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danielcroft
7,438 PointsThe future of HTML5 Games
So i just watched the latest treehouse show, what i was really interested in was http://phaser.io/ just wondering what you guys think to the future of HTML5 games do you think its going to be quite a big industry in the next few years. Just wanted to know people thoughts.
Nick Pettit Would you consider doing a course of these game frameworks in the future?
5 Answers
eirikvaa
18,015 PointsI think the future looks bright for HTML5 games. It's easy and you already know tons if you for example took HTML, CSS and JavaScript Deep Dives. Then it's just about learning the framework for the engine you want to build your game with.
And yes, a course on game frameworks by @Nick Pettit would be awesome!
danielcroft
7,438 PointsLooking good then, i hope that they do plan on doing a course on this soon it would be exciting.
Mike Samways
11,437 PointsWould be cool to have a course on HTML5 game building!
Nick Pettit
Treehouse TeacherThis is a very interesting subject that I'm actually trying to figure out myself. I think the problem with HTML5 games is that there's no marketplace to sell them in. Games take a tremendous amount of time and energy to build, even for simple games, so it's hard to find high quality games that people just make for fun in their spare time. Quality comes from people being able to make a living and develop games full time, but without a viable marketplace for HTML5 games, it's unlikely that will happen any time soon.
The best games can still be found on platforms like Steam and the iOS App Store, because there's commonly understood payment mechanisms already in place where developers can make cash. The Google Play store is the closest thing out there right now for an HTML5 marketplace, but when it comes to Chrome games it's really still filled with rubbish right now. My hope is that someday Valve or some other major player will announce that they now accept HTML5 games on their platforms so that payment can be built in. It would be really cool if, for example, you could embed the payment button onto a webpage where you play the game (similar to a PayPal button). I think that's still a somewhat distant hope though.
There are a few bright spots in this area though. A pretty interesting startup called Artillery is building an RTS game engine using WebGL and creating high quality browser-based games. I don't know if anything will come of this, but I'm definitely keeping an eye on them to see how they monetize that idea. Here's their site: https://artillery.com/
Right now I'm learning Unity and building all of my 3D assets in Blender and a few other tools. I think Unity is the best option right now for indie game devs looking to make their first game and release it to multiple platforms. There are also other interesting new choices like SpriteKit on iOS7, and I only think the trend of supporting independent developers with robust tools and frameworks will continue.
Will I ever teach a course using HTML5 game frameworks or some other game dev platform? I don't know. Time will tell. :)
danielcroft
7,438 PointsOk nick thanks for your reply, yeh i understand that you arnt going to get many quality games without the developer getting money out of it. Didnt know if it was a good idea to make learn it in my spare time so if it did become popular all of a sudden there will be alot of jobs in that area and next to no people training it. In a way trying to stay ahead of the game.
Nick Pettit
Treehouse TeacherI totally agree. People that learn it now will be in extremely high demand if it becomes popular... or they might be learning skills that never come to fruition. :) It's kind of a gamble.
Wilt Chaimberlain
Treehouse Guest TeacherIn the meantime, if you're a Gold member, you should check out our Workshop on the basics of HTML 5 game programming!
Janine Suvak
14,954 PointsJanine Suvak
14,954 PointsThe combination of dynamic web pages for mobile device accommodation along with the rapid upward trend of web-based game capabilities indicates that the differences between stand-alone and web-based game use on mobile devices are decreasing (or at least getting fuzzier) where connectivity is not an issue. You could potentially reach more people with one version of your game - the web-based version - as this trend continues.
At the same time you have game development tools like Unity with multi-platform capability so your one game can be ported to web players, consoles and mobile devices with much less effort than say, separate iOS/Android/Windows/Blackberry/web games.
At some point it may become a six-of-one half-a-dozen-of-the-other difference, though it seems that there will always be a place for standalone mobile apps when there is no internet connectivity. I suppose the subdermal Wifi HotSpot microchip implant will eliminate that problem. ;)
@Nick: yes!