It's been a few weeks since my last HTML5 post and I've learned even more. I know I seem wishy-washy on the language, but that's not really the case. HTML5 is destined to be a big player in the games space at some point. The problem is that the some-point in question is not today...and that sucks.
Being that it's JavaScript makes it rather accessible, not to mention easy. The fact that it's distributable to many platforms is awesome too. But the fact that it's slow as crap on tablet devices, not fully supported on various browsers, has sound-sync issues, and a few other key bits makes it difficult to embrace fully.
Remember, I'm talking about the CANVAS here, not just the standard HTML5 elements.
Once all of these things (or at least a goodly number of them) are resolved, it will be a highly used platform for development.
But there are some pretty kick-ass games out there using it! How can it be said that it's slow? I mean, have you seen the Aves engine??? I have seen the Aves engine, yes, and it is quite impressive. Clearly there are some developers out there that, as we used to say during our heady development meetups, "are fed raw meet under a locked door" because they were amazingly good at development.
But more than that, it shows that there ARE ways to get HTML5 to power through a lot of its current limitations.
That's not the point though. The point of this ongoing review of the language is to see where the state of affairs is now, for the average developer. Can a person take HTML5, in its current state, and build something as speedy as said person can with Flash or Corona, without having to tweak and hack stuff to get that speed? And that's just the speed question. There are still questions of sound, image rotation/scaling/etc., and so on.
I'm bummed about this because it's much more fun to code in HTML5 than it is in some other languages. I guess I like the nerdy element to the fact that you have to hack in order to get it to do what you really want it to do. But, again, it's not about those of us who enjoy the hack, it's about those who aren't all that good at the hack and therefore must rely on the essentials that come with the language.
Still, I anxiously and optimistically await the day that HTML5's Canvas is a rollicking (and blisteringly fast) solution to games.
