Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 3-1. Various platform directions
It's almost unfeasible to develop so many instances and maintain them yourself. You want to fix bugs and
add features once—and only once.
Hence, what's required is a common language to describe an application for multiple instances—and that's
exactly what the web proposes. We don't need to learn new, device-specific languages, and API—the web
is our strong, high-level, common language.
Recent years have seen a powerful rise of web technologies, including the advancement of rendering
engines (WebKit, Gecko, etc.), the considerable improvement of JavaScript engines (V8, SpiderMonkey,
etc.), and the emergence of new HTML5 API and CSS3 support (Animations, Transitions, etc.). It's highly
likely that these standard technologies will replace RIA (Rich Internet Application) browser plugins like
Flash or Silverlight.
Note WebKit is an open-source layout engine that is broadly used across multiple
platforms, such as desktop browsers like Chrome and Safari; Android smartphones and
the iPhone; the Android tablet and the iPad; and “smart” TV (for example, France's
Freebox 6 browser). Future devices will probably continue using WebKit, benefitting
from its experience and performance.
Having this portable technology, we must now find an easy way to integrate our application to any app
store (Android Market, Apple Store, Chrome Web Store). We also want to keep a single code source to
write and maintain. This will be done through the use of frameworks. We'll talk about PhoneGap, which
provides a skeleton required for packaging an application for an OS and the PhoneGap JavaScript library,
which exposes an API to exploit full functionality of the device.
 
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