4 ms·

I hope you're right. We've had this capability for quite some time but for some reason it never takes off. Bastion released a version for Chrome's native client

by meritt 8y ago

I hope you're right. We've had this capability for quite some time but for some reason it never takes off. Bastion released a version for Chrome's native client 7 years ago, the game ran amazingly well, but that version of the game doesn't seem to exist anymore. NaCl was shut down in favor of webassembly so here's hoping. [1] https://kotaku.com/5866594/you-can-now-play-bastion-in-googles-chrome-web-browser https://kotaku.com/5866594/you-can-now-play-bastion-in-googl... [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvKEomoiKBA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvKEomoiKBA

styfle 8y ago
NaCl was not cross platform and not standardized the same way that Web Assembly is.
- muthdra 8y ago
  Web Assembly blew up very fast because it's minimalistic design makes it easy to agree on and implement on top of browsers.
  - oso2k 8y ago
    Web Assembly also does not expose browser vendors to Intel’s patent portfolio.
    - deleted 8y ago
      [deleted]
badsectoracula 8y ago
On the other hand i hope he's wrong because that means games can die at the whim of whoever hosts the servers (they already have tons of issues with DRM and such). Personally i prefer to have control over when and where the games (and other software) i have are installed and i prefer to buy games from GOG and other DRM-free places (that give me an offline installer i can place on my external hard drive) whenever possible, but comparing the popularity between GOG and Steam with developers and publishers tells me that if the option for them to take even more control away from the consumers is there, the vast majority of them will go full on it. This loss of control over the software i use is my main annoyance by far as a user when it comes to the trend of pushing everything as a web app.
- meritt 8y ago
  Oh, I completely agree with your sentiment but I don't think that means it has to be hosted remotely. No reason you shouldn't be able to download a packaged web binary to run locally. I wonder if webassembly supports that notion or not?
  - krapp 8y ago
    >I wonder if webassembly supports that notion or not? It does[0]. It's just a spec for a bytecode, and it's designed with the intent of being run in the browser and natively. [0]https://webassembly.org/docs/non-web/ https://webassembly.org/docs/non-web/
  - badsectoracula 8y ago
    There isn't really a reason to offer a game as a web application if the goal isn't to have it run inside the web browser though. As i wrote in the other reply, i'm not worried about the best thing to do that is technically possible with the method, but what is the most likely to happen (assuming publishing games as web applications take off in the first place, of course).
- erikpukinskis 8y ago
  Web applications can be packaged for offline use. It’d be cool if browsers let you back up local copies of sites though.
  - badsectoracula 8y ago
    How many web applications do you know that do that, especially compared to those that do not? I'm not worried about what is the best one can do, but what is the most likely.
- seangrogg 8y ago
  Assuming the game had no server component beyond the distribution itself (i.e. no online multiplayer or similar) there's no reason you couldn't just save the distributed files and open them in an appropriate client (namely wasm-friendly browsers as of right now).

by meritt 8y ago

styfle 8y ago

NaCl was not cross platform and not standardized the same way that Web Assembly is.

muthdra 8y ago
Web Assembly blew up very fast because it's minimalistic design makes it easy to agree on and implement on top of browsers.
- oso2k 8y ago
  Web Assembly also does not expose browser vendors to Intel’s patent portfolio.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]

badsectoracula 8y ago

On the other hand i hope he's wrong because that means games can die at the whim of whoever hosts the servers (they already have tons of issues with DRM and such). Personally i prefer to have control over when and where the games (and other software) i have are installed and i prefer to buy games from GOG and other DRM-free places (that give me an offline installer i can place on my external hard drive) whenever possible, but comparing the popularity between GOG and Steam with developers and publishers tells me that if the option for them to take even more control away from the consumers is there, the vast majority of them will go full on it. This loss of control over the software i use is my main annoyance by far as a user when it comes to the trend of pushing everything as a web app.

meritt 8y ago
Oh, I completely agree with your sentiment but I don't think that means it has to be hosted remotely. No reason you shouldn't be able to download a packaged web binary to run locally. I wonder if webassembly supports that notion or not?
- krapp 8y ago
  >I wonder if webassembly supports that notion or not? It does[0]. It's just a spec for a bytecode, and it's designed with the intent of being run in the browser and natively. [0]https://webassembly.org/docs/non-web/ https://webassembly.org/docs/non-web/
- badsectoracula 8y ago
  There isn't really a reason to offer a game as a web application if the goal isn't to have it run inside the web browser though. As i wrote in the other reply, i'm not worried about the best thing to do that is technically possible with the method, but what is the most likely to happen (assuming publishing games as web applications take off in the first place, of course).
erikpukinskis 8y ago
Web applications can be packaged for offline use. It’d be cool if browsers let you back up local copies of sites though.
- badsectoracula 8y ago
  How many web applications do you know that do that, especially compared to those that do not? I'm not worried about what is the best one can do, but what is the most likely.
seangrogg 8y ago
Assuming the game had no server component beyond the distribution itself (i.e. no online multiplayer or similar) there's no reason you couldn't just save the distributed files and open them in an appropriate client (namely wasm-friendly browsers as of right now).