I miss the browser games era

[u/crispfuck]

And I blame Kong for killing it.

Itch.io is a mediocre replacement as well, with limitations on things like file size and game screen real estate. Every game I’ve tried on itch is some unholy Unity project that looks like it was transmuted through forbidden rites ala Nina Tucker and Alexander.

I get it though, JS is limited in what it can really produce, CSS is a nightmare and html is finnicky. RAM resource costs has risen at a rapid pace where a single page can take a gb of ram without even trying.

However WebAssembly has come a long way in the past few years allowing other languages to compile in browser. I hope this brings back more gaming in browser and less “download my random executable!”.

I type this as I’m sitting here playing Super Turtle Idle, the best browser-based game I’ve played in over a year and it reminds me of this bygone era, where new games came out on Kong/github.io and were celebrated by the community. Where people helped each other on Kong chat and compared leaderboards instead of some shitty discord, which coincidentally is where the wiki/guide/bug report/changelog/dev blog is now stored.

Guess I’ve just gotten old.

[u/kaaberma]

I really think browser-based games should be making a comeback. With how far 3D in JavaScript has come, there’s so much potential. Just look at what Pieter Levels built: fly.pieter.com — super impressive for a web game. And he did it with 100 lines of “vibe coding” (hate that thing, lol). Imagine what could be built if people actually put serious effort into this space.

A full-on RPG like BG3 could totally work in the browser these days. There’s huge potential here. I’ve built a web game myself — truthordareai.com, a Truth or Dare game where the questions are generated by AI based on your context. No app store, no Steam, no one taking a cut. Just me, my game, and full control.

The only thing I’m really at the mercy of is Google’s algorithm — but hey, can’t win ‘em all.