PrimeArwyn Posted December 26, 2016 Share Posted December 26, 2016 Hello everyone, how are holidays going? When I send my non-developer friends a link to my games, they usually ask "Well, how do I install it?". I am pretty sure that you too had to answer this question before. For now, I usually resort to explaining that there is no installation needed, or to compiling an apk file for each update, but this has proven to be time consuming. Are there any other ways to address the issue? What worked for you? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
end3r Posted December 26, 2016 Share Posted December 26, 2016 "No installation needed (because it's all Web)" is a good enough answer, not at all time consuming in my opinion and works well. PrimeArwyn 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BobF Posted December 26, 2016 Share Posted December 26, 2016 I agree with End3r. Or just tell them right up front so they never ask at all: "Hey guys, try my new game, "Tomb Plunder". Play it online (no install needed) at tombplunder.com." PrimeArwyn 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattstyles Posted December 30, 2016 Share Posted December 30, 2016 Yeah, exactly, send them the url and tell them to have fun! If you're talking about packaging HTML5 into a native wrapper like Electron or NW then follow instructions in those projects, if it was a client-side game just stuffed in a wrapper then you'll almost certainly need no installation, just build for the platform and pass them the executable, run it, and boom, have fun playing the game! On a slightly different note, stuff like producing a build should be automated, it should be zero effort (or near) for you. Simplest is to add a script which produces your bundles and run that whenever you need, but even better is to have it connected to your SCM, for example, if you use Git then you can trigger a build whenever you push a tag, or a commit, and have it continuous and automatic. PrimeArwyn 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kitanga Nday (NDAY Games) Posted January 7, 2017 Share Posted January 7, 2017 What about the Web App Manifest: MDN article: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Manifest W3C Spec: https://w3c.github.io/manifest/ Caniuse: http://caniuse.com/#feat=web-app-manifest So the idea is that you can specify this file in a <link> tag and it will allow the user to install it onto their device. It will also look like an actual app by the way (thumbnail and all). You can also specify the app to open in fullscreen. So actually, tell your friends to get Chrome on their mobile phones and install your game lol. Ok, so from what I read on the google's guide for this, the user has to use your app for at least 5 minutes. You can read more about https://developers.google.com/web/fundamentals/engage-and-retain/app-install-banners/ Here's an example of me installing this website onto my pc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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