[web] Developing browser based games

Depends what sort of game you're talking about.

For some types of game, Flash works.

For more complex ones, Java would be better (Popcap.com etc).

However a lot of people find that it's quite feasible to develop browser-based games with just HTML (possibly &#106avascript too), using server-side technologies. These typically don't require any "special" tools to develop, but can get complicated.<br><br>Mark

I've made some games with Java applets since like you, I found Flash extremely expensive (and I'm glad I took this route). I spent a while learning Java and making heavy use of google to find all the information I needed before. It's not as easy as using Flash (what I've heard, never actually used Flash before) but if you're motivated you can certainly do it. Googling for Java applet tutorials brought me some good things.

ok, thanks. I guess ill go with java then. one quick question, though: what is the difference between java and &#106avascript? thanks.

Java was developed by Sun and &#106avascript was developed by Netscape. They are considered unrelated even though you may see some of the same certain words used. Java applets, which are what you'll be making, are sent to your browser from the server as Java bytecode (the portable code that's interpreted and run by the Java Virtual Machine), while &#106avascript is sent as readable text just like HTML. A Java applet will allow you the full flexability of a "real" language (C++, C, asm, etc.) because it is in fact using Java(tm). There are security restrictions though placed &#111;n applets: they cannot make connections, they cannot execute (or open?) files &#111;n the client, etc. If you're using firefox hit ctrl-u and the first thing you will see is &#106avascript (most likely, if you're browser is not ancient...). I guess &#111;ne reason for the existance of &#106avascript is to load processing off the server &#111;nto the clients.

Java is a fully fledged general programming language while &#106avascript is a scripting language, you stick it into HTML code and it lets you do cool things with webpages.<br><br><a href=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Java_programming_language>Java</a><br><a href=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/&#106avascript>&#106avascript</a><br><br>As golopart said, they're not really related.

ok, thanks. i understand the difference now.

It should be noted that you can do a lot more in &#106avascript than people generally realise.<br/><br/>In addition to manipulation of HTML forms etc, you can use:<br/><br/>- DHTML-like page modifications to provide more interactive applications - hide / show elements on a page and move stuff around (+more)<br/>- Proper "OO" programming - &#106avascript has a system to create objects and a fairly usable string library<br>- Manipulation of non-displayed XML documents with DOM<br>- Client - server communications with XMLHTTPRequest objects etc<br><br>Using these it's quite reasonable to make a simple game (puzzle game, card game etc) that runs in the browser WITHOUT Java.<br><br>Java is potentially more flexible:<br>- Server push (&#106avascript can't make sockets directly, you can fudge it)<br>- Serialisation / RMI / EJB for cleverer client-server RPC operations<br>- A strongly-typed, compiled language.<br>- easier code reuse between client and server components<br>- Rich libraries for all sorts of things<br>- (Maybe) Better input handling, sound etc.<br><br>In Mozilla, it's certainly possible to do some fairly advanced stuff.<br><br>Anyway here's some really crap examples of what I can do with &#106avascript<br><br>- <a href="http://www.gensortium.com/~mark/pow6.html">Like space invaders</a> (Works in IE and Mozilla)<br>- <a href="http://www.gensortium.com/~mark/snake/">Snake game</a> (Works in Mozilla, could work in others with minor tweaks)<br><br>Mark

thanks for the links and info, but i think ill go with Java. i have one more question though: Do i need the java 2 sdk to develop games, or not? im asking because it is a large download and i only have dial-up

well, i found out that i need to SDK to develop Java games, so i guess java is out of the question. is there any other software or tools i could use to develop Browser-based games?

The Java SDK is free. Did you mean something else?

the reason i didnt download ths sdk was because it was a large download size and i have dial-up. ill look for some books though, so hopefully that will solve my problems. thanks for everyones help.