Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Multiplatform Games
Recently, gaming has started to move away from running on only
one platform. Historically a Mac version of a Windows game (a fairly
uncommon occurrence) would be the most common example of a
multiplatform game. This is normally referred to as a port. Since Mac
and PC platforms now share a lot of hardware similarities (using Intel
processors for instance) it becomes easier and easier to create Mac and
PC versions of top-selling games.
Web-Based Games
One of the very i rst examples of going multiplatform is using an engine
that has the same visual interface on every machine. Tools like Adobe's
Flash were used frequently to make interactive media and games,
and because the i nished work could run on Mac or PC identically,
the experience for gamers was the same. The tradition of web-based
gaming is currently evolving away from using Flash and is more and
more dependent on HTML5 and Javascript. Its ambition to provide the
same gaming experience on PCs is further expanded with the addition of
mobile devices like smartphones and tablets.
Cloud Gaming
This logical extension of multiplatform gaming is a very recent phenomenon
in gaming. Although some games are made for multiple platforms, cloud
games are quite literally the exact same game, but made available for a
large variety of devices via a single online service. Players of these games
can play them on any device the cloud service supports, and the service
keeps track of the player's progress so that they don't have to start over
again when they switch to a new device—the service simply resizes the
game screen and resources for the appropriate hardware platform.
Credit:
Wim Vandenbussche and Romain Guy.
