unification of HTML5 and the mobile experience

[John-Michael Davis]

Hey James,

I am new to JavaRanch but wanted to ask your thoughts on the unification of HTML5 and the mobile experience were game design is concerned. I am just starting on a new endeavor and have pretty much decided to go with HTML5/Javascript over native for the portability and the ability to write once and deploy to multiple platforms. However there are still some gaps especially in graphics to this approach but I also see the field developing into a more unified and device agnostic environment. In short where do you see game development heading and what are your predictions for the next year or two for games on multiple platforms and devices?

Best regards,
John-Michael

[James Williams]

John-Michael,

It is very dangerous to give predictions. Things changed alot during writing the book. But here goes:

I see JavaScript being a target "bytecode" language and possibly not what people code in. For example, I'm really liking what is happening in CoffeeScript and the Dart language that Google is spearheading looks interesting. People might more and more write in other languages and only compile to JS.