Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
and the technology has been created to work on a variety of operating systems and browsers with little to
no platform-specific code.
What you
can
be certain of is that if a platform supports HTML5 and the JavaScript APIs that your game
requires, then it's likely that your game will function in the way that you expect. Obviously things like
hardware performance will cause issues on a per-device level, but that is something you'll experience
using any technology anyway.
Uncompiled and open
Something that many proprietary developers find uncomfortable about the move to open web technologies
is that the code is completely uncompiled and open for users to view. If you right-click on any web site
within your browser, you will be able to view the source code and assets with relative ease—and the same
is the case for open web games.
This behavior is core to the strength and purpose of the open web and it is unlikely to change— however
much developers from other platforms would like it to. It is unlikely that digital rights management (DRM)
will make its way onto the web in a non-proprietary way, and the same can be said for the compilation of
code and assets, so that others can't see them in a readable fashion.
In my eyes, this clash of cultures is one of the major sticking points for game developers coming from
platforms like mobile, console, and desktop. Traditional game development in that sense has been built
around the idea of protecting intellectual property and making code and assets as difficult to access as
possible. Now, one could argue that such moves are fruitless (I've yet to see a method of DRM that
hasn't
been eventually cracked), but I get why they exist and the motives behind their use. Unfortunately, all
browsers are unlikely to accommodate this way of thinking, so it's not a viable way to look at game
development on the web.
Instead, I believe that it is important for the web to prove itself as a viable platform to these developers and
show that open assets and code does not mean rampant theft and a loss of control. History tells us that
this won't happen and I'm confident that the benefits of the web as a platform will far outweigh the (minor)
issues. In other words, how many web sites have you seen get stolen, replicated, and then perform better
than the original?
Everyone has control
Something that still amazes me to this day is how no single entity controls the technologies and platform
that the web is built on. This idea is another foreign concept to developers coming from a proprietary
background, as there isn't a single point of contact to reach for when you want something added or
changed. Instead, the technologies behind the web are defined by a set of specifications that are each
managed by either the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) or the Web Hypertext Application Technology
Working Group (WHATWG).
Both of these groups are made up of a variety of stakeholders ranging from browser manufacturers, to
technology companies, to general web developers. Anyone can be a part of these groups and that is why
everyone has control. If you want something added or changed, then all you need do is take part in the
discussions and have your say. For example, if you'd like to be a part of the discussions surrounding open
