Open Media Web

We just published the final version of a report on the “HTML.next for Games” event (PDF) we ran this September (a earlier version is available in HTML).

HTML5 enables the development of games that run across devices, and are both easy to deploy and easy to maintain. Several features that are not yet part of the Web platform would be directly useful for games development, though. The workshop was the occasion to engage with the games community and to start listing features of interest. Workshop participants (including people from Bocoup, Google, Mozilla, RIM, Tecnalia, Wooga) were passionate about games and Web technologies. During the workshop, more than 20 features that would enable the development of better games using regular Web technologies were reviewed, refined and classified:

• 12 new features were identified, such as the need for a Joystick API, a mouse lock mechanism, an orientation lock mechanism, or high performance timers
• Standardization has already started for 5 features such as accurate sound triggering or real-time peer-to-peer communications.
• A few other features mentioned require more discussion, or were seen as out of scope for standardization in W3C.

This report describes the main use case for each of the features of interest and includes a short gap analysis of today’s (end of November 2011) Web platform from the point of view of game development. Where applicable, the W3C working group and links to possible draft proposals are mentioned.

To ensure that games community needs are known and properly addressed in W3C, the W3C Games Community Group was created at the end of the workshop. This group is dedicated to tracking the implementation of Open Web Platform features directly relevant for games development, and communicating how to build games on the Open Web Platform to the general public.