Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

JavaScript/HTML 5 Gaming?

Posted by Soulskill on from the five-by-five dept.

cjcela writes "Lately I've seen some HTML 5/JavaScript games popping up on the web. Most of them lack sound, and are not polished, but little by little this is changing. As an example, check Galactic Plunder. While it is only a single-level proof of concept, it is one of the first arcade non-Flash games that I've found playable. Do you know of other comparable or better pure JavaScript games?"

9 of 201 comments (clear)

  1. All demos by QuantumG · · Score: 4, Informative

    Everything I've seen so far has been "hey look what I can do". It's not the domain of cottage industry game developers, yet.

    Just today I was looking at WebGL which will allow hardware accelerated 3d in the browser.

    I just hope someone, eventually, figures out that the "full screen" button we have in web video can also be used in web games.

    --
    How we know is more important than what we know.
    1. Re:All demos by QuantumG · · Score: 4, Informative

      I'm sure the complete lack of a decent development environment has something to do with it too.

      --
      How we know is more important than what we know.
    2. Re:All demos by SquarePixel · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I just hope someone, eventually, figures out that the "full screen" button we have in web video can also be used in web games.

      That is actually one of the most significant problems with HTML5. It provides no way for the video to maximize to full screen and is actually even against such functionality with JavaScript (page could maximize the window automatically and so on).

      Currently the only way is to install a Firefox Addon that adds a context menu item to maximize the video object. But that is only for the video object, works only with Firefox and is in no way user-friendly.

      Everyone here always says sites should start changing to HTML5 video, but when it lacks basic functionality like that I just don't see it happening.

    3. Re:All demos by tepples · · Score: 4, Interesting

      HTML5 should offer the functionality and browsers should offer an option to turn it off.

      If it's opt-out, there will likely be a well-publicized incident where a canvas, audio or video takes over the full screen of an inexperienced PC user (who forgot to turn it off or didn't even know it was possible) and impersonates the operating system's user interface.

    4. Re:All demos by Mad+Merlin · · Score: 4, Funny

      I'm sure the complete lack of a decent development environment has something to do with it too.

      What on earth are you talking about? Vim works with every language.

      --
      Game! - Where the stick is mightier than the sword!
    5. Re:All demos by Sloppy · · Score: 3, Insightful

      That is actually one of the most significant problems with HTML5. It provides no way for the video to maximize to full screen

      Try this in Firefox: Command-shift-F (on Mac OS) or F11 (on Linux). There's your full screen. The video doesn't need any way to do that, because it's right at the user's fingertips ***IF*** they want it, and likewise, the user isn't compelled to live with the programmer's arrogance if the user doesn't want fullscreen. This is a good thing.

      Adding a way for javascript programmers to interfere with the user's window environment in such a way, would weaken HTML5. It might make it ever-so-slightly more convenient for your local intranet app server, but for The Internet, it would be a step toward degrading HTML5 into the realm of Flash and ActiveX. Even if they fuck up and add this "feature" to HTML5, then you're just going to have all the browser authors need to add preference options to enable/disable it, and since no one will have reason to suspect that issuing that API call will actually result in full screenage, no one will use it anyway. This idea is just as useless as the past mistake of adding the calls which allow pop-under windows.

      --
      As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
  2. Re:No by TheViciousOverWind · · Score: 3, Informative

    No

    Understandible. It can be hard to seperate HTML5 content from flash content these days. However, there is games popping up at a pretty constant rate. For example, look at these links:

    Another thought: The HTML5 canvas element and Java's AWT "Graphics" element are very alike. I wonder how long it takes for someone to program a converter, so all java applet/mobile games are available as HTML5 games?

    --
    My <1000 UID is with a hot chick
  3. Re:No by hellop2 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Hi Overlord. I appreciate your effort searching google and posting these links, but did you bother to click on them?

    Your first link is not a games library. At least not in the sense of your 3rd link.

    But your 3rd link is 2 years old and the project it mentions doesn't appear to exist anymore.

    --
    How many more years will slashdot have an off-by-one error on your Score in your profile?
  4. Re:No by TheViciousOverWind · · Score: 4, Informative

    Hi Hellop,
    Thanks for your corrections!

    It was actually from my bookmarks. I've played quite a bit around with the canvas element myself, and that's why I've got a lot of bookmarks.
    Sorry about the confusion about "library". English is not my first language, and in my language library can also mean "collection of", so that's why I used that word.

    The 3rd link was actually not the link I intended to post, I intended to post a link to this HTML 5 Game engine (More info in this article) which looks pretty good. It's in beta though, and I've got no hands on experience with it, but it looks promising.

    The link I posted is still valid though, and can be found here: http://tommysmind.com/ It might not be updated any more but it's still a nice resource, if you've just started using the canvas element.

    --
    My <1000 UID is with a hot chick