An overview of the state of game development using open Web technologies.

1. ES
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A rip
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EN TM bH
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Hi, I’m Rob Hawkes and I’m here today to talk about creating games on the open Web using
HTML5 and JavaScript.

2. If you don’t already know, I work at Mozilla.
Unsure about my devotion to Mozilla? This here is a beautiful chicken and leek pie with extra
Firefox goodness.
It was made by my talented girlfriend and it was delicious.

3. My official job title is Technical Evangelist, but I prefer what it says on my business card.
Part of my job is to engage with developers like you and I about cool new technologies on the
Web.
And for those of you with no idea of what a rawket is, I made a multiplayer game called
Rawkets in which players fly around in little rockets and shoot each other in the face with the
latest Web technologies. It’s quite addictive!
http://rawkets.com

4. I’m not sure how much time we’ll have for questions at the end, but feel free to grab me in
person after the talk or on Twitter.
These slides will go online after this talk and they’ll be available from my personal website.
I’ll put all the details up at the end.

5. Before we move on I just have a quick disclaimer.
This whole talk is about HTML5 and JavaScript as technologies for the creation of games.
They’re technologies that are intrinsically linked to each other by nature, but saying HTML5
and JavaScript every single time makes my head hurt.
So instead I’ll just be saying HTML5.
Just bear in mind that whenever I mention HTML5 I’m also referring to JavaScript as well.

6. So let’s go back in time for a moment.
Now I don’t actually remember when I first started playing computer games, although I know
that I started with consoles.

7. My first experience was with the ZX Spectrum and its amazing noises and epic loading times,
which I sorely miss…

8. Then there was the SNES, which really got me addicted to gaming.
Although it turns out my SNES was stolen when I was a kid. I did wonder where it went…

9. My parents replaced it with the Megadrive which, although not quite as awesome, was just as
fun.
From there it has been a constant stream of consoles, each smashing the performance and
functionality of its predecessor.
The N64, the Gamecube, the Dreamcast, the Playstation, the xBox.
You get the idea…

10. And spread throughout that time I dabbled in PC gaming, starting with games like Sim City…

11. And Megarace.
Who remembers this one?

12. And playing multiplayer Doom at my Dad’s Internet cafe.
What I’m getting at here is that gaming has been a big part of my life growing up, as it has
been with a lot of other people as well.
They’re fun to play, and they’re surprisingly fun to make.

13. ow
is n
e cool
tim thing
he om
e
T do
fs
ol
resh
Th
Today we’re now on the threshold of something cool; being able to create awesome and
addictive games with nothing more than the technologies that we normally use to make
websites, namely HTML5 and JavaScript.
Since I began developing on the Web I really can’t remember a time when so many people are
working together to achieve something like this.

14. n ts
e ve ng
ble am
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ota L5g
N HTM
in
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going
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Recently there have been some particularly notable events surrounding HTML5 gaming.

15. ns
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uis up
Acq g boug ht
in
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es
gin
e en
am
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The acquisition of HTML5 gaming engines by large companies.
Like Aves being bought by Zynga and Rocket Engine bought by Disney.

16. n t
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The recent recruitment of HTML5 games developers for well-known gaming companies, like
Crytek.
http://crytek.com/career/offers/overview/frankfurt/programming-engineering/html5-
game-dev

17. in g
nd
Fu eers
ion
thep
in
sting
Inve
The huge amounts of funding being made available to games that help prove the Web as a
gaming platform.
Like the Game Lab from Bocoup and Atari’s general sponsorship of HTML5 games.
http://gamelab.bocoup.com

18. ce s
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re mes
nfe ga
Co L5
HTM
of
ture
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The two large-scale HTML5 gaming conferences in the last few months.
onGameStart in Poland and New Game in San Francisco.
Each attended by hundreds of game and Web developers alike.

19. n t
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olve am
v
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ser
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The investing of time and resources by Google, Mozilla and Opera into the creation of
technologies and services for the benefit of gaming on the open Web.
Some of which we’ll be looking at in a moment.

20. nt
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The involvement of Facebook in HTML5 gaming performance.
http://developers.facebook.com/blog/post/454/

21. e s
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ort L 5ism
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And the recent port to HTML5 of massively successful iOS games like Angry Birds and
Fieldrunners.
http://chrome.angrybirds.com
http://fieldrunnershtml5.appspot.com

22. es
g a m
ing ples
ist exam
Ex he
be
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Now there aren’t a huge amount of HTML5 games just yet, although that number is growing
every day.
In any case I thought I’d show you a selection of my favourites; some full blown games,
others demos of the technologies available to us.

23. Quake II
Multiplayer Quake II remake with Google GWT (Google Web Toolkit).
http://code.google.com/p/quake2-gwt-port/

24. Minecraftian worlds
Minecraft map viewer, using WebGL.
This isn’t really a game, but it’s not a long way from becoming a JavaScript port of Minecraft.
http://alteredqualia.com/three/examples/geometry_minecraft_ao.html

25. Freeciv
Freeciv, an open source Civilisation-type game that uses HTML5 canvas and WebSockets.
3D WebGL version currently being worked on.
http://freeciv.net

26. Rawkets
Rawkets is a multiplayer space shooter that I created while at university to explore HTML5
canvas and WebSockets.
http://rawkets.com

27. Angry Birds
There isn’t much to say about Angry Birds really, most of you probably know about it.
The HTML5 version uses WebGL for accelerated 2D graphics.

28. Fieldrunners
Fieldrunners was ported from iOS to HTML5 by Bocoup.
Like Angry Birds, it also uses WebGL for accelerated 2D graphics.

29. Created by Phil Banks (@emirpprime)
It’s clear that HTML5 is something that is really becoming a contender for games on the Web.

30. ipt
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Java about?
5 & fuss
L
M at is all the
HT h W
But why is it important?
Well to put it simply, HTML5 & JavaScript are the underlying technologies behind everything
related to the future of the Web.
Pretty much every new technology that is coming out within the browser-space is connected
to HTML5 and JavaScript in some way.
And what’s great is that every major browser has invested in them, so they won’t be going
anywhere any time soon.
But there’s more to it than that.

31. ies
log
n o de
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Op nv
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An
They are open technologies.
Anyone can get involved in their creation; through browser developers like Mozilla, or
through standards organisations like the W3C.
A few weeks ago I was in a W3C meeting to explore what is needed for making games with
these technologies. What was cool was that anyone was allowed to take part; which included
everyday developers, employees of major browsers, and games companies.
Also, these technologies are open in that anyone can view the resulting code that is used
within Web pages, which is a fantastic way of learning.

32. ie s
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n o ith
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Fre ree
to
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Free
They are free technologies.
Anyone can use these technologies without having to pay anything, both for using the
technology and developing with it.
This is unlike closed environments like Flash where you have to pay to use official code
editors and production environments.

33. less
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They are technologies baked directly into the browser, which means no more plugins!
No longer do you have to rely on users having third-party software installed to use rich
media.

34. io n
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HTML5 and JavaScript don't require compiling, so development and testing can be extremely
rapid.
These technologies allow for quickly hacking stuff together to experiment then tidying things
up later.
It’s this rapid nature of JavaScript and HTML5 that make them so fun to develop with.

35. b le
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These technologies are built to work across platforms; whether that’s desktop, mobile, TV, or
anything else!
This makes it great to develop this way because you can be sure that it will work on any
platform that has support.

36. o rt
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As with any technology on the Web it’s important that you can use it across all the major
browsers.
Fortunately the bigger features of HTML5 like video and audio are supported by all the major
browsers, with some of the newer and smaller features getting better support as time goes
on.
The situation isn’t perfect but we’re definitely in a position where these technologies can now
be used in production.
There’s a fantastic website called Can I Use? which lets you know what browsers support each
technology.
http://caniuse.com

37. But it’s not all rosy with HTML5.
Why might you not want to use it?
Here are just two of the major issues that are floating around right now.

38. ility
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No
Not every browser supports every part of HTML5.
For example, canvas isn’t supported out of the box by any IE below 9. Although, you can use
ExplorerCanvas to replicate canvas functionality, but it’s not ideal and as doesn’t perform as
well.
WebSockets is only support in IE10, and it isn’t supported in Android. But again, you can fake
this by using Flash for the sockets, like with Socket.IO.
WebGL also has patchy support with absolutely no support in IE, and Safari and Opera
requiring a development build.

39. RM
o D
N ologies
echn
eset
th
st
again
goes
It
If you need DRM or have a burning desire to hide absolutely everything about your code.
Remember, the code isn’t compiled, so where would the DRM go? The beauty of Web
technologies is that they can be read as plain text by simply viewing the page source.
However, DRM isn't bulletproof in itself and you can still crack into Flash.
You can obfuscate and minify your code if you think it will help, but even this can be worked
around with relative ease.

40. g y
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Te L5g
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There are a few key technologies that are involved in the development of HTML5 games.
Here are some of my favourites.

41. vas
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2D
Canvas is a 2D graphics platform that uses both HTML5 and JavaScript.
It’s quite amazing what can be done with such simple drawing and image manipulation tools.
https://developer.mozilla.org/en/HTML/Canvas

42. Silk is a stunning example of what can be achieved by combining the simple drawing tools
available in canvas.
http://weavesilk.com

43. GL
eb
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lat
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grap
3D
WebGL brings the ability to provide advanced 3D graphics directly within the browser.
https://developer.mozilla.org/en/WebGL

44. HelloRacer is a little game that lets you drive a Formula One car around your browser. It’s a
beautiful example of WebGL in action.
http://helloracer.com/webgl/

45. Rome is a music video created with WebGL. It’s an amazing example of what the technology
can achieve in a real-world situation given a large team.
http://ro.me

46. This is a rather freaky example of how interesting WebGL is.
It’s a demo that shows just how realistic WebGL can render materials, like skin. This isn’t
much unlike the quality of modern games consoles!
http://www.everyday3d.com/j3d/demo/014_Head.html

47. d io
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HTML5 audio allows for plugin-less game sound effects and background music.
Audio data APIs implemented by Mozilla and Google allow for manipulation of audio and
much more fine-grained control.
https://developer.mozilla.org/en/HTML/Element/audio

48. This is something I made especially for the ASSEMBLY 2011 event in Finland.
It’s an audio visualiser that uses WebGL and the HTML5 Audio Data API.
http://robhawkes.github.com/webgl-html5-audio-visualiser/

49. e ts
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bS ation
e
W omm un
ic
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Mu
WebSockets can be used for the real-time communication between a player and the game
server.
With WebSockets you can create multiplayer games with relative ease.
https://developer.mozilla.org/en/WebSockets

50. e.js
od
N cation
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com
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etwo
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Gam
Node is often used as a multiplayer game server, controlling the logic and handling the
WebSockets connections to the players.
It can be used for player authentication and the storage of data so gameplay can persist over
multiple game sessions.
This is all made relatively easy with great third-party modules, like Socket.IO for WebSockets,
and others that handle Redis and MongoDB for storage, for example.
http://nodejs.org

51. ge
ra
to vice
cal s r de
Lo pla
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Stori
Local storage is great for storing data locally on the player device.
This way you can cache game data and allow the game to pick up where the player left off.
https://developer.mozilla.org/en/DOM/Storage

52. PI
n A
re e ul
Sc we
rf
ull et
po
F im
ple
,y
S
The Full Screen API allows you to expand any HTML element to fill the users screen, even if
the browser isn’t running full screen itself.
The Mozilla implementation is not perfect yet because you can’t use the whole keyboard in
full-screen mode, but it’s in the latest Nightly builds and works in all other respects.
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=545812
http://blog.pearce.org.nz/2011/09/mozilla-full-screen-api-progress-update.html
https://wiki.mozilla.org/Platform/Features/Full_Screen_APIs

53. P I
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p a eb
me he
W
Ga et
ot
ol
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he
gt
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Brin
The Gamepad API is one of the major improvements to input that is coming.
Both Mozilla and Google are working an an implementation of this and there is actually an
experimental build of Firefox available to the public that has it working.
What I find most interesting about the Gamepad API is that it might be just the thing we need
to finally justify HTML5 gaming on a TV or console.
Who wants to use a keyboard and mouse while sitting on the sofa?
https://wiki.mozilla.org/GamepadAPI

54. This is a little demo that I put together to show off the Gamepad API.
In this example I’ve connected my xBox 360 controller to my Mac, but I could also use a PS3
controller or practically any other USB controller.

55. P I
A
o ck ace
L
use no
ne
pl
Mo rso
ri
cu
he
gt
ockin
L
The Mouse Lock API is an attempt at improving the mouse as an input device.
It would be used in situations like games and 3D visualisations where the mouse position
rotates or moves you around a 3D space.
As it stands there’d still be a cursor moving around the screen causing all sorts of trouble
when you want to click on something in your game.
With the new API you can lock your mouse position and stop it from getting in the way and
being a nuisance.
Both Google and Mozilla are working on an implementation of this right now.
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=633602

56. n s
tio
plica bsite
ap yw
e
eb ta
fanc
W ot jus
N
The concept of Web apps is something that is gaining a lot of traction at the moment.
HTML5 games are effectively glorified Web apps.
It’s no doubt this this traction is as a result of the success of native applications and games
on the desktop and mobile, particularly with iOS and Android.

57. Google are spending a lot of time on Web apps with the Chrome platform.
https://chrome.google.com/webstore

58. It’s something we’re also spending a lot of time on at Mozilla.
Although we’re approaching things a little differently.
We envisage Web apps to run on any device, any browser, and to be distributed through any
store or website.
https://apps.mozillalabs.com
https://developer.mozilla.org/en/OpenWebApps

59. se ts
a s
line yw
ay
Off ern
et
an
Int
he
st
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ne
Who
One of the main differences between Web apps and native apps is that native apps can be run
offline.
New technologies like the application cache allow for a website or Web app to cache
necessary assets to that it can still run while offline.
This includes things like JavaScript files, CSS and images.
Combining this technique with intelligent use of things like local storage will allow your game
to continue working even if the Internet connection goes down. You just sync up all the
changes when it gets connected again.
https://developer.mozilla.org/en/Offline_resources_in_Firefox

60. nce
erie
exp scre
en
like ho
me
p- op
or
Ap eskt
thed
from
Run
Something that needs to be tackled with Web apps is how to make them feel like real
applications rather than websites.
One way that is being considered is completely removing the browser chrome and running
the application in it’s own window.
This will effectively mean that you have full control of the app UI and it won’t look like it’s
being run in a browser.

61. This kind of approach isn’t anything new but it will be the first time it will be baked into
browsers themselves.
For now you can use things like Fluid, which is a Mac app that lets you turn a website into an
app that you can run from an icon on the desktop.
It uses a browser engine behind the scenes but it hides away all the unnecessary chrome so it
looks native.

62. I currently use this approach for music streaming websites like Grooveshark to turn them into
an app.
That way I don’t have to remember which tab they’re open in my browser.

63. e s
gin
e n ay
e
m game st
od
Ga
ML5
HT
te
Crea
If you haven’t already then I encourage you to give HTML5 game development a go.
And you don't have to create an entire game infrastructure from scratch, you can use some of
the existing engines that are proving popular.

64. Impact.
I used this recently, and it’s really well made.
The documentation is great and the author is active and very helpful.
http://impactjs.com/

65. Crafty.
It’s a free engine and is doing much better than other free engines out there.
http://craftyjs.com/

66. Isongenic Engine.
One of the most promising engines out there today.
Massively multiplayer networking built in, uses Node and MongoDB, and has canvas or DOM-
based graphics.
http://www.isogenicengine.com

67. tu re
e fu ng
Th gin
ni
be
tthe
is jus
is
Th
It’s still early days with HTML5 games.
There are a few things that I’d like to see in the near future that will help.
Need better ways to benchmark browser performance, network connections and operating
systems specifically for games.
Better HTML5 audio. Right now things can be a little tricky, the ideal situation would be to
have consistent support across browsers.
Hardware accelerated canvas on Mac and mobile devices. This is a small ask but one that I
feel will make all the difference.
Better documentation for game development in JavaScript. This is something I’m working on
with Mozilla, but more documentation is needed in general. I’d love to see more game
developers sharing their solutions to problems that they encountered during the creation of
their games.

68. Rob Hawkes
@robhawkes
Rawkes.com
Personal website and blog
RECENT PROJECTS MORE COOL STUFF
Twitter sentiment analysis Rawket Scientist
Delving into your soul Technical Evangelist at Mozilla
Rawkets.com jsCraft
HTML5 & WebSockets game Minecraft port to JavaScript
Get in touch with me on Twitter: @robhawkes
Follow my blog (Rawkes) to keep up to date with stuff that I’m working on: http://rawkes.com
I’ve recently worked on a project that analysis sentiment on Twitter: http://rawkes.com/blog/
2011/05/05/people-love-a-good-smooch-on-a-balcony
Rawkets is my multiplayer HTML5 and JavaScript game. Play it, it’s fun: http://rawkets.com
I’m currently experimenting with WebGL to see how feasible a JavaScript port of Minecraft
would be. The working title is jsCraft.

69. O U
Y s?
K tion
N ues
A yq
TH An R b
es
wk es
Ha wk
ob ha
ro
@
Thank you.
If you have any questions feel free to grab me on Twitter (@robhawkes), or email
rob@rawkes.com