[casual_games] future of shockwave

Sat Oct 22 01:36:43 EDT 2005

Hi there,
I'm happy to comment on the strengths and weaknesses of dhtml games. I've spent several years researching this. Let me know if you are interested in looking at the sprite engine I use for my games. It is open source and comes with detailed documentation.

Strengths:
---------------
* Open source--depending on your point of view.

* Source code can be made unreadable if you wish to protect your work.

* No plugin required. Since the late 1990s browser have been built with dhtml ability. In the early days there were substantial differences between browsers, but since the w3 standards, browser dhtml implementation is converging. Theoretically, a dhtml game will play on any browser--IE, Mozilla, Safari, on any platform--mac, linux, windows. There is currently some performance differences between these. The current Firefox release is a bit slow with dhtml, but Firefox 1.5 beta is much better. Safari on the mac is pretty good with dhtml. And Internet Explorer has brilliant dhtml performance (despite being a bit behind in standards support).

* Because no plugin is required, dhtml games are sort of future proof. Well, as long as browsers support dhtml, anyway :)

* Widgets on the Mac are dhtml objects. They are very small in filesize and sit on the desktop in a minimized state waiting for use.

* Gadgets for Windows sidebar are also dhtml programs. A great way to offer casual game players an alternative to web-based games.

* Javascript is a robust object orientated programming language.

Weaknesses:
--------------------
* Open source--depending on your point of view.

* The old cross browser compatibility problems. These are not so much of a concern anymore. When the next Firefox is released this problem should be a thing of the past.

* Speed problems in current Firefox release (see above comment)

* Speed issues. On low end machines, dhtml games can lag a bit. It depends on complexity of the game, of course. I think any machine better than 1gig CPU will handle anything I've ever done. In fact, I've managed to run some of my games on old 266megahertz machines with only a slight performance drop.

* I have a small 3d engine, but it is really slow, so at this stage 3d is not really an option :(

* On Firefox, the arrow keys will sometimes scroll the play area of the game causing undesirable effect. To overcome this I use I,J,K,L movement keys. Some people find this confusing.

* No anti-aliasing. Though, in Firefox and IE7, alpha transparancy in PNG is supported, so that's a step in the right direction.

I hope these comments are useful. I'm actually a big supporter of dhtml--despite considering using shockwave. I think dhtml is an underused tool.

Cheers,
Brent.

DEF-LOGIC
VIDEOGAMES
www.def-logic.com

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Austin Haas" <austin at pettomato.com>
To: "IGDA Casual Games SIG Mailing List" <casual_games at igda.org>
Sent: Saturday, October 22, 2005 5:42 PM
Subject: Re: [casual_games] future of shockwave

> Brent,
> 
> I'm pretty unfamiliar with the strengths and weaknesses of DHTML games. 
> Can you comment a little on that?
> 
> I'm especially curious because it seems to be the only open source way 
> to make browser based games.
> 
> -austin
> 
> Austin Haas
> Pet Tomato, Inc.
> http://www.pettomato.com
> 
> BRENT SILBY wrote:
>>  > Personally, if you're looking to offer more than browser-based, dhtml 
>>  > games then I'd recommend flash despite the fact that you may have to 
>>  > rewrite a lot more code.
>>  
>> True, but I'm also looking ahead to the sidebar Gadgets for windows 
>> (http://microsoftgadgets.com/default.aspx). They are based on dhtml and 
>> offer a very quick small download way to run small applications on the 
>> desktop. Whatever I do, I think its in my best interest to continue to 
>> offer dhtml versions of the games. Recently I had my "Defense Unit" game 
>> converted to a widget for the mac. Widgets are very similar to the 
>> Gadgets. It took virtually no extra coding to get it to work since 
>> widgets are dhtml. Its quite popular too. It ranks 47th on the widget 
>> download list on apple.com :)
>>  
>> Flash is more difficult to port my games because it doesn't handle 
>> bitmaps (I know flash 8 does), and it doesn't have javascript 
>> compatibility. It would take a lot more work to port to flash for those 
>> reasons. Not worth the effort.
>>  
>> So, I think I'll test for shockwave. If the visitor does not have 
>> shockwave, I'll load the dhtml version of the game rather than directing 
>> them to the shockwave player download. Then again, I may be wasting my time.
>>  
>> Cheers,
>> Brent.
>> 
>> /DEF-LOGIC
>> VIDEOGAMES
>> www.def-logic.com <http://www.def-logic.com>/
>> 
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Duncan Gough" <duncan at 3rdsense.com <mailto:duncan at 3rdsense.com>>
>> To: "IGDA Casual Games SIG Mailing List" <casual_games at igda.org 
>> <mailto:casual_games at igda.org>>
>> Sent: Saturday, October 22, 2005 10:35 AM
>> Subject: Re: [casual_games] future of shockwave
>> 
>>  > Hello Brent,
>>  >
>>  > If shockwave is a quick way for you to convert dhtml games then it is 
>>  > probably worth the time and effort as it fits the criteria you've 
>>  > outlined (browser incosistencies, downloadable versions). However, 
>>  > looking ahead it does seem that flash is being given more attention 
>>  > by Macromedia. The recent Actionscript 3.0 news certainly make it 
>>  > sound that way:
>>  >
>>  > http://labs.macromedia.com/wiki/index.php/ActionScript_3:overview
>>  >
>>  > I'd also point you in the direction of the dirGames mailing list, 
>>  > especially the start of a thread about Actionscript 3.0, here:
>>  >
>>  > http://nuttybar.drama.uga.edu/pipermail/dirgames-l/2005-October/
>>  > 036341.html
>>  >
>>  > Personally, if you're looking to offer more than browser-based, dhtml 
>>  > games then I'd recommend flash despite the fact that you may have to 
>>  > rewrite a lot more code.
>>  >
>>  > Of course, I can't wait to see what puzzle games you come up.
>>  >
>>  > Duncan
>>  >
>>  > --
>>  > http://www.millionsofgames.com/members/suttree/
>>  >
>>  > On 21 Oct 2005, at 20:12, BRENT SILBY wrote:
>>  >
>>  >> Good morning,
>>  >> We are converting some of our dhtml games to shockwave. The reason 
>>  >> we chose shockwave is because it can handle javascript, so the 
>>  >> conversion is reasonably straightforward--just requiring a 
>>  >> reworking of image handling code etc.
>>  >>
>>  >> The purpose of the conversion is partly to overcome some browser 
>>  >> consistency issues with dhtml and partly to open up new 
>>  >> opportunities for licensing.
>>  >>
>>  >> My question is this: What is the future of shockwave? I think that 
>>  >> it currently has about a 55% penetration (compared to 97% in 
>>  >> flash). Is this figure predicted to remain static, or will it rise 
>>  >> (or drop) over the coming years.
>>  >>
>>  >> I know its difficult to predict future trends, but if anyone can 
>>  >> make a good guess, I'd be interested to know.
>>  >>
>>  >> Cheers,
>>  >> Brent Silby.
>>  >> DEF-LOGIC
>>  >> VIDEOGAMES
>>  >> www.def-logic.com <http://www.def-logic.com>
>>  >>
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