HTML5 Game Dev Competition for Students - sponsored by Mozilla, GitHub | Hacker News Reader

HTML5 Game Dev Competition for Students - sponsored by Mozilla, GitHub

clay.io

31 pointsaustinhallock13 comments

Cool, but i cant shake the feeling theyd like to boost the games portfolio of their gaming site on the cheap with this.

So this is not to be seen negative per se, but USD 1500 for the winning team and subsequently less for runner ups is a bit poor considering teams will probably be more than 1 guy and you have to expect to get nothing at all.

I would be lying if I said that's not a small part of it, because it is.

But what's much more important to us is having HTML5 games in general move forward, and that starts by getting more folks (especially students) developing games with the technology versus Flash or Unity. If HTML5 "fails" for games, Clay.io no longer exists.

We gathered as much as we could for prizes, but the main issue was with securing more sponsors. Clay.io in its current state is 3 undergraduates at the University of Texas - we don't have funding at this point, so we have to be a bit scrappy.

I am sure that HTML5 is the future platform for games in the browser.

Personally i see HTML5 just as a deployment target in the future, like flash or ios for most major engines today. I bet Unity Technologies is already working on a "Deploy to HTML5" feature as they haben been doing for Flash as well. Other will do the same so we can continue to develop games in the mature and excellent software there already is, instead of reinventing the wheel in Javascript.

Hey. Another contestant here.

Looks like you guys have a problem with the background animation on that page (https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B2Fy-Q78JeVpLXlWRW4xejlOQ3c/...)

Did you by chance open it up while the browser window was small, then resize the window?

Yeah, I think I did. Looks like it doesn't handle resizes properly if you start out with a small(ish) window.

As a current student and a hopeful contestant I think that what you guys have done with this competition is pretty cool. It has me interested in seeing what I can do with HTML5 besides just, "Novel thing done completely in HTML5"

The prizes are crap. A much more sane option would be for the winners to have an in for internships at the companies you mentioned.

This is probably easier to get than cash prizes, and it has way more value than $1500 USD.

Any reasonable game could probably do well over $1500 USD if marketed well enough. "Don't Starve" is the example for how to sell a game in the browser.

Agreed. The things you mentioned and the fact that Clay.io is trying to bring the most annoying video game trends (social network integration, microtransactions, centralized achievements) to HTML5 makes me doubt that anyone who truly cares about the art form will participate.

I can see how microtransactions and social integration might be annoying to you, but centralized achievements? Why is that annoying?

Achievements are generally a tack-on. There are many more interesting ways to make a player feel achieved through playing a video game.

Using a centralized system makes them even worse because they break immersion. It's akin to your DVD player showing "Did you know?" popups throughout films you're watching for the first time.

I don't agree completely but thanks for clarifying.

Hey, I created the game that you guys first ported to clay.io (SlimeVolley). It's awesome to see how many games you've got hooked up to your system, I hope your user base is growing similarly. There's no shame in trying to grow your portfolio with this competition; it's a win-win for all parties involved. Best of luck.

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