Browser Based Game Performance: I’m Over My Old Flame with Jason Arena Presented at FITC Toronto on April 27-29, 2014 More info at www.FITC.ca Whenever Jason Arena asks other developers if they’re embracing browsers based game development – he typically hear the same responses: performance is slow, animation looks bad, not all devices support it, and the big one – it’s just not ready for primetime. Jason will share some of the things we’ve learned about browser based game development over the past two years. He will discuss misconceptions, optimization, coding environments and best practices for making robust browser based games.

1. HTML 5 Game
Process & Optimization
Jason Arena, Keith McCullough, Matt Leffler

2. Every time I discuss HTML 5 with
developers I hear the same thing…
!

3. It’s not ready for Primetime.

4. A Few Games
SpongeBob Gone Missing
(Platformer)
!
Power Rangers
(Character animation)
!
Bloomix Battle
Dora Magic Land
!

5. Back Story
Where we’ve been
Why the transition to HTML 5?
Our clients
• All browsers and devices
• Served into Webviews for Apps
• Easy to update with new content
For Workinman
!
!

6. HTML5 Environments
Engines we’ve Considered;
PlayN
Construct2
CreateJS
HAXE
• NME (Now OpenFL)
• Flambé
A Few HTML 5 Engines
(for a good laugh)

7. Why Flambé
• Easy transition from Flash
• Animation support
• Good performance
Also allows for lots of builds
• HTML 5
• iOS
• Android
• Flash (for IE 8 Desktops)
• Researching Steam

9. WM Environments
Animation
Flump
Takes a Flash animation and creates a
tweened animation with an atlas file
!
Spriter
A stand-alone animation tool
• Bones
• State blending
!

10. Design
• Flash
• Photoshop
• Illustrator
!
WM Environments

11. Think First
There is no way for us to make graphics
for every device.
Screen Resolutions/Ratios
• Design a modular UI (if possible)
• Scale graphics to screen size
• Bleed the rest for ratio. (Safe Area)
• Oversize art
• Responsive: Brain Crush Example
!

12. It’s easy to set up good keyboard input
first, but don’t forget touch!
!
Designing for both touch & keyboards
• We focus on making the game work
with touch first and then add keyboard
!
Avoid soft buttons if possible
• Especially for action games
• For some reason producers love them
Think First

13. No Silver Bullet
• A lot of small savings add up
• Static image compression
• Strategic use of animation tools
!
Manage the loading experience
• Show art fast!
• Keep them Clicking!
Optimization

14. Load time Optimizations
Break down the loading process
1. Load Splash graphic
2. Load loader graphic
3. Load UI and game play graphics
4. Load level art on demand (5MB)
!
~ We try to keep initial loads under 1MB
but sometimes it’s a judgment call.
Tips & Tricks

15. In extreme cases:
• Load less content on specific devices
• Load smaller animations or backgrounds
• Create device specific asset bundles
!
!
Tips & Tricks

16. Loader Folder

17. Compress static assets as much as possible
PNGs Optimization
• Posterization
• Dirty Transparency
• TinyPNG.org
• 8 Bit dithered PNG for hard edge assets
• Use 80% sized graphics. Scale them up
Use compressed JPGs as Backgrounds
!
Tips & Tricks

18. Compress Animations
Flump
Use for main characters
• Great for detailed Flash animations
• Typically smaller download
• Bigger memory footprint
– Show Power Rangers Characters
!
Tips & Tricks

19. Flump Atlas File Json FIle

20. Compress Animations
PNG Sequences
Best for Enemies, Power Ups, & Particles
• Lower animation Framerate
• Typically larger download
• Smaller memory footprint
!
!
Tips & Tricks

21. Use tweens for animation
• Lowest memory and download
• Best for small items animating
• Simple rotation
• Scaling
!
Example:
SB Gone Missing background characters
!
Tips & Tricks

22. General Performance: Pooling
Huge performance hit when instantiating or
disposing elements.
Example:
• Create all particles before gameplay
• Store them in the pool array
• Only add to render list when needed
Tips & Tricks

23. Device Performance
• Branch to handle device exceptions
• Game may look a little different
!
Show Korra Example
Test on every device!
Tips & Tricks

24. Audio – different versions Mp3, OGG
!
Multi channel audio issues
• WebAudio support in iOS
• Android only supports <audio> tags
• 3rd party wrappers
!
!
Tips & Tricks

25. Wrappers
Ludei: Cocoon JS
• Improved Audio support
• Improved performance?
• Better memory management Vs
Webview
• Consistent cross platform environment

26. A lil’ Something
WM JS Embed Script
• A JS library to embed games into HTML
• Handles Scaling
• APIs for game communication
• Inform Events:
• Game to HTML
• HTML to Game
!
https://github.com/workinKeith/JSEmbed

27. Thank You!
Email with any questions
jason@workinman.com