I just started on the web version of my game (i.e. a version that will play in a browser, without requiring the user to download/install the game).

Back in the spring, I wrote a lengthy article (later reprinted on Gamasutra) on different technologies for web games. Specifically, I looked mainly at Flash and Java, and brushed off other possibilities, including Active X.

So now, of course, I’m using Active X for the web version.

What changed?

Well, Active X has a few problems. It has security holes the size of the Grand Canyon. Users have to click through various scary Internet Explorer warnings to even install an Active X control. And Active X doesn’t work on Firefox (~10% of the market) or on the Mac (~4% of the market). Finally, there’s a significant learning curve in figuring out how to get Active X to work (though that applies to the Java and Flash alternatives, too).

But the advantage of Active X is that you can take an existing game, written in C, and run it directly, with only a bit of wrapper code on it. No need to port to a new language.

But I knew all of the above when I wrote my initial article in the spring and scorned Active X. What changed is that I’m working with a big partner (to be announced in a week or two), who is heavily on the Active X bandwagon, and as a result, many of the Active X hurdles have been lowered. This partner already has their Active X launcher program (the big security hurdle) out on most of their customers computers, and indeed, out for a high percentage of all casual game players. They have a Firefox plugin that makes things work on Firefox (if you go to the partner’s site – many 3rd party casual game sites don’t support it, though). They already have their tech developed and helped me get over the learning curve pretty quickly.

All told, it took me about 3 days to get an alpha version of my game running in a browser, including the time needed to scale my graphics down from targeting 800 x 600 to targeting the browser window size of 480 x 360 (fairly small, both to decrease bandwidth, and to allow sponsors to wrap ads around the game).

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 16th, 2005 at 10:27 am and is filed under Game Biz. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.