HTML5 Games: Creating Fun with HTML5, CSS3 and WebGL, 2nd Edition

Chapter 1

Gaming on the Web

In This Chapter

• Finding out what HTML5 is and where it came from

• Seeing HTML5 within the context of games

• Looking at important new features

• Enabling feature detection and dealing with legacy browsers

BEFORE I DIVE into code, I want to establish the context of the technology we use. In this first chapter, I discuss what HTML5 is as well as some of the history that led to the HTML5 specification.

One of the most interesting aspects of HTML5 is how game developers can profit from many of its new features. In this chapter, I introduce you to some of those features and give you a few quick examples of how to use them. I talk about the canvas element and WebGL and the huge improvement they make in creating dynamic graphics. I also cover the audio element and the added multiplayer possibilities created by the WebSocket specification.

Everybody likes new toys, but remember that in the real world, old and outdated browsers keep many users from taking advantage of these cutting-edge features. In this chapter, I discuss a few tools that can help you detect which features you can safely use as well as how you can use these feature tests to load appropriate fallback solutions when necessary.

Finally, I briefly introduce the puzzle game that I use throughout the rest of the book to take you through the creation of a complete HTML5 game.

Tracing the History of HTML5

HTML, the language of the web, has gone through numerous revisions since its invention in ...