The Plan

Well, as the URL of the site may suggest, my initial plan is to use the “haXe” programming language. And I plan to do this by generating byte-code for flash-player 9 for the web, and linking the neko virtual machine to a suitable “engine” for the stand-alone executables.

The possibilities I see are:

  1. Use haXe to generate flash9 and neko code. All logic written in haXe. Plus a simple C++ engine to link the neko into.
  2. If haXe is not fast enough on flash9, write performace code in AS3, and replicate this in C++. Then use haXe for more high-level scripting.
  3. Write all in AS3, and buy a stand-alone flash player.
  4. Write in Java for the web and link a JVM into a C++ executable.
  5. Write all in Java and simply bundle it into a stand-alone player.

This is pretty much the order I think I will try things. I’m hoping I can get point 1 to work – this will give the greatest ability to get a simple web version going, with the ability to download a stand-alone version that is far more complex and not performance bound.

I prefer Flash to Java mainly because of end-user acceptance.

Hello world!

Hi Everyone. This is my site chronicling my efforts in web game development.

I have been programming since command-line was the way to programme. A simpler time when anyone could boot up his computer and start typing a game.

But nostalgia is a thing of the past, and advances, such as C++, means that you can write bigger and better programmes than when you typed in your Apple-basic code and saved it on your floppy.

I’ve done my fair share of writing big C++ programmes and the idea of writing some smaller, web based games has a great appeal. I think it’s the simplicity – and the immediacy of just plonking it on a website and people can play it straight away – no installs, no downloading just one click.

I have already published a game, FreeRange , written in C++. It occurred to me it would be good to convert it to a web game – but the syntax and structure was all wrong. This got me thinking about how I could have structured it to allow for co-development of an compiled executable and a web-based application.

So that is what this site is all about. The quest to discover the best way of developing a game, using one code base, that will work on both the web and a stand-alone application.

I’m not exactly sure where this will go, but I do know that it will involve either Flash or Java and will use some for of virtual machine in the executable.