

AirMech goes NaCl - godDLL
http://carbongames.com/2012/01/Native-Client/

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redthrowaway
I bought Bastion for Chrome and it was pretty damned good. there were cursor
issues, and the game crashed if you were low on memory, but other than that it
was an excellent experience. I think NaCl has the capability to really be a
boon for indie devs. With Chrome's ever-rising market share, it can truly be
looked at as a viable cross-platform platform, saving devs the hassle of
compiling for XBLA, PC, Mac, etc. Now, granted, most will still choose to use
steam if that's the route they're going, but this is a pretty cool emergence.

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prawn
If you, like me, have heard "NaCl" mentioned but don't really know what it is,
the article has a decent description.

If you're not going to click through, it's "Native Client" -

"Native Client, often called simply NaCl, is a plugin technology that runs
inside Chrome browser, and hopefully in the future, all browsers. It enables
applications written in C/C++ to run natively inside a secure sandbox. This
sandbox is there to protect users from malicious or buggy applications. In a
sense it’s similar to ActiveX, but other than native execution, other
similarities don’t exist. Actually with the amount security concerns put into
the whole Native Client, it’s not even fair to compare it to ActiveX
technology."

More here:

    
    
      http://www.chromium.org/nativeclient
      https://developers.google.com/native-client/overview

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GICodeWarrior
I tried both Google login buttons multiple times and the site errored every
time. I tried to email support@carbongames.com and I got a Google Groups
permanent rejection email.

A Google Group subscription is "required" to get the link to the app, but I
can't post in the group.

I tried the forums, but that requires an account.

I tried whois on the domain, but it is under DomainsByProxy.com.

I have details and screenshots if someone is interested.

~~~
bkaradzic
Hi there, I'm not sure did you have problem with Google Groups signup or with
our signup here? <https://carbongames.com/signup.html>

To get access to Chrome version you have login with your GoogleID and become
member of this Google Group: <https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/airmech-
alpha>

After that once you login into Chrome Web Store you'll be able to see this
link:
[https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hdahlabpinmfcemhcb...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hdahlabpinmfcemhcbcfoijcpoalfgdn)

If you still have issues, please send email to support@carbongames.com and
I'll make sure you get access to the game.

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jc4p
I used to work across the hall from these guys and they're fantastic. I had
heard that they were working on porting their engine over and I'm excited to
be able to play the game without having to boot into a Windows machine now!

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sawyer
Glad to hear these guys are going to make a NaCl option available.

The interesting thing about NaCl long term is that in order to compete with
mobile and desktop for developer attention any browser that supports it will
likely require an app store / ecosystem the way Google has done with Chrome
(to collect payments). This could make the future browser landscape look a lot
different, as it would introduce a lot more "lock-in" than we're used to. If I
have games and apps installed in one browser, I'll be far less likely to
switch at a later date.

~~~
magicalist
isn't it the same problem as monetizing any web site? NaCl is just embedded in
the page, after all.

~~~
troymc
If you've got a Mac or a Linux machine and some neat game is only available
(for you) via the Chrome Web Store, it seems like a fine option. People
already spend lots of money on browser-based games.

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jemeshsu
Is NaCI Chrome only? What's the difference than writing games on top of WebGL?

~~~
redthrowaway
NaCl allows native execution; WebGL is an abstraction that allows access to
hardware resources. NaCl is C/C++ based, and so allows for faster execution
than WebGL, which is JS-based.

WebGL's cool, but NaCl allows truly native performance, platform-agnostic and
living in the browser. They're different beasts entirely.

~~~
gcp
NaCl is _not_ platform agnostic.

~~~
nextparadigms
You mean it's not in Chrome for Linux and Chrome for Mac?

~~~
bkaradzic
It's platform agnostic in sense that it runs on all platforms where desktop
version of Chrome browser runs. But if you mean Chrome is platform, then yes
it runs only in Chrome for now.

It's not standard for all browsers, but I think that's going to change with
more games like AirMech that wouldn't be possible to make in .js/WebGL/HTML5.

It's also fully open sourced with permissive license (BSD), which should not
present any barrier for others to adopt it. Adoption will likely be decided by
politics (f.e.
[http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/06/24/jay_sullivan_on_fire...](http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/06/24/jay_sullivan_on_firefox/)),
rather than technical issues.

One interesting thing about CWS apps is that they can be ran in window mode,
and shortcut can be placed on desktop. At that point NaCl app doesn't look any
different than native desktop app. It's pretty cool!

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godDLL
For context -- the game looks very promising, and is far into development
(alphas).

~~~
jc4p
Most of their employees also worked on Fat Princess for the PS3.

