Gaming on the Web

François Daoust
fd@w3.org
@tidoust

Agenda

Setting the context
Games on the Web today
Main remaining technical gaps?
Set up a games activity at W3C?

Workshop in 2011

The report on the Workshop on HTML.next for Games identifies a number of features needed to develop games on the Web

Workhop on HTML.next for Games
24 September 2011, Warsaw, Poland
“Low-end” games era
A number of technical needs identified
(Mouse lock, Joystick API, “pass by reference”, Fullscreen API, Orientation lock, High performance timer, Asset loading)
Led to the Games Community Group
Relevant Working Groups identified

Oh, look, now covered by existing specs! 💖

2012 – 2018

Many Web standards created (or on their way) to fill the gaps, including:

Some game on the Web activities outside W3C, including:

Mozilla's Games program
Next Game Frontier conference in 2014 (Microsoft/Samsung)

Games on the Web in 2018

The Games on the Web roadmap summarizes technologies that enable the creation of “high-end” games on the Web.

Performance
WebAssembly, WebGPU, Workers

Rendering
WebGPU, WebGL, Web Audio API, WebXR

User interaction
Pointer lock, Touch events, Gamepad, WebXR, Sensors API

Network & Communication
WebRTC, WebSockets, Fetch, Streams

Games & the Web in 2018

The Games on the Web roadmap summarizes technologies that enable the creation of “high-end” games on the Web.

Platform integration
Web App Manifest, Service Workers, Background Sync, Web Packaging

Data storage
Web Storage, IndexedDB, Web Crypto API

Payment & Service
Payment Request API, Payment Handler API

Remaining gaps

What are the main hurdles today?

Advanced rendering features?
Better multithreading?
Multiplayer communication?
Game streaming?
Live streaming? eSports?
Monetization?
ML algorithms?
Gesture events?
Asset protection?
Fragmentation across browsers?
Pace of spec development?
Blockchain in games?
Accessibility?
Social gaming & Decentralization?
Debugging?

Game activity at W3C

Lots of on-going technologies are directly useful for games. Would it be a good time to run a W3C activity to track and steer progress? Some talking points:

Games seen as “frivolous”. Is gaming the right focus?
Same technologies used in other contexts such as CAD, medical settings, business apps, etc.
Who needs to be around the table?
Who is missing at W3C?
Any specific scope to adopt to address games?
How about organizing a workshop early 2019?

Thank you!

Questions?