Google to Prove that HTML5 and the Web Are Great for Games at GDC

Web-based games have been around for years, yet it seems that only now they are becoming global phenomenon. So far though, the only real option for game creators has been Flash, with all of the advantages and disadvantages of the platform.

HTML5 and other web technologies are now being positioned as valid alternatives and open technologies are promoted by browser makers like Mozilla and now Google.

The Google Chrome team has announced that it will be present at the Game Developers Conference 2011, later this month, showcasing what HTML5, WebGL, Google's Native Client and other web technologies can do for games.

"Games are some of the most popular apps on the web platform. Representatives from the Chrome team will be at the Game Developers Conference, to connect with game developers and deliver tech talks on some of the latest web technologies," Ian Lewis, Developer Advocate at Google, writes.

"On February 28th, as part of Google Developer Day at GDC, Vincent Scheib will present an overview of how the latest HTML5 technologies can be used to create games," he said.

"On the same day, Gregg Tavares will explain how to get GPU-accelerated graphics with WebGL, and Bill Budge will show how you can program Web games in C++ using Native Client," he added.

WebGL is now included in the stable version of Google Chrome and enabled by default. Firefox 4.0 also supports the technology.

At the same time, it's about to get ratified as a web standard. Still, not that many websites actually use the feature, except the ones specifically built to showcase the technology.

The HTML5 Canvas element along with plain old JavaScript are an alternative for 2D gaming which is only now starting to be explored.

Mozilla recently held a competition to encourage games built with open web technologies. The winning games are all high-quality proving that there are now alternatives to Flash.