Categories: Firefox Mozilla News

First Commercial Web Games Launch Leveraging Mozilla-Pioneered Technology

Mozilla is proving the Web is a powerful gaming platform by creating new technologies and developer tools that enable game creators to port their popular titles to the Web. One of the trailblazers using these technologies is Trendy Entertainment, which is leveraging Emscripten and asm.js to bring its highly popular Dungeon Defenders title to the Web.  Trendy announced today it will release a version of Dungeon Defenders Eternity featuring the same visuals and gameplay as the native desktop version, but available on the Web at near native speeds. Later today, the full game will be available to buy on Steam.

This builds on the momentum from GDC early this year where several of the biggest names in the gaming industry announced they were bring their innovative web-based tools to the Web, including Unity, with its WebGL add-on.

Here’s a sneak peak at Dungeon Defenders Eternity:

 

Mozilla has unlocked the Web as a viable commercial platform for gaming by pioneering asm.js, a supercharged or highly-optimised subset of JavaScript that allows developers to bring high quality, plugin-free games online. This, combined with WebGL, a graphics library that brings 3D graphics to the Web; and Web Audio for positional sound and other effects, enables a fast, rich and immersive 3D gaming experience on the Web.

“At Trendy we believe in a future where players will want to access quality, connected game experiences everywhere — be it console, PC, mobile, or Web,” said Darrell Rodriquez, CEO, Trendy Entertainment. “The Web is already a huge part of the ecosystem for casual games, and with Mozilla-pioneered asm.js technology, plugin-free Web gaming is available now. Quite frankly, the ability to load into a full Dungeon Defenders match a few seconds after logging into a URL will significantly attract more gamers to the Web.”

“We’re pleased to see more developers using asm.js to distribute and now monetize their plug-in free games on the Web as it strengthens support for Mozilla’s vision of a high performance, plugin-free Web,” said Vlad Vukicevic, Engineering Director at Mozilla and inventor of WebGL. “Using just a Web link allows people to immediately play a game wherever they are. Using open Web technologies also provides an easier path to publish and update games over multiple platforms and test new features. There’s never been a better time to build rich, interactive, high performance games for the Web.”

Additionally, Trendy announced that its upcoming sequel, Dungeon Defenders II, will be available on the Web.  Check out this sneak peek video of Dungeon Defenders II running on the Web.

 

 

Other developers continue to bring new and existing content to the Web thanks to Mozilla-pioneered Emscripten and asm.js technologies that allow developers to port their existing games to the Web and reach near-native speeds.  Game Insight, developer of the Cloud Raiders mobile game, recently published its game to the Facebook platform using these technologies and WebGL.  Easy plugin-free access makes Web games such as this more accessible to a new class of player.  You can try Cloud Raiders on Facebook here.

To help game developers like Trendy and Game Insight, Firefox now includes a Canvas Debugger, giving developers a powerful tool with which to analyse and pinpoint issues with game graphics.

Firefox today also adds performance improvements to key gaming-related areas, such as Web Audio and asm.js. If you’re a developer and want to know more or learn how to get started developing games for the Web, take a look at this Hacks post.

 

For more information:

How to get started developing games

Release notes for Firefox Windows, Mack and Linux

Download Firefox for Windows, Mac and Linux

New Safe Preference in Firefox