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Game Closure "DevKit" For Mobile HTML5 Games Is Open Source

Posted by timothy on from the sense-of dept.

First time accepted submitter Chris Taylor writes "Silicon Valley startup Game Closure has open-sourced their HTML5 game development toolkit. The trailer video showcases some interesting new technology. It allows game developers to write code in JavaScript on Windows, Mac and Linux desktops to rapidly create and then deploy new games on the Internet, Android, and on iOS cellphones. The source code for the entire stack is available on GitHub, including the changes to Google V8 and Mozilla SpiderMonkey."

6 of 37 comments (clear)

  1. How does this company make money? by Great+Big+Bird · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I appreciate the contribution of an engine of this nature, but I have to wonder how the company behind it can remain viable if this is their only 'product'?

    1. Re:How does this company make money? by niado · · Score: 4, Informative

      Their licensing options are here.

      I think they have a few games, and are using their open source devkit partially for marketing purposes.

    2. Re:How does this company make money? by LordLucless · · Score: 4, Insightful

      They make games and sell them to people. Open-sourcing their engine is valuable because, if it generates sufficient interest, they get continual reports on bugs, compatibility issues and the like from sources other than people bitching about their game that doesn't work on their obscure device, saving the company's reputation.

      Having a widely-adopted framework for games might also lead phone manufacturers to test against that (if it gets big enough, which is doubtful), further increasing their compatibility, and give them publicity and a good rep. Really, unless there was some huge competitive advantage in their framework, it's a case of win-win - or at least win-dontlose.

      --
      Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean there isn't an invisible demon about to eat your face
  2. Browser Compatibility? by voice+of+unreason · · Score: 2

    Can anyone find something saying what browser versions are compatible with DevKit? That's often a sticking point with HTML5, especially with older IE versions

  3. Different from PhoneGap? by PRMan · · Score: 2

    Anybody know how this differs from PhoneGap? Any comparisons or comments as to which is better and why?

    --
    Peter predicted that you would "deliberately forget" creation 2000 years ago...
  4. Re:GPLv3 - do! not! want! by All_One_Mind · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I've been developing on enchant.js which is licensed under MIT license:
    http://enchantjs.com/

    It's written by 3 Japanese developers I believe, so some of the documentation is not in English, but of all the HTML5/JS engines out there, this one seems to be the best. You really got to dig around for documentation, but when you do find it, almost everything is laid out and it has everything you need for Android/iOS/Desktop based games. It also doesn't require node.js or other dependencies, which is one reason why I dismissed DevKit here almost immediately, aside from the GPL3 license you pointed out.