TrueToken: you can't work with HTML5 "on the spur of the moment"

Alexander Gorodenchuk, head of TrueToken studio, who recently introduced the Squire framework, told us about the advantages of the HTML5 platform and its nuances.

What are the advantages of HTML5? Why did you choose this particular platform as your main focus?HTML5 allows you to make games for almost all existing platforms.

The game, created in HTML5, will run both on PC and tablets, smartphones and even on Smart TV, regardless of the OS installed on them.

In other words, you can first launch an HTML5 project on a regular web portal, and then adapt it to any system without any problems and distribute it as a native application through most existing markets.

Therefore, despite the fact that HTML5 is a new and not yet devoid of shortcomings technology, we consider it the most promising on the market. Yes, after Adobe’s announcement about the termination of support for the mobile version of Flash, it has become even more relevant, because at the moment HTML5 has no competitors.

What successes can you share?Over 2 years, we have created and ported more than 40 HTML5 games to various mobile platforms.

Our own project Animal Connect won first place in the “Best HTML5 Game” contest at the FlashGamm 2011 conference last year. We are going to launch it on Smart TV soon.

We also have our own very productive Squire framework. (he is especially good at rendering). At the FlashGamm 2012 conference, we just made a report about him.

Is it possible for third-party developers to get acquainted with it?Not yet.

We are just preparing it for a public release. We plan to launch it by the end of this month.

How much will the license cost for it?Access to the framework will be free for all developers.

They say that now HTML5 as a platform is “too damp”, and it makes sense for developers of high-quality games to wait with the release to it. Is it so?Of course, the platform has its own nuances.

Due to the fact that HTML5 standards are still in the draft, HTML5 support by browser developers is inconsistent. In addition, many developers who have tried HTML5, trying to solve issues in it “head-on” and as a result faced poor performance on mobile platforms. That is why we do not recommend “bare hands” to take up HTML5. All these problems can be solved using third-party frameworks (including our Squire). 

However, there are not very good rumors about the platform, let’s just say. In addition, Zuckerberg, as we remember, called Facebook’s transition to HTML5 a mistake.Rumors and legends are born because of the failures of developers.

Now this technology is at an early stage and requires special attention and a deep approach. “On the spur of the moment”, as I said, trying to do something in it is wrong, it leads in most cases to failures. In addition, there are still few companies that can show significant achievements in this area, so many people have a negative attitude to this platform.  

As for Mark Zuckerberg, he meant an early start of work with this technology, not a rejection of it.

OK, let’s get back to you. Do you use PhoneGap or other containers for HTML5 applications, or something self-written? Why? Have you heard ImpactJS? If so, what do you think about them?We use PhoneGap.

Why? We have focused on other tasks for HMTL5 and do not see the need to shift our focus towards creating a container. Moreover, PhoneGap suits us for all our requests.

As for ImpactJS, we know about it (we are watching the competitors). There have been more and more similar frameworks lately, often the accents are shifting. For example, in the latest review from Boostermedia, ImpactJS took second place after UltimateJS. We are sure that our Squire framework will be included in this list next year.

By the way, the creator of UltimateJS and the founder of the company Logicking Yuri Dobronravin, also located in Kiev, is our good friend.

What you write in: Javascript or use an intermediate language like Coffeescript. Do you have your own extensions over JS?Pure JavaScript plus our framework.

As a rule, this is more than enough.

When creating games, which engine do you use?When creating games, we avoid half measures and crutches, in particular, the use of various HTML5 constructors.

In addition to our own Squire, we use the Box2D engine optimized by us for games with physics and PhoneGap – for compiling games into native applications.

What is the future of HTML5, in your opinion?We are confident that this technology is one of the most promising.

The first steps have already been taken. For example, Microsoft in Windows 8 opened the operating system API for HTML5 applications. The other day Mozilla announced a new mobile operating system based entirely on HTML5. I am sure that in the near future, the other major players will switch to full HTML5 support.