5 ms·

BrowserQuest– a massively multiplayer HTML5 (WebSocket + Canvas) game experiment

95 points by paulrouget 15y ago

dkhenry 15y ago
This has been a long time coming. I am happy to see the implementations of HTML5 technologies that are capable of delivering this kind of experience.
- html5iscancer 15y ago
  The scrolling was jerky for me on my newish desktop PC. There doesn't seem to be any new "technology" here, just some slow wrappers around stuff that was around years ago. If this is being touted as "the future" then programming is really going down the toilet.
  - html5iscancer 15y ago
    Why down vote? Web babies seem to get very upset when the abject technological failure of the browser is pointed out to them. It has failed comprehensively: 1) security 2) computational performance 3) flexibility WebSockets for example are just a bad rehash of existing APIs. Woopty-doo.
    - veb 15y ago
      crazy talk. this is a great DEMONSTRATION. leave it at that. if you are really that annoyed by the points you mentioned, why, it's open source!
rduchnik 15y ago
wow, this is pretty impressive.
- html5iscancer 15y ago
  Not trying to bully you, but what part of this is impressive? There doesn't seem to be anything here that wasn't done better decades ago. Why does everything become impressive once it appears in the browser?
  - html5iscancer 15y ago
    Please at least reply if you down vote. I would like to know what I'm mistaken about.
    - wmil 15y ago
      You're being a troll. Right now you're just randomly sniping at people who comment. Write up something explaining your views, the post it as a comment/Ask HN/blog post and submit. Also you seem to be saying this sucks in comparison to some amazing product that doesn't actually exist... the big feature of html5 is that it's already widely deployed.
      - html5iscancer 15y ago
        So.. you agree with me? HTML5 is basically a pile of poop, except that it's got a big install base. Great. Welcome to the future of programming.
  - mkilling 15y ago
    I've made some comments like this in similar threads and got downvoted as well. It's just part of the HN groupthink to glorify everything HTML5, CSS3 and WebGL. A game like this was feasible 20 years ago in a native environment or 10 years ago in Flash. I can only see disadvantages in developing games in JavaScript + HTML.
  - appalsap 15y ago
    Medium matters.
manuscreationis 15y ago
I hope they do a dive into the stack behind this, this is pretty cool.
- lxt 15y ago
  Here you go: http://hacks.mozilla.org/2012/03/browserquest/ http://hacks.mozilla.org/2012/03/browserquest/
  - manuscreationis 15y ago
    Awesome, thanks!
glenntzke 15y ago
I look forward to trying this out with a few friends from college who were mildly addicted to simple games like Dwarf Fortress and Zelda. Any excuse for old school multiplayer gaming is a good one.
- masklinn 15y ago
  > simple games like Dwarf Fortress Simple like DF?
- esteth 15y ago
  I think you may have underestimated the complexity of Dwarf Fortress. It's the most complex single player game I've ever played
  - astrodust 15y ago
    The ultra-realistic A10-C simulator with a 780 page manual is only slightly more complicated than Dwarf Fortress.
- Kiro 15y ago
  Dwarf Fortress is probably one of the most complex games ever made. Simple graphics, yes, but that's the only thing.
  - glenntzke 15y ago
    I used simple in two different ways, sorry about that. DF is simple in graphics only, I completely agree. A more appropriate game to mention is Runescape, but I couldn't think of it at the time.
pkmiec 15y ago
what's the ??? quest?
- simcop2387 15y ago
  There's a few, One is "for science" find the portals and get the cake. The other is a maze to a rickroll, and then there's a fox potion that turns you into a firefox that makes you invincible for a short time.
  - appalsap 15y ago
    FYI, to get to the rickroll you can go through either entrance, and then just keep going back through the door you came through.
yesimahuman 15y ago
Cool. One of my last big projects was to build an MMO on the web. No flash, and we used Cometd: http://play.parallelkingdom.com/ http://play.parallelkingdom.com/, https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/lindbaaodgocnekppljikhgdgedliclg https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/lindbaaodgocnekppl...
senjutsuka 15y ago
Its a 20 minute game, dont get too excited. Awesome display of technology but its not what you typically think of when you hear MMO. The potential is awesome and Im sure some hackers out there will do something amazing with the source code.
- danneu 15y ago
  Given that it's called "BrowserQuest" at "browserquest.mozilla.org", I doubt too many people went in expecting Ultima Online.
html5iscancer 15y ago
Sockets are not a new technology. Wrapping sockets in a bunch of overhead and taking away UDP isn't new technology. No smooth scrolling on a PC with a graphics card an inch thick strikes me as a very poor job. But it will be hailed as a "step forwward" because it's in the browser space (which has no standards).
- erikpukinskis 15y ago
  The Browser is a massive step forward in four key areas: 1) Zero-pain installation (no steps, no wait to download) 2) Zero-friction sharing (paste a url to any resource within the app/game) 3) Zero-friction upgrading (happens automatically. depending on architecture, no need to even reload the app) 4) Largest install base of any platform It's a classic disruptive technology. Yeah the graphics suck. Yeah it's slow. But those things are improving, and will get to the point where they're "good enough" for a big swath of uses. Whereas the four properties above are much more challenging to fit into an Xbox or iOS architecture.
  - html5iscancer 15y ago
    Zero-install is not difficult. In fact, it was around decades ago. Then people destroyed that with complex operating systems requiring loads of configuration. Even with the stupidity of modern operating systems we could recover zero-install with simple virtual machines (or any number of other mechanisms). Web links are cool. Just about the only redeeming feature of the web. They have absolutely no connection to JavaScript, HTML5 or any of the other hideous complexity you see in the browser. Browsers are not "zero friction" upgrading. Behaviour changes from version to version. Using Firefox on Linux I have experienced continued breakages. Again, if you had a simple virtual machine it would be simple to port anywhere, and you wouldn't need constant bug fixes. Your last point has nothing to do with technology. It is simply the result of vendors successfully selling the technology to people. By doing so they've locked other better approaches out of the market due to network effects. The remainder of your post is the good old "it'll be good enough" attitude. Except it won't ever be as good as it was because people are reliant on benchmarks that make "freight train" style systems look "fast" for through-put code.

95 points by paulrouget 15y ago

This has been a long time coming. I am happy to see the implementations of HTML5 technologies that are capable of delivering this kind of experience.

html5iscancer 15y ago
The scrolling was jerky for me on my newish desktop PC. There doesn't seem to be any new "technology" here, just some slow wrappers around stuff that was around years ago. If this is being touted as "the future" then programming is really going down the toilet.
- html5iscancer 15y ago
  Why down vote? Web babies seem to get very upset when the abject technological failure of the browser is pointed out to them. It has failed comprehensively: 1) security 2) computational performance 3) flexibility WebSockets for example are just a bad rehash of existing APIs. Woopty-doo.
  - veb 15y ago
    crazy talk. this is a great DEMONSTRATION. leave it at that. if you are really that annoyed by the points you mentioned, why, it's open source!

rduchnik 15y ago

wow, this is pretty impressive.

html5iscancer 15y ago
Not trying to bully you, but what part of this is impressive? There doesn't seem to be anything here that wasn't done better decades ago. Why does everything become impressive once it appears in the browser?
- html5iscancer 15y ago
  Please at least reply if you down vote. I would like to know what I'm mistaken about.
  - wmil 15y ago
    You're being a troll. Right now you're just randomly sniping at people who comment. Write up something explaining your views, the post it as a comment/Ask HN/blog post and submit. Also you seem to be saying this sucks in comparison to some amazing product that doesn't actually exist... the big feature of html5 is that it's already widely deployed.
    - html5iscancer 15y ago
      So.. you agree with me? HTML5 is basically a pile of poop, except that it's got a big install base. Great. Welcome to the future of programming.
- mkilling 15y ago
  I've made some comments like this in similar threads and got downvoted as well. It's just part of the HN groupthink to glorify everything HTML5, CSS3 and WebGL. A game like this was feasible 20 years ago in a native environment or 10 years ago in Flash. I can only see disadvantages in developing games in JavaScript + HTML.
- appalsap 15y ago
  Medium matters.

manuscreationis 15y ago

I hope they do a dive into the stack behind this, this is pretty cool.

lxt 15y ago
Here you go: http://hacks.mozilla.org/2012/03/browserquest/ http://hacks.mozilla.org/2012/03/browserquest/
- manuscreationis 15y ago
  Awesome, thanks!

glenntzke 15y ago

I look forward to trying this out with a few friends from college who were mildly addicted to simple games like Dwarf Fortress and Zelda. Any excuse for old school multiplayer gaming is a good one.

masklinn 15y ago
> simple games like Dwarf Fortress Simple like DF?
esteth 15y ago
I think you may have underestimated the complexity of Dwarf Fortress. It's the most complex single player game I've ever played
- astrodust 15y ago
  The ultra-realistic A10-C simulator with a 780 page manual is only slightly more complicated than Dwarf Fortress.
Kiro 15y ago
Dwarf Fortress is probably one of the most complex games ever made. Simple graphics, yes, but that's the only thing.
- glenntzke 15y ago
  I used simple in two different ways, sorry about that. DF is simple in graphics only, I completely agree. A more appropriate game to mention is Runescape, but I couldn't think of it at the time.

pkmiec 15y ago

what's the ??? quest?

simcop2387 15y ago
There's a few, One is "for science" find the portals and get the cake. The other is a maze to a rickroll, and then there's a fox potion that turns you into a firefox that makes you invincible for a short time.
- appalsap 15y ago
  FYI, to get to the rickroll you can go through either entrance, and then just keep going back through the door you came through.

yesimahuman 15y ago

Cool. One of my last big projects was to build an MMO on the web. No flash, and we used Cometd: http://play.parallelkingdom.com/ http://play.parallelkingdom.com/, https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/lindbaaodgocnekppljikhgdgedliclg https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/lindbaaodgocnekppl...

senjutsuka 15y ago

Its a 20 minute game, dont get too excited. Awesome display of technology but its not what you typically think of when you hear MMO. The potential is awesome and Im sure some hackers out there will do something amazing with the source code.

danneu 15y ago
Given that it's called "BrowserQuest" at "browserquest.mozilla.org", I doubt too many people went in expecting Ultima Online.

html5iscancer 15y ago

Sockets are not a new technology. Wrapping sockets in a bunch of overhead and taking away UDP isn't new technology. No smooth scrolling on a PC with a graphics card an inch thick strikes me as a very poor job. But it will be hailed as a "step forwward" because it's in the browser space (which has no standards).

erikpukinskis 15y ago
The Browser is a massive step forward in four key areas: 1) Zero-pain installation (no steps, no wait to download) 2) Zero-friction sharing (paste a url to any resource within the app/game) 3) Zero-friction upgrading (happens automatically. depending on architecture, no need to even reload the app) 4) Largest install base of any platform It's a classic disruptive technology. Yeah the graphics suck. Yeah it's slow. But those things are improving, and will get to the point where they're "good enough" for a big swath of uses. Whereas the four properties above are much more challenging to fit into an Xbox or iOS architecture.
- html5iscancer 15y ago
  Zero-install is not difficult. In fact, it was around decades ago. Then people destroyed that with complex operating systems requiring loads of configuration. Even with the stupidity of modern operating systems we could recover zero-install with simple virtual machines (or any number of other mechanisms). Web links are cool. Just about the only redeeming feature of the web. They have absolutely no connection to JavaScript, HTML5 or any of the other hideous complexity you see in the browser. Browsers are not "zero friction" upgrading. Behaviour changes from version to version. Using Firefox on Linux I have experienced continued breakages. Again, if you had a simple virtual machine it would be simple to port anywhere, and you wouldn't need constant bug fixes. Your last point has nothing to do with technology. It is simply the result of vendors successfully selling the technology to people. By doing so they've locked other better approaches out of the market due to network effects. The remainder of your post is the good old "it'll be good enough" attitude. Except it won't ever be as good as it was because people are reliant on benchmarks that make "freight train" style systems look "fast" for through-put code.