Dev Journals 7: Revelation

If anyone’s wondering, today’s subtitle is from the Children of the Corn series. They actually made 8 of those. As for Adventure Kit, I’ve now made 3 of those. Read on to find out why.

The first Adventure Kit was written years ago, last updated in 2015 (I think). I’ll write about that another time, but suffice it to say it took a very different approach.

The second Adventure Kit is the one I was just working on: a Pythonic, Windows-based app to make Windows games. But a third version?! Where did that come from?

The third (and hopefully canonical) incarnation of Adventure Kit will be web-based.

I chose this for a few good reasons: first and foremost, it’s the tech I know, and I can get to a working proof of concept about 10x faster on the web.

Besides the practical considerations, there are a couple other reasons I’ve decided to go with the web for now. One really cool, compelling reason to try the web, is that the gamepad API is supported in all modern browsers at this point.

It feels like that moment when I discovered that, using the “line in” jack on my computer and a 1/4" to 1/8" adapter, I could plug my guitar into the computer and analyze the sound waves.

It’s not only a different type of input – it’s a gateway to web games. Not many people want to play a game with the keyboard alone, though it can be done with RPGs. Give me the controller!

Not to mention distribution! Distributing a web game is so much easier – just give someone a web address, and boom, they’re there, playing the game. Much simpler than some crazy Windows installer (especially in Python)

Finally, a web-based platform is different. Everyone plays games on Windows, but what ever happened to browser games? (Hint: the death of Flash had a lot to do with it.)

I truly believe that browser games could make a comeback. Not only that, this could lead the way to mobile versions of these games with touch controls. Web just has so many possibilities, in addition to being the more practical choice for me personally.

So, this third incarnation is web-based. Not much else has changed. It’ll still be a GUI. In other news, I’m working on a quest builder as the first prototype-of-a-proof-of-concept, the first working thing that you’ll be able to interact with.

More on this later, but for now, I need to get back to it. Next post: more wacky movie subtitles, a quest builder, marketplaces, and possibly a laugh or two. ‘Til next time!