MetalSlug636 Posted November 15, 2017 Share Posted November 15, 2017 Hey everyone! I've developed Flash games for several years, I'm currently maintaining several large Flash games. In the meanwhile, I invest some of my time learning other technologies, since we all know that Flash is doomed. I don't really enjoy developing in Unity and I want to invest my time in learning HTML5 game development properly. Up until now I only built very small casual test games. But you know, since I will be investing a lot of time in this... I want to hear from other developers that are in the industry, an objective opinion about the current state of HTML5 games in 2017. For instance, I can think of these questions: Are mobile browsers implementing web standards as fast as desktop browsers these days? Are there plenty of HTML5 game dev jobs on the market these days? Do you see HTML5 games matching other technologies to develop mobile games? Whats performance like on desktop, and mobile? Is it worth developing in Javascript ES6 and then just transpile to ES5? Thanks for your time Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blackmoondev Posted November 17, 2017 Share Posted November 17, 2017 On 11/15/2017 at 6:28 PM, MetalSlug636 said: Hey everyone! Hey, welcome to the forum:) On 11/15/2017 at 6:28 PM, MetalSlug636 said: I've developed Flash games for several years, I'm currently maintaining several large Flash games. In the meanwhile, I invest some of my time learning other technologies, since we all know that Flash is doomed. Yup (unfortunately, as I have a lot of nostalgy about this technology:) On 11/15/2017 at 6:28 PM, MetalSlug636 said: I don't really enjoy developing in Unity and I want to invest my time in learning HTML5 game development properly. \o/ On 11/15/2017 at 6:28 PM, MetalSlug636 said: I want to hear from other developers that are in the industry, an objective opinion about the current state of HTML5 games in 2017. Will try to help:). On 11/15/2017 at 6:28 PM, MetalSlug636 said: Are mobile browsers implementing web standards as fast as desktop browsers these days? The "well known" browsers (Chrome, Safari) - yeah, there are keeping the standards pretty much like the desktop versions. There's a small problem with build-in browsers on some Android devices - but usually Chrome is available there anyway. On 11/15/2017 at 6:28 PM, MetalSlug636 said: Are there plenty of HTML5 game dev jobs on the market these days? I'm full time indie for the last 12 years, but I get nagged on LinkedIn far too often for my taste - so I guess there's plenty of jobs. On 11/15/2017 at 6:28 PM, MetalSlug636 said: Do you see HTML5 games matching other technologies to develop mobile games? Yup. On 11/15/2017 at 6:28 PM, MetalSlug636 said: Whats performance like on desktop, and mobile? On desktop the performance probably matches the one you would have with Unity. It's pretty easy to hit 60fps on top edge mobile devices, 30fps on avarage devices and you would be able to make the game run on a patato. On 11/15/2017 at 6:28 PM, MetalSlug636 said: Is it worth developing in Javascript ES6 and then just transpile to ES5? Not sure why you would like to do that - isn't ES6 "the future"? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blackmoondev Posted November 17, 2017 Share Posted November 17, 2017 1 hour ago, blackmoondev said: The "well known" browsers (Chrome, Safari) And Firefox of course! (are you happy now @end3r end3r 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
b10b Posted November 17, 2017 Share Posted November 17, 2017 @MetalSlug636 In evaluating H5 it may be more valuable to prioritise user-benefit over technical-benefit? Perhaps focus on what H5 offers the player that cannot be achieved with alternatives. Stack choices (e.g. ES6 vs ES5 (vs Typescript vs Haxe vs [...])) can often be answered with a simpler question: "which choice allows me to bring value to market fastest". Generally things have moved on loads in the last few years - H5 is a well adopted and robust stack now so expectations are high, performance is high, consistency is decent and improving. Therefore there are H5 gamedev jobs, but they tend to be concentrated in market segments, particular geographic zones and employers still have a reluctance to remote workers - therefore the ability to relocate is likely critical? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MetalSlug636 Posted November 17, 2017 Author Share Posted November 17, 2017 Thanks for your feedback guys. Very much appreciated. When you say expectations are high and that you see HTML5 matching other technologies in mobile game development, are you talking about users moving from platforms such as app store to mobile web games? Or are we talking about developing in HTML5 / javascript and releasing it on the appstore? I'm curious about this. BTW I was asking about ES6 vs ES5 because I've still seen there are some features of ES6 that are not supported by some of the main browsers. Please correct me if I'm wrong Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
b10b Posted November 18, 2017 Share Posted November 18, 2017 I actually use Haxe (and Typescript) so I had many ES6 type benefits yesteryear. I believe the same is true of any user base - show them something unique, that scratches a real itch, and they can flock regardless of current loyalty. I still don't think HTML5 is the best technology to make games, but I do think it's the best technology to make web-games, and web-games should be the easiest games to consume - that's the itch it scratches (for me at least). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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