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This is great! Other than for very specific OpenGL ES features or platform-specific acceleration I have a harder time recommending indie developers starting ou
by agentultra 12y ago
This is great!
Other than for very specific OpenGL ES features or platform-specific acceleration I have a harder time recommending indie developers starting out to use anything other than the web as their platform these days. And with time I'm sure WebGL will catch up (and surpass?). I've played my part in making it happen and will continue for that push. It beats telling people to install this, link that, and all the tooling involved in packaging a game. It even beats an engine: it's free, distribution is built it, the network effects are there.
The developer tools need to catch up but it's only a matter of time.
Update: "platform specific acceleration" being a broad term for targeting platform-specific features; consoles for example or optimizing for specific features of a particular touch interface.
- z3t4 12y agoCompared to the Canvas 2d API, OpenGL is VERY hard to get into. It's very low level compared to the rest of the browser API's.
- jameshart 12y agoWhat about monetization? Still harder on the web than in the appstore or steam, surely?
- agentultra 12y agoIf anything it's probably easier. There are a glut of payment processors willing to help you out that would take a fraction of your profits compared to a curated download-only marketplace like Steam. There are, admittedly immature, marketplaces for web-based games such as itch.io However it's still possible to deliver a platform-specific download with the many web-wrapping runtimes out there (cordova, apollo, etc). It's not perfect right now but it's where the action will be in the next few years.