer" but unfortunately the authoring tools do matter and the most impressive/popular games are more advanced than Scrabble. Flash is (in part) hugely popular because of the barrier to entry, with HTML(5) that is significantly higher.
  - benologist 16y ago
    HTML5 vs. Flash is a very short-sighted argument. The real fight is mobile where it's yet to even be proven Flash is viable. Those native platforms are Objective C, Java, .NET, Unity etc... and those platforms are strong and the vendors are building enormous revenue streams developers can tap straight into by filling out some paperwork. As business models emerge and if the technical barriers erode down to something players will accept HTML5 will probably end up coexisting alongside Flash games on major portals. SPIL Games is very committed to that outcome and doing what they can to propel it onto mobile devices through http://www.html5contest.com http://www.html5contest.com. I've got my HTML5 api almost sorted out which will provide JavaScript games some pretty cool tools they can build on top of. But if it's going to actually win then it needs to conquer iOS or Android. The rest will fall from that because that's where the Angry Birds and Doodle Jump sized success stories are coming from, not Flash where there's just a phenomenally big audience that's not monetized as effectively (excluding social which is so hyper-competitive the platform you build on is the least important decision you'll make).

17 points by borismus 16y ago

citricsquid 16y ago

> In the short term, HTML as a gaming platform is emerging as a real Flash killer. ha ha, good joke.

lukifer 16y ago
This is true, but mostly because Flash currently has better authoring tools which many creatives and game designers already know, as opposed to HTML5, which requires significant programming skill. But in pure performance, I'd say that <canvas> already outperforms Flash for sprite graphics, at least on Linux and Mac. Long-term? The writing is on the wall for Flash. Hopefully Adobe will realize how money they could make transitioning to selling authoring tools that use open web standards.
- citricsquid 16y ago
  If we assume that authoring tools don't matter and that the average game will be at the complexity level of Scrabble, sure HTML(5) is a "Flash Killer" but unfortunately the authoring tools do matter and the most impressive/popular games are more advanced than Scrabble. Flash is (in part) hugely popular because of the barrier to entry, with HTML(5) that is significantly higher.
- benologist 16y ago
  HTML5 vs. Flash is a very short-sighted argument. The real fight is mobile where it's yet to even be proven Flash is viable. Those native platforms are Objective C, Java, .NET, Unity etc... and those platforms are strong and the vendors are building enormous revenue streams developers can tap straight into by filling out some paperwork. As business models emerge and if the technical barriers erode down to something players will accept HTML5 will probably end up coexisting alongside Flash games on major portals. SPIL Games is very committed to that outcome and doing what they can to propel it onto mobile devices through http://www.html5contest.com http://www.html5contest.com. I've got my HTML5 api almost sorted out which will provide JavaScript games some pretty cool tools they can build on top of. But if it's going to actually win then it needs to conquer iOS or Android. The rest will fall from that because that's where the Angry Birds and Doodle Jump sized success stories are coming from, not Flash where there's just a phenomenally big audience that's not monetized as effectively (excluding social which is so hyper-competitive the platform you build on is the least important decision you'll make).