On: A WebGL game where you deliver messages on a tiny planet

[EmilyHughes]

This is impressive but I don't get it. All that work and you have a game written in JS of all things. Why not write it in a desktop language und port it to JS. Now this will always need a browser to run, feels like a waste of time to me.

[modernerd → EmilyHughes]

Or, reframing:

- This will _only_ need a browser to run. No console. No PC rig. No Steam account. No account at all. You just need a link to play it.

- Why use a heavy game engine and all the baggage that can bring when you can make a lightweight prototype in JS, prove value in the browser, then port to desktop if you choose to.

Browser games are an underexplored art form.

[cluckindan → modernerd]

First you make the money, then hire someone else to port it to native. That’s what Vampire Survivors did.

[DecoySalamander → EmilyHughes]

You're looking at it in the wrong way. It's written in the native language of the best content delivery platform we have available.

[hedora → DecoySalamander]

It’ll also run pretty well on pretty much any OS. If I had a BSD box with GPU acceleration laying around, I’d give it a spin.

[wiseowise → EmilyHughes]

> Now this will always need a browser to run, feels like a waste of time to me.

As opposed to creating binaries for every platform and be subject to every possible store scrutiny on Android, iOS, Windows, Mac?

That not a waste of time for sure.

What am I ever reading?

[sh4rks → EmilyHughes]

Can always use Electron or Tauri to turn it into a native app

[hagbard_c → sh4rks]

Electron and native do not belong in the same sentence AFAIK unless you mean 'native to the browser (which happens to be included in the package)'. Tauri is the same, just bring your own 'browser' (webview, really).

[yurishimo → hagbard_c]

We all build on top of something. Today’s browser will look like a native platform in another 20 years. Just like assembly does to our point of view today.