TOM GREENAWAY: Hi,
I'm Tom Greenaway,
and I'm the games lead for the
Web Developer Relations team
here at Google.
Now I know what you might
be thinking, web games,
is that really a thing?
Isn't flash a little bit passe?
And compared to native mobile
games on Android and iPhone,
can the web really even compete?
Well, in this Lightning
Talk, I will quickly
highlight some of
the opportunities
but also the challenges that the
web offers to game developers.
I'll touch on topics such
as why raw performance isn't
the most important
thing in a game, what
the major strengths and the
weaknesses of the web are,
and lastly, a few
examples of game design
patents you can use to leverage
when designing for the web.
So firstly, the raw performance
of the device or the games
built for it.
That's what decides the most
successful games and platforms,
right?
Well, not really.
In the history of
game development,
usually it's the platforms
and the games that
deliver some kind of mixture
of innovation, ease of access,
and last but not least, fun.
In fact, I would say fun is the
most important factor in games,
much more important than
the graphical fidelity.
But let's dive into these three
properties a little bit more
in depth with some examples.
So innovation, think about when
the first motion-controlled
games took off.
The best-selling console out
of the Playstation 3, the Xbox
360, and the
Nintendo Wii, it was
the latter, the console
with the weakest performance
but the most hardware
innovation and ease of access.
Well, this can mean many things.
Whether games are easy
to buy and download
or whether a device is
portable and always with you.
This is one of the reasons
why mobile gaming has
boomed over the last decade.
The Google Play store
and the Apple App Store
have made it ridiculously
easy to download
a game to your device,
and these games
are right there in your
pocket, always ready to play.
And lastly, what about fun?
Some of the most successful
mobile games of all time
were not pushing the graphical
limits of their devices.
They focused on being fun.
Think of the early mobile
hits like Fruit Ninja
or Angry Birds.
In other words, if you play to
the strengths of your platform
and make fun your
priority, there
are often compelling
game designs
waiting to be discovered.
So what are the strengths
of your platform?
What are the
strengths of the web?
Well firstly, it's the most
open and biggest platform
that's ever been created.
Nearly every device in the
world has a web browser.
And there are no limits
on how you can monetize--
micro transactions,
subscriptions, paywalls,
or ads.
There are no rules
on the web, right?
And the web is instantaneous
and almost frictionless.
With just a tap,
the user can jump
into your content via a
link they find anywhere,
whether that's on the
web or inside of an app.
But like the hero
of any great story,
these strengths are also the
web's greatest weaknesses.
It runs on almost all devices.
So to take full
advantage of that,
you must design your
game to be responsive
and to be aware of different
devices, screen resolutions,
and potentially develop for
the lowest common denominator.
For example, mobile safari
only supports WebGL 1.0.
And what about payments?
Well, the Google Play Store
and the Apple App Store
ushered in a new era of simple
and trusted payment processing,
and in-app purchases
were created.
And sadly, the web doesn't
have built-in payment methods
like this, which means that
there's a higher friction when
users are being asked to pay.
However, there are a lot
of web platforms and APIs
which help alleviate this
problem, such as Google Pay
Stripe, PayPal, and even
browser APIs, like web payments.
And lastly, the
instantaneousness
of the web that I mentioned?
Yes, it's great that a user can
load your content instantly.
But to make that
really work, you
need to fine tune your content
to load as fast as possible.
And the weakness is that just as
easily as a user open your web
page, they can close it as well.
The ephemerality of the web is
both powerful and yet fragile
at the same time.
But if you play
your cards right,
you can make a game
successful on the web
by leaning on these
strengths and mitigating
these weaknesses.
So what's the most
unique feature of the web
that we can hone in on
with our game design?
It's the link.
The beauty of the web browser
is that just as easily as you
were linked to a piece of
content, you, as a user,
know that you can now share
that link to someone else.
And so that cycle of being
linked and then linking others
to content, that's the
power of the web, really.
It's viral.
It's the modern day,
word-of-mouth marketing
machine.
So how can you work the link
itself into your game design?
The key is that we
want to drive virality.
We want to give the user
a reason to share the game
and for the link that they
share to be meaningful
not just to them, but
to others as well.
So what interesting information
can be shared in a link?
Well, here are three categories
you can experiment with--
competition, collaboration,
and exploration.
But what would the URLs of
these games really look like?
Well, I could create
a puzzle in a game,
and then I could share
a URL, and that URL
could be a playable link
to that particular puzzle.
Or I could finish a level
and I could share the URL.
And what I share could
be a player ghost
of me completing that level
for others to compete against.
And lastly, I could be
playing a rogue-like game,
discovering new
areas of the world,
and I could find a secret room.
And then if I
share the URL, that
could teleport a friend
into that same room
that I've discovered.
Now for example,
here is a game called
Shellshock.io where players
compete in a quake style arena
shootout.
If the player shares
that current URL,
their friends can deep link into
that exact room the player is
in and compete against them.
Also here's a little game I
made called Space Board, built
using the slick game
development tool Construct,
which, by the way,
not only produces
HTML5 games for the
web, but is, unto
itself, an entirely web-based
development environment.
So I designed this
game to demonstrate
how your URLs can be
used to transmit data
for the purposes of game design.
And inside of it is a level
editor I built into the game.
When you play the game,
you can send a link,
and the link contains
the entire level's design
that you've created.
Here on the left is the
game itself being played.
Try it out.
The game can be played
on desktop or on mobile.
And why am I showing
a QR code as well?
Well, because QR codes can be
a marketing tool for promoting
content in the physical world.
If you access that
URL in the QR code,
it will take you
to another level
I made, but this one's a
little bit more intense.
Now you can imagine that
Space Board could also
generate QR codes
of levels that could
be shared with a friend
in person as well.
So in summary, if you're curious
about the web's potential
for game developers,
think about how
you can play to the
strengths of the platform.
Support as many devices as
possible, think outside the box
when building your
monetization model,
and build your game to
load as fast as possible
so users can jump into it
and play your game instantly.
But most importantly,
make your game fun.
Design it to be viral, to
leverage the URL so users
have a reason to
share it and spread
the word about your game.
Thanks, and see you next time.
