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Microsoft launches an HTML5 version of Cut the Rope
- crabasa 15y agoIf you're curious about some of the developer issues they ran into porting to HTML5, check-out http://cuttherope.ie/dev http://cuttherope.ie/dev.
- jQueryIsAwesome 15y agoLooks like the url needs the "www" to work: http://www.cuttherope.ie/dev http://www.cuttherope.ie/dev
- marcamillion 15y agoLove this. Guess I missed the game when it initially debuted. But this is hella fun!
- hippich 15y agoIt stuck on 00% on biggest balloon and nothing happens. Is it only IE10 compatible? (running Ubuntu so can not see what it looks like in IE)
- thristian 15y agoDidn't work for me in Firefox 11/Linux until I turned off my Flash blocker, then it crashed after hitting 99%. Seems to work OK in Chrome 16, though.
- andrewpi 15y agoWorks fine for me on Firefox 9.0.1/Mac!
- eridius 15y agoVery cool, runs flawlessly in Safari.
- obilgic 15y agoMy mouse does not show up, chrome 17 + mac
- drivebyacct2 15y agoMake sure you enable Flash. Not sure why it's necessary, maybe cross site loading? Works really well (Chrome 17.0.963.26 dev, Linux), I got sucked in and played several levels. Kind of sad that at the end of the "trial", you're prompted to buy the game on iOS or Android.
- coda_ 15y agoit's cause they are using flash for audio if not IE9 or greater (as in IE10). you can force html5 audio instead of flash audio using this link: http://www.cuttherope.ie/?html5audio=true http://www.cuttherope.ie/?html5audio=true Let me know if that works.
- zalew 15y agono it doesn't. with flashblock it's 00% all the time (ff)
- drivebyacct2 15y agoWith the link he provided and that override, the site doesn't prompt me to load Flash at all.
- fritzy 15y agoYeah, the html5audio option doesn't seem to work in Firefox with Flash disabled.
- drivebyacct2 15y agoAw, too bad. They must be aware they're blocking browsers that support it if they have that override. But yes, that does work for me. (*Edit: it appears audio is [at worst] broken in Chrome stable according to the dev blog for this project). Yup, doesn't even try to load Flash at all now, great!
- AshleysBrain 15y agoChrome is the only browser to support the Web Audio API (which isn't fully standardised yet anyway I don't think), but that is an amazing API for audio, and is far better than HTML5 audio.
- FPSDavid 15y agoWorks for me on W7 64-bit with Firefox 9.0.1
- coda_ 15y agoEDIT: Try this if it's not working for you: http://www.cuttherope.ie/?html5audio=true http://www.cuttherope.ie/?html5audio=true (read below for more info) Runs great in Chrome for me. I have the android app and this html5 version runs really well... after playing the first couple of levels, it runs just a well as the android game. Tried loading the game in android browser, no go... also tried loading it in the dophin browser within android... no go (both just site at 00%). Was curious what they were using for playing audio so I had a look at the code. They are using SoundManager2 (http://schillmania.com/projects/soundmanager2/ http://schillmania.com/projects/soundmanager2/) which will play audio using either html5 or flash (it's great, have used it on a few projects in the past)... I believe it dynamically detects what's available. Looking at the code though, I see they (MS/Zepto Lab) are only using html5 audio on IE9 or greater, and flash for everything else... if you want to force html5 audio, use this link: http://www.cuttherope.ie/?html5audio=true http://www.cuttherope.ie/?html5audio=true This might fix issues people are having for browsers that don't support (or block) flash. Haven't tried in an iOS browser, but that link might increases your chances of it working there :) Using that link I was able to get it to load in browser on Android and started the game, but couldn't cut the rope, likely cause it's not built to handle touch events. Too bad.
- johnbatch 15y agoLoads fine on my iPhone, and plays the audio, but the swipe motion doesn't work, it just wants to pan the screen from left to right.
- coda_ 15y agoYa, I don't they are handling the touch events unfortunately.
- drivebyacct2 15y agoGet to 72% and then stalls (multiple times) on Android 4.0.3. (edit, and later finishs if you wait long enough apparently) Animation is very fluid, perfect. The sounds seemed a bit choppy, but otherwise it looks very, very playable if touch events were supported!)
- aChrisSmith 15y agoI'm confused why Microsoft would sponsor something like this. Google going after game developers and getting them to port their apps to HTML5 makes sense, as it supports the Web as a platform as well as promotes the Chrome Web Store. Is the plan that the Windows8 App Store feature Chrome Store-style URLs-as-applications?
- jQueryIsAwesome 15y agoIs actually a pretty IE commercial; to play the third level you have to put it on your windows taskbar and play it with IE9.
- deltaqueue 15y agoThere could be two reasons: 1. Microsoft is attempting to pique interest in gaming because they see Xbox Live as a key differentiator for the Windows Phone platform. 2. Microsoft is just trying to prove relevance for IE, since their numbers have been slipping for so long (a "me too", if you will).
- mathrawka 15y agoFrom their development details (http://www.cuttherope.ie/dev/ http://www.cuttherope.ie/dev/), this point stuck out to me: With some guidance from Microsoft, we decided to replace the recursive function with an “unpacked” iterative version of the same code. The results were amazing. We saw a 10x improvement in every browser! Frankly, we would have never found that without the profiling tools in Internet Explorer 9.
- chucknthem 15y agoTo be fair, they probably could have found the same performance problem profiling using chrome or firebug
- Bockit 15y agoThis combined with the recent typography in IE promotion they just ran makes me think they're trying to push IE as a quality browser again.
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- sumukh1 15y agoBoth Angry Birds and Cut the Rope are now on HTML5 (http://chrome.angrybirds.com/ http://chrome.angrybirds.com/) This is starting to become a trend, but it needs a strong driver. The Windows 8 App Store may provide the push needed to get HTML5 adoption up for applications. It's a different ball game in the web, but I think we'll start to see the web playing a bigger role in the marketplace. Just curious: Why the down vote?
- Zirro 15y agoPresumably someone who doesn't like the HTML5-based-apps direction.
- rplnt 15y agoMicrosoft surprised me that they didn't block out other browsers. Google didn't surprise me at all and the game is blocked in Opera. It works when user-agent is changed. It's sad when company acting as someone for open and standard web is doing this. And Google is doing this user-agent sniffing across all their products.
- tintin 15y agoI very much agree with you. Although this week all the Google+ stuff first unavailable in Opera is now visible. Maybe Google is just playing safe and only launches when they are 100% sure the browser supports the app.
- rplnt 15y agoThat's probably it for some features but it still sounds like "You have to use IE5 or higher to see this site" to me. Also, some features have been blocked for a long time for no apparent reason, for example background image on search. It worked from the day one (when you changed the user-agent), there is nothing scientific about it, yet it is still blocked years later.
- tete 15y agoMicrosoft blocks me (Firefox user) out of higher levels. So that's not true.
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- switz 15y agoI absolutely love how they show it being developed on an iMac. Keep in mind IE hasn't been developed for the Mac since 2003.
- nickbarnwell 15y agoFrom what I understood on the dev page it was developed by a non-MS team, PixelLab, who likely use OS X machines for most of their day to day work. Microsoft gets their Windows license either way.
- shmerl 15y agoMicrosoft using Ogg Theora? That's a breakthrough.
- noveltyaccount 15y ago2012 Microsoft isn't the 1995 Microsoft that you think you know.
- zsiciarz 15y agoWorks flawlessly in Opera 11.60/Windows.
- manojlds 15y agoReally? It was so sluggish on mine.
- steve8918 15y agoSorry for the dumb question, but when it says "HTML5" version, what is the underlying technology they are using, if it's not flash?
- jakejake 15y agobasically javascript and the new browser elements for drawing graphics
- mbrubeck 15y agoJavaScript, HTML, and CSS. The HTML includes the canvas, video, and audio elements. There's some "behind the scenes" info at http://www.cuttherope.ie/dev/ http://www.cuttherope.ie/dev/
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- rodw 15y agoHTML, CSS, JavaScript. Version 5 of the HTML specification (colloquially known as HTML5) has a number of new features that support Flash-like interactive multimedia content. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTML5 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTML5 and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canvas_element http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canvas_element, for example.
- suhastech 15y agoTo be honest, this game is made for multi touch screens. Simultaneously cutting the rope and pressing the airbag doesn't work very well on Chrome (or IE).
- nailer 15y agoWorks on the Playbook, playable but at a low frame rate.
- suyash 15y agoVery cool work pixelLab!
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- yon 15y agoYou have to see the cute picture they put if you try to view it on IE8 http://img502.imageshack.us/img502/1417/cuttheropeie.png http://img502.imageshack.us/img502/1417/cuttheropeie.png
- AshleysBrain 15y agoYeah, and tough luck if you're on XP I guess, you're forced to switch browser!
- statictype 15y agoXP is about a decade old now. I think its completely reasonable for a web app showcasing modern technologies to not even acknowledge it's existence, let alone support it.
- AshleysBrain 15y agoIt may be old but it still has about 34% market share. http://gs.statcounter.com/#os-ww-weekly-201148-201201 http://gs.statcounter.com/#os-ww-weekly-201148-201201
- kombine 15y agoModern technologies you are talking about? What I consider modern technologies are modern FPS games, like Crysis, Metro, Dirt or Rage. Cut the Rope uses techniques that are dated at least 10 years. It's a shame that people think of it as anything modern. XP can run a lot of games that are orders of magnitude more complex than any HTML5 game.
- Roybatty 15y agoThose who downvoted you won't be happy until we've devolved into playing Zork-like text adventures and using Lynx. HTML5 will become like Flash/Silverlight ;)
- fastcash 15y agoits really nice . http://www.paydaylenderinc.com/ http://www.paydaylenderinc.com/
- winter_blue 15y agoThis game runs more smoothly on Chrome than on IE 10. (I have Windows 8 Developer Preview) [In IE, balloon presses are laggy - not so in Chrome.]
- manojlds 15y agoYeah you said it, it is a preview ( including IE 10)
- kaichanvong 15y agoSadly does not work on my iPad 1.
- kibaekr 15y agoThis really does show the power and potential of HTML5. Personally, I'm really looking forward to the day where I can easily make notes and draw on any given webpage, and be able to save and share them.
- perssontm 15y agoSounds like http://markup.io http://markup.io
- alpb 15y agoDoes not support touch controls. Therefore probably can't be used for Windows 8 demos.
- robgough 15y agoI found their framerate numbers quite staggering, with OS X lagging far behind Windows. Is this a surprise to anyone else? http://www.cuttherope.ie/dev/notes-framerates.jpg http://www.cuttherope.ie/dev/notes-framerates.jpg
- JunkDNA 15y agoI was surprised too, I'd expect those numbers to be roughly equal. The only thing I can think of is that they're using Flash for audio. The Flash runtime has run better on Windows than other platforms for a while. Would be curious to see those numbers with the HTML-5 audio forced to true to see if they stay the same.
- imajes 15y agonote also the specs of each of those tests; the windows tests have i5/i7 chips with at least 4gb of ram. The Lion test is a dual core with 2gb. That's not a fair test, so the whole table is bogus.
- wanderful 15y agoIn the video they talk of profiling it in IE — maybe it wasn't profiled and improved in other OSes/browsers.
- zupreme 15y agoOn my iPad it just stops at 73%
- petercooper 15y agoThe behind the scenes writeup is good: http://www.cuttherope.ie/dev/ http://www.cuttherope.ie/dev/ Although the senior developer says in the video: "Objective C is object oriented, has classes and structs. And those things just don't exist in JavaScript." .. Well, except object orientation, of course ;-)
- lusr 15y agoA good writeup. A pity more of the source wasn't released (say, excluding the game physics and logic); I'd be keen to see how they structured their code and it'd be a great "cookbook" reference for somebody new to building HTML5 games. (At least the minified source is there.)
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- opendomain 15y agoAre you saying that you think Javascript is object oriented because it can create an Object and enclosed functions? I have always been taught while we can make it look like OOP, it is not because it does not have inheritance through classes AS PART OF THE LANGUAGE.
- ccanassa 15y agoJavaScript is object oriented but it gets the inheritance from prototypes instead of classes. Prototypes are very powerful, you can implement a class system in JavaScript if you want to but the reverse is not true.
- filipemonte 15y agoWhen i saw the movie i feel sorry for this guys "using" IE
- ofca 15y agothe level of smoothness and playability amazes me. better run into the salt mines to brush up on html5 :)
- pacomerh 15y agoVery well made. This year will be strong for the canvas tag and web gaming. And of course don't be surprised if it doesn't run well on your tablet or phone. Mobile browsers aren't that strong yet.
- tete 15y agoHaha, IE TLD. Funny! :)
- diarmuidie 15y agoAnyone know why they are using a .ie (Ireland) domain? Just curious.
- tete 15y agoBecause of the IE from Internet Explorer?
- patrickk 15y agoMaybe because "ie" also stands for Internet Explorer? I'm just guessing, I was wondering the same thing.
- hopeless 15y agoIEDR requires a "real and substantive connection to Ireland" although I'd guess Microsoft could get any domain they want. I'm no fan of the IEDR but it's a shame to Microsoft polluting the domain space.
- diarmuidie 15y agoAccording to the Whois info it is registered to ZeptoLab UK Limited as a Registered Trademark. Not much of a link to Ireland there!
- skeletonjelly 15y agoWait are you being sarcastic? UK = Great Britain + Northern Ireland Great Britain = England + Scotland + Wales So technically if they're registered in the UK they're a part of Ireland I suppose.
- simonswords82 15y agoAs a reference to Internet Explorer (IE)
- AshleysBrain 15y agoMicrosoft have an office in Ireland, so it may actually be Irish.
- janus 15y agoIt's even smoother than the iOS version in Chrome 16 for Mac. Amazing implementation.
- MatthewPhillips 15y agoI'm no game dev, but wouldn't porting from OpenGL to WebGL be much simpler than porting to 2D Canvas? I know IE doesn't support WebGL, so I'm just wondering how much extra work they created for themselves.
- Tloewald 15y agoSafari doesn't support WebGL either because of security issues (AFAIK only Firefox does) so while it might be easier it wouldn't work.
- etherealG 15y agochrome supports it too, which is higher than safari in use. firefox + chrome covers more together than any other 2 browsers in combination doesn't it? but I see what you mean about compatibility, with canvas they get ie9 + firefox + chrome + safari, almost everything for desktops.
- AshleysBrain 15y agoThey could have supported WebGL for better performance on browsers which support it with a fallback to Canvas 2D for IE9. But I'm sure Microsoft didn't want them to have it running faster on other browsers :)
- MBCook 15y agoSafari does support WebGL, but it's off by default. You have to enable it in the Develop menu.
- drhowarddrfine 15y agoAll modern browsers support WebGL: http://caniuse.com/#search=webgl http://caniuse.com/#search=webgl
- bdg 15y agoThis is what I end up seeing, chrome 16: http://imgur.com/oNgoZ http://imgur.com/oNgoZ
- wildmXranat 15y agoHow is Firefox 7.01 an old browser, huh ?
- saturdayplace 15y agoThe development article makes a reference to the resource loader they built for this, PxLoader (http://thinkpixellab.com/pxloader/ http://thinkpixellab.com/pxloader/). Are there other JavaScript libraries around that have similar functionality?
- WesleyJohnson 15y agoIf you watch the Super Browser 2 Turbo HD Remix talk from Google IO '11 there is a bit in there about developing something very similar, though less robust, to pre-load the assets. The core concept is the same as pre-loading image rollovers in JavaScript. Not a library, but the talk and slides give a decent overview of the code. http://www.google.com/events/io/2011/sessions/super-browser-2-turbo-hd-remix-introduction-to-html5-game-development.html http://www.google.com/events/io/2011/sessions/super-browser-...
- forrestthewoods 15y agoOn one hand, it's fairly impressive. On the other hand it has pretty frequent hitches which for a game as simple as Cut the Rope is pretty unacceptable. I don't get all the hype for the HTML5 bandwagon. I would never actually play a game this way "for real" because perf is too poor.
- pstuart 15y agoI believe the hype is for what it is shaping up to be, not what it is at this moment.
- hornbaker 15y agoLoaded great on my iPad 2, music started playing, tutorial came up, but CAN'T CUT THE ROPE. Ugh. How hard would it have been for them to add some touch event captures? Really impressed otherwise.
- waterflame 15y agoIt's great on Chrome and better on IE (that's why and how it was built for :)) Very addictive!
- msftguy 15y agoThird level in proper browsers: 1. Open a JS debug console (Cmd+Option+J) 2. Set a breakpoint on window load (Event Listener Breakpoints - Load - load). 3. Reload the page 4. After the breakpoint is hit, type localStorage.setItem('msIsSiteModeActivated', 'true'); navigator = {appName: 'Microsoft Internet Explorer', userAgent: 'MSIE 9.0'}; 5. Disable the breakpoint, level 3 should now work..