HTML and CSS Reference
In-Depth Information
Tracking Other Upcoming Native Features
The Mozilla WebAPI project, on the web at https://wiki.mozilla.org/WebAPI , has links to other device-native
features that are slowly being exposed via JavaScript APIs. Although the majority of these are only tangentially
interesting to game developers, some, such as the Vibration API ( www.w3.org/TR/vibration/ ) , could be used for
interesting game feedback.
Mozilla also has a project called AreWeFunYet (on the web at www.arewefunyet.com ) that is set up to track
how the Gecko is doing as a platform for gaming. Although a lot of the details are Mozilla-specific, the project
is worth looking at.
The W3C also has a Games Community Group, on the web at www.w3.org/community/games/ , dedicated to
“improve the quality of open web standards that game developers rely on to create games.” If you are interested
in the future of HTML5 game development, this is a group worth joining.
Summary
This chapter took a look at exciting APIs that, although currently out of reach for mobile HTML5 game deve-
lopers, should be coming down the pipeline and into mobile browsers sometime in the near future. These APIs
will give HTML5 game developers some of the same tools native app developers have to craft engaging exper-
iences, in a cross-browser, multiplatform way.
With a look at what features are on the horizon, this topic's journey through the world of HTML5 Mobile
game development has come to an end. This topic took you from the basics of putting together a simple Canvas-
based game to building a full mobile-centric HTML5 game engine from the ground up. That engine was used
to build a number of different games and demos using CSS, SVG, and, most importantly, Canvas. Along the
way you were introduced to using libraries like Underscore.js and jQuery for game development and running
JavaScript on the server with Node.js. You saw how to make your game available offline, connect it up to a
NoSQL database, let players play against each other using Socket.io, and push it to the Internet at large using a
hosting platform.
HTML5 is the technology that will give you access to an unprecedented number of potential players, any of
which can access your game at any time from a supported mobile device or desktop browser. Now it's time to
take what you've learned and build the next great game—one that will engage and entertain people around the
globe and one that can spread as quickly as a link can travel across the data pipes of the Internet.
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