JavaScript truly has evolved into a powerful and viable means to write decent web applications, video games included. This became abundantly clear to me in the past week, as I ported Legacy to JavaScript in roughly 2 days. SG: Live, as I’m calling it, is virtually identical to its older sibling SG: Legacy in every way. Sure, LAN and a Story Campaign aren’t implemented, but they easily could be.
In other words, I could have used JavaScript to write Legends in the first place, and it would have turned out largely the same, if not slightly better. JavaScript is far simpler to learn, manage and debug (thank you Firefox *waves*) than Java, C++ or *shudders* plain C. No real IDE is required and all one needs is a browser (preferably with hardware acceleration), a decent text/code editor and a PC that isn’t from the Stone Age (any dual core paired with at least 2GB RAM).
Talk about being accessible. This ridiculously low barrier of entry gives you access to literally billions of PCs, Phones and Tablets around the world that in theory could run your game/app just fine. All that’s required is HTML5 compliancy, which is pretty widespread now.
This is a remarkable piece of technology. Maybe I’ve been living under a rock for the past few years, but why hasn’t anyone made more noise about this, it’s incredible really?
The SCND Genesis: live
So yeah, there’s the great revelation, or perhaps I’m just late to the party. Either way I’m currently adapting SG: live’s game play to be more mobile friendly. It’s a scaled down version of SG: Legends, with 6 characters and 6 stages. Its battle system is largely based on SG: Legends, though it incorporates elements of the upcoming SG: Legacy as well as its own unique elements. Since its on mobile, I want a more..... playful/arcadey feel XD.
I plan on publishing it is a Facebook game, complete with achievements and leader boards. Hopefully the complete version shall go live by July or August. The code shall probably be licensed under GPL version 3 just like its predecessor. To you modder’s and coders out there, this will be far more exciting as it’s based on a scripting language with no need for compilation. Of course all FB related PHP scripts shall be hidden to prevent the app from being hijacked.
Simply Functionaltm
Lastly, as a side note I’ve finally registered my company/development house. Ndana Solutions – "Simply Functionaltm". We’re just starting out so please be kind and like us on Facebook. Please visit our official site and any feedback/suggestion would be greatly appreciated, the sites theme mirrors our official “Simply Functional” slogan.
Original article HERE
Take care.
