作者：Michael Kalkowski & Jonas Gebhardt

尽管在今天的游戏开发领域HTML5已经不是什么新鲜事物了，但是对于大多数游戏开发者来说，这一技术更应该说是未来而非当前的重要资产。GamesIndustry International最近与一些手机游戏开发者就此问题展开了详细的讨论，Turbulenz的James Austi也参加了此次讨论。作为欧洲主要的社交/休闲游戏开发者，我们认为有必要在此分享GameDuell在开发一些HTML5项目时所获得的经验与教训。

也许未来HTML5将主导手机游戏领域，但是现在的它却还未准备好成为这一主角。任何严肃游戏开发者（特别是在网络/手机领域）为了未来的发展都需要不断探索一种全新的语言，但是在HTML5时代真正到来之前我们还需要解决并克服一些主要障碍。

首先便是玩家！

现在，大多数玩家都不希望因为下载游戏而费心。实际上，在即将到来的时代中，玩家不再想反复到多个平台下载游戏，并且他们也不愿意再不断付钱玩相同的游戏内容了。作为游戏玩家，我们希望能够马上使用自己所喜欢的设备而立刻开始游戏。

在过去几年里，社交游戏领域中掀起了一股不下载，不安装，不付费，不等待的游戏文化，并且似乎这一文化将逐渐主导着游戏发行类型，并最终可能取代传统的零售设计和心理模式。

作为一种完全基于网络的平台，HTML5似乎能够帮助发行商们满足用户的这些需求。HTML5让我们这些开发者能够立刻创造出一款游戏并将其直接发布于任何类型的设备平台上，如手机，网络，社交网站或掌机。而玩家只需要拥有连网设备或网络浏览器便能够进入游戏中。

另外一大优势便是发行商能够轻松且独立地发行自己的HTML5游戏，并且就此告别向平台运营商提交30%收益的时代。可以说，HTML5创造了一个完美的游戏世界，让众开发者能够立刻且毫无障碍地将自己所创造的游戏推向潜在玩家。

这一切听起来都美好得不真实？的确如此！

到底什么是HTML5？

我们都知道HTML是一种用于基于网页的编码语言。早在20年前来自CERN的Tim Berners-Lee创造了最初版本的HTML，并从那以后这一语言经过了多次迭代与更新才发展成今天这个样子。1996年，CSS 1.0和JavaScript被添加进去，经过了一系列的完善。但距离我们现在所看到的版本，即HTML4.01问世也将近十年了。我们必须正视的问题是，在这个快速发展的网络时代不存在一劳永逸的升级，所以我们便会慢慢发觉HTML似乎已经远远落后于时代的发展了。

如今最典型的一个例子便是我们不能有效地将视频整合到HTML中。于是，很多公司便创造出许多不同的方法和独特的格式（包括WMV和MP4）去播放视频。但是说实话，要求使用外部插件（如Adobe Flash）去运行这些格式都会让用户感到厌烦并察觉到风险性，因为他们将不得不寻找，信任，下载，安装并持续更新这些内容。

而HTML5不仅能够直接处理一些视频，也能够创造出之前的HTML语言所涉及不到的内容。从长远来看，这一优势能够帮助该语言贯穿整个浏览器和设备而创造出一种更具标准化且更具相容性的网络体验，并为用户和开发者带来更多便利。

所以我们再次得到的结论是：HTML5能够创造出更加美好的世界。事实是否真的这般美好？也许吧！

现实

现实其实有点不同。

HTML5将在未来的网络领域（特别是游戏领域）扮演一个非常重要的角色，但是现在的它尚未做好这种准备。

在GameDuell，我们并不会让HTML取代基于iOS或Android应用的原生开发（特别是从商业角度来看）。经过大量的研究和实验，GameDell认为现在还不适合将所有关注点放在HTML5的开发上。事实上，我们只投入10%的手机资源于HTML5，而剩下的90%的努力仍然是面向于原生应用开发。

如此看来，HTML5更像是原生开发的补充物而不是替代品，它能够帮助应用去获得那些通过传统生态应用而难以得到的流量。

HTML5还不是一种真正的跨平台技术，并不能帮助你快速编写出一款游戏并立即运行于任何平台和设备上。尽管新的HTML迭代是致力于将跨平台体验推向一个全新的层面，但是在HTML5项目能够真正运行于单独的平台上之前我们还需要克服重重障碍。

无需正式发行渠道便能获得用户？

从正面看，世界上两大最有影响力的网络公司都非常重视HTML5并极力推动着这一技术的发展。

毫无疑问，Facebook对HTML5报以信任。甚至在2年前，他们便为了迎接HTML5而面向此创造了一个专业性网站，并鼓励开发者“构建HTML5的未来”。当Facebook仍在被动地等待其他人能造出更加优秀的浏览器以处理HTML5代码时，谷歌早已明确创造出最优秀的浏览器才是成功的关键——因为浏览器将成为未来的娱乐平台。

随着Chrome OS和Chromebook的发行，谷歌以实际行动去证明浏览器便是未来，并且它的目标是将一切内容都运行在基于“云”的浏览器中。这里存在一个很大的问题：如果所有游戏和应用只能运行于浏览器中，那么用户便不需要去专门的应用发行商店下载内容，那么发行商如何才能将新游戏和应用带到大众面前？

为了解决这个问题，谷歌便创造了自己的Chrome Web Store，虽然这是个好方法，但是并非所有的开发者和发行商都能够打造自己的应用商店。苹果App Store和谷歌Google Play让用户能够更加轻松地购买应用，让他们能够明确方向寻找自己想要的内容。这就是为何今天的手机开发者无法承担开发HTML5游戏风险的重要原因——为了获得足够的曝光度，开发者仍需要继续开发“原生”应用。

但也有一些正面的情况：Facebook手机平台开始推行HTML5应用的社交搜索。行业博客甚至评价说“Facebook最终将成为那些无缘前100名手机应用的归宿。”大型游戏发行商同样也可以从病毒式手机网站流量中受益。我们也通过手机移动网站直接获得了许多流量，为此让GameDuell游戏的HTML5版本获得了更多额外用户。

快速发展的技术

HTML5取得了很大的进步，而如果从浏览器的兼容性来看，开发者似乎总是会低估这种兼容性。HTML5并不只局限于Chrome；我们的第一款HTML5游戏《Solitaire Harmony》便能够灵活地运行于所有手机浏览器上，包括Safari，Opera以及Silk。我们同样也注意到了技术对于休闲游戏（如纸牌游戏）的重要性，如移动传感器也能够被用于原生iOS和Android应用中。

我们同样也能够制作一些简单的动画，如弹跳或移动纸牌。但是我们也发现了在不同浏览器上会出现不同的弹跳效果：就像在Android的Chrome上，玩家只能围绕着纵轴转身，而在iPhone的Safari浏览器中，玩家却可以在水平面上弹跳。好吧，让我们想办法去创造额外代码来解决这一问题。

因为HTML5依赖于浏览器，所以玩家通常不能离线玩游戏。但是如果完全加载了游戏并获得所有缓存数据后，玩家便能够选择“脱机”玩游戏了，而如果玩家完全不能连网，他们便不能够访问游戏。

还有一个关于音频的问题，这也是众开发者非常关注的一个问题。没有声音的游戏也就失去了乐趣；因此HTML5必须谨慎地处理各种类型的音频并允许开发者能够利用这一工具。虽然HTML5的音频能够有效地运行于大多数浏览器中，但是我们却发现它在循环音乐中具有很大的局限性。HTML5音频存在的另外一个问题便是用户不能通过iPhone的硬件音量按钮关掉它，迫使用户只能使用屏幕上的软件按钮才能关掉声音。虽然在今后创造者将慢慢解决这一问题，但是现在它却严重困扰着用户的游戏体验。

多种设备，多种屏幕尺寸

尽管音频问题很重要，但是处理不同的屏幕尺寸和像素更让人备感压力。

假设你是一名游戏开发者，正致力于创造下一款“一鸣惊人”的游戏。因为听到别人说将HTML整合到手机平台上非常简单，所以你便决定基于桌面浏览器去开发HTML5游戏。你可能想着只要压缩桌面游戏的图像尺寸便能够轻松地将游戏移植到手机设备上。但是这明显是痴心妄想。

这么做你最终只能够创造出一款外表不堪的游戏，并需要额外投入更多精力和时间去完善它。对于不同设备之间，甚至连最基本的导航栏也会有所不同，这就意味着如果你想面向不同类型的智能手机发布游戏，你就需要合理地设置游戏的屏幕显示。

关于图像的另一大挑战便是像素问题。因为如今市场上出现了各种各样的手机设备，并且这些设备都具有不同的物理显示器并支持着不同的像素分辨率和密度。为了克服这一挑战，便出现了所谓的dip像素。但是因为我们最终仍需要将这种像素转化回屏幕像素，所以我们的设计难度也会随之大大增加。尽管我们在过去只拥有一个简单的“px”（即像素），但是在今天的HTML5世界我们则需要面对dpi，dip，dp，dps，sp以及sip。

但这还不是它的终点。几周前有客户与GameDuell商谈一个关于将HTML5游戏呈现在电视上的项目。这就意味着今后的我们不仅需要面对更多新的屏幕尺寸，同时还必须处理一些全新的问题，如控制方式。教新玩家如何使用HTML5的触摸和拖放操作就已经够复杂的了，现在我们还要考虑如何将这些操作方式运用于电视摇控器？

好吧，我们几乎每天都会迎来新的挑战——但是这也正是我们喜欢HTML5的重要原因。

用户留存问题

如何让人们找到一款手机游戏？更重要的是如何做才能让他们再次回到游戏中？比起网络游戏和社交游戏，手机游戏在这一领域上面临更大的挑战，并且似乎HTML5也不能扭转这一局面。

因为HTML5是基于浏览器而运行，所以一旦用户关闭了浏览器，也会随之关闭游戏。在iOS中，开发者至少可以建议玩家在主屏幕中添加一个书签按钮，但是在Android上却没有任何类似的设置。所以对于玩家和开发者来说这便是梦魇一般的存在。

最近我们在开发HTML5游戏《Solitaire Harmony》所面临的另一大问题是关于病毒式循环的问题。因为难以绑定Facebook Connect，开发者也无法有效地使用赠礼和发送请求等社交功能。所以如果开发者希望发布一款真正成功的游戏，他们就需要更加重视合理使用用户留存工具，拥有服务大量玩家的意识。

选择原生应用还是HTML5——或者两者皆得？

较低的用户留存也就意味着糟糕的盈利。所以那些想要赚钱的小型发行商最好选择原生应用开发，因为HTML5远不及原生应用赚钱。如果你必须从原生应用和HTML5中做出选择，你最好走向原生应用。

有限的付费选项将不利于应用盈利。与iOS或Facebook的便捷应用内置付费功能不同，如今的HTML5还没有一种快速付费的解决方案。如果用户如果难以付费，他们便会不想再继续玩游戏。另外一个问题是，与苹果iOS平台上分享了自己信用卡信息的2.25亿用户，还会为了在HTML5游戏中付费而反复与其他开发者或社交网络分享这些信息吗？

如果支付服务供应商和游戏开发者能够想出一些独特，安全且简单的解决方法，那么我们便可能利用HTML5获得盈利——甚至从长远角度来看其盈利结果还会优于原生应用，但是从当前来看我们却还有很长的一段路要走。如果拥有了开放网络，发行商将不再需要向发行平台支付30%的抽成。但是在此之前我们需要做的便是寻找所有潜在用户，并说服他们使用一种完全不同的付费系统。

HTML5仍然是一个冒险

在GameDuell，我们仍然将HTML5的开发当成一种冒险和学习过程。从正面视角来看，这也是我们为何如此乐观地看待HTML5的未来的重要原因。在过去8年间，我们一直在努力克服游戏开发过程中所出现的各种挑战。甚至直到游戏能够面向大众时，我们也仍需要花时间去完善它——但现在的HTML5仍然是一个美好但却不真实的开发之梦。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

HTML5: Too Good To Be True?

By Michael Kalkowski and Jonas Gebhardt

Although HTML5 is currently present everywhere in game development, most developers feel that the technology will be an important asset tomorrow, not today. GamesIndustry International recently discussed this topic in great detail with several mobile developers, and James Austin of Turbulenz has also weighed in. As Europe’s leading social/casual developer, we felt a need to share our own thoughts and insights that have come from working with HTML5 on several GameDuell projects.

HTML5 may be the future, but it certainly isn’t ready to be the main platform of the present. Any serious game developer (especially in the web/mobile field) needs to explore the new language in order to prepare for that future, but there are several obstacles that need to first be addressed and overcome before HTML5 saves us all.

Players First!

No gamer these days wants to be bothered with downloading a game. In fact, we are rapidly approaching an era where players are less interested in downloading a game multiple times on multiple platforms, and even less so in paying over and over to access the same content. As gamers, we want to use our favourite device right now and begin playing immediately.

“Any serious game developer needs to explore HTML5 in order to prepare for that future, but there are obstacles that need to be overcome before HTML5 saves us all”

This no-download, no-install, no-payment, no-waiting culture has evolved over the past few years within the social gaming scene, and looks likely to become the dominant form of games distribution, replacing traditional retail design and mentality.

As a purely web-based platform, HTML5 seems to give publishers endless opportunities to satisfy these customers’ needs, at least at first glance. HTML5 enables developers like us to create a game once and release it straight away onto almost any type of device of platform – mobile, web, social or console. All players need is a connected device or web browser (which nearly everyone has) and they are ready to rumble and immediately join the action.

Another key belief is that publishers can easily distribute HTML5 games independently; the 30 per cent commission for platform holders seems to be holdover from the past. HTML5 makes the gaming world a perfect, open place for developers who can instantly get their creations in front of potential players with no barriers.

Does this sound too good to be true? Probably!

What Is HTML5?

We all know that HTML is the coding language for the visual aspects of the web. Since the original version of HTML was invented by Tim Berners-Lee at CERN over 20 years ago, the language has gone through many iterations and updates. By 1996, CSS 1.0 and JavaScript were added, which have also undergone a constant series of improvements. But almost a decade has passed since the current version, HTML 4.01, was updated. Let’s face it, in the context of the fast moving pace of the internet there hasn’t been an update in forever. This has slowly led to the feeling that HTML is far behind the times.

The most critical modern example is the inability to naturally integrate video into HTML. As a result, many companies have developed different methods and unique formats (ranging from WMV to MP4) to play back videos. It’s fair to say that all the external plug-ins (such as Adobe Flash) required to run these formats are both annoying and risky, since you are forced to find, trust, download, install and continuously update them.

HTML5 is able to deal directly with videos as well as making several other things possible that were not possible with the HTML language in the past. In the long term, this could lead to a more standardised and consistent web experience across all browsers and devices, which in turn makes life easier for both users and developers.

And here we go again: HTML5 seems to make the world perfect. Does this sound too good to be true again? Probably!

Today’s Reality At A Glance

The reality is currently a bit different.

The following points have one word in common and that one word is “yet.” HTML5 is going to play a big role in the future of the internet – especially games – but it is simply not ready to take on this role.

“GameDuell is spending merely 10 per cent of our mobile resources on HTML5, with 90 per cent of our efforts geared towards native app development”

At GameDuell, we don’t see HTML as a viable alternative to native development for iOS or Android apps yet, especially from a business perspective. After much research and experimentation, GameDuell has decided as a company that now is not the proper time to put all of our focus and energies into developing for HTML5. In fact, we are spending merely 10 per cent of our mobile resources on HTML5, with 90 per cent of our efforts geared towards native app development.

At this point, HTML5 serves more as an addition to native development instead of a replacement, allowing apps to take advantage of traffic that cannot easily be reached via traditional native applications.

HTML5 is not yet a true cross-platform technology that allows you to simply write a game once and run it instantly on any platform and device. While this new HTML iteration is designed to push the cross-platform experience to new levels, there are many hurdles to cross before an HTML5 project can run on individual platforms, making the work just as challenging.

Reaching Users Without A Proper Distribution Channel?

On the plus side, two of the world’s largest and most influential internet companies are dead serious about HTML5 and are serious about pushing the technology.

There is no doubt that Facebook believes in HTML5. Even two years ago, they were “excited” about HTML5, creating a dedicated blog and rallying their developers to “build the future with HTML5.” While Facebook passively waits for others to develop great browsers that can deal with any HTML5 code, Google has already decided that developing the best browser is the key to success, since browsers will be the future entertainment platform.

With the launch of Chrome OS and Chromebook, Google took direct action, showing its belief that the web is the future, with its goal being to have everything running in the cloud on a simple, clean browser. The big question here: if games and all other apps are running in a web browser and downloading from dedicated app distribution stores suddenly becomes redundant, how can publishers distribute their latest games and apps and reach a mass audience?

Google created its own Chrome Web Store for this purpose, which is a step in the right direction, but not every developer and publisher can build their own stores. Apple’s AppStore and Google Play make discovering and purchasing content pretty convenient, giving people a destination to find what they’re looking for. That’s why today’s mobile developers can’t afford to launch a game on HTML5 only – developers still have to go “native” as well, in order to aid in discovery.

Positive things have already happened: Facebook’s mobile platform began pushing the social discovery of apps created with HTML5. Industry blogs even commented that “Facebook could finally be a decent distribution solution for the long-tail of mobile app that don’t have a top 100 ranking.” Bigger, established game publishers can also leverage viral mobile web traffic. We receive a lot of this traffic to our mobile site directly though mobile web browsers, which is a great opportunity to reach additional users with HTML5 versions of GameDuell’s games.

A Fast-Moving Technology

HTML5 is making a lot of progress and in terms of browser compatibility, developers often seem to underestimate its capabilities. HTML5 games are not limited to Chrome alone; our first HTML5 game Solitaire Harmony, runs smoothly on almost all mobile browsers, including Safari, Opera and Silk. We have also learned that the technology works great for casual games (such as card games), and supports many unique hardware features, such as motion sensors that also work on native iOS and Android.

“Limited payment options affect monetisation negatively. There is currently no solution for quick payments through HTML5″

We are also able to do simple animations, like flipping and moving cards. However, we found that the way they flip is different on different browsers: on Android’s Chrome they turned around the vertical axis as desired, but on iPhone’s Safari browser they flipped horizontally. Well, we took a deep breath, did some extra coding and overcame the issue.

Since HTML5 requires a web browser, games usually cannot be fired up without an internet connection. Once the game is loaded it is possible to cache data, so that playing “offline” is an option, but in most cases if a player does not have a live internet connection they will not be able to access their game.

There’s also an issue with audio, which is becoming a major topic with game developers. Games without sound are usually no fun; therefore HTML5 must be able to handle all kinds of audio correctly and allow developers to work their magic. HTML5 sound works well in most browsers, but we have found limitations, especially where it comes to looping music. Another problem is that sound within an HTML5 application cannot be muted by the hardware volume buttons on the iPhone, forcing players to rely on onscreen software buttons. This will almost certainly be fixed in the near future, but for now it is an annoyance that can break user engagement with a game.

100 Devices, 100 Screen Sizes

While audio is certainly an issue, addressing different screen sizes and pixel shapes is much more pressing.

Imagine for a moment that you’re a developer, working on the next awesome game that will set the world on fire. You’ve begun developing your game in HTML5 for desktop browsers because you’ve been told that adapting it to mobile is easy. Your code can quickly be taken to a mobile device by simply scaling down your graphics with little to no hassle. Turns out this is mostly wishful thinking.

By going this route, you’ll end up with a game that looks terrible and requires a lot of extra work in order to make it run correctly. Even something as basic as navigation bars differ from device to device, meaning your on-screen display is going to change on each and every type of smartphone.

The next great graphics challenge is that a pixel is not simply a pixel anymore. Due to the variety of mobile devices in the market (especially when it comes to Android phones), we suddenly have to support many different physical displays with very different pixel resolutions and densities. To overcome this challenge, density-independent pixels (dips) were invented. Since this new type of pixels have to then be converted back to screen pixels again, complexity in the design process has increased massively. While in the past we had one simple “px” (pixel), in the HTML5 world of today we now need to deal with dpi, dip, dp, dps, sp and sip.

And that’s not even the end of it. A few weeks ago, GameDuell was approached by a partner with a plan to display HTML5 games on TVs. We quickly discovered that not only would we have to suddenly deal with thousands of new screen sizes, but also address an all new issue: controls. It’s hard enough to teach HTML5 touch gestures and drag-and-drop to new players, but how are we now supposed to get these gestures controls to work with a TV remote?

Well, every day brings challenges – and that’s what we somehow love about working with HTML5.

User Retention – A Nightmare Scenario?

How do people find a mobile game? And even more importantly, how do they come back to it again afterwards? Compared to web and social games, mobile faces huge challenges in this area and HTML5 doesn’t seem to make things any better.

“Smaller publishers focused on generating revenue must choose native apps over HTML5 development, as HTML5 is far from being on par with native apps”

Since HTML5 games run in a browser, your game is “gone” once the browser is closed. On iOS, developers can at least suggest players add a bookmark button to the home screen, but there’s nothing comparable on Android. This is a nightmare scenario for both players and developers.

The second big issue we recently faced while developing Solitaire Harmony for HTML5 was related to viral loops. Due to difficulties with Facebook Connect, social features like gifting and sending requests could only be used in limited ways. Proper retention tools and the support of a huge player like Facebook are still crucial in order to publish successful games.

Native Apps Or HTML5 – Or Both?

Lower retention rates means worse monetisation. Smaller publishers focused on generating revenue must choose native apps over HTML5 development, as HTML5 is far from being on par with native apps. If you are looking to chose between native or HTML5 development, you should absolutely go native.

Limited payment options affect monetisation negatively. There is currently no solution for quick payments through HTML5, unlike the ease of in-app purchases through iOS (and hopefully Android, someday) or Facebook. The harder it is for a user to pay for something, the less likely they are to do so. The other question is whether the 225 million customers that have already shared their credit card details with Apple will share those details again and again with other developers or social networks in order to make micropayments in HTML5 games that are not distributed via the App Store.

If payment providers and developers are able to figure out unique, secure and easy solutions to solve this issue, monetisation with HTML5 games might be, in the long term, much better than native apps, but we’re still a long way from that happening. By embracing the open web, publishers won’t have to pay a 30 per cent commission to a distribution partner any longer. But before we can get there, we’ll have to find all these potential customers and then convince them to use a different payment system. Suddenly that 30 per cent markup to Apple or Google doesn’t sound so bad.

HTML5 Remains An Adventure

At GameDuell, we currently view HTML5 development as an adventure and a learning process. On a positive note, this is also why we are optimistic about the future of HTML5. Over the last eight years, we’ve always managed to find solutions to the challenges that arise during the game development process. Until it’s ready for the masses, it will still need time to mature – currently HTML5 is a development dream that is too good to be true. (source:gamesindustry)