14 DAY TRIAL // Mozilla is best known for its biggest product, Firefox, but the organization has several other interests. Its stated goal is to drive the web forward, whether this means building a better browser or developing better web technologies.
One thing that the modern web is enabling is gaming in the browser. With HTML5, Canvas and SVG on one side and WebGL on the other, the premise for great games is there.
However, the technologies are still in their infancy, in this respect, and they're not mature enough to enable developers to build powerful, complex games.
But Mozilla, and others, is working to change that. It's building a WebGL-based game engine, dubbed Gladius, that other developers will then be able to leverage in their creations.
It's early in the development stage, but there has been some progress. Mozilla has just released its first game built on the engine, dubbed Rescue Fox.
Rescue Fox is just a working prototype designed mostly to help Mozilla developers discover the strengths and weaknesses of Gladius and what more needs to be done.
That said, it is a playable, albeit simple game, which you can check out for yourself. Firefox is recommended, though it may work on Google Chrome as well.
Moving forward, Mozilla will take the lessons it learned creating Rescue Fox and apply them to its game engine. It is in the process of refactoring Gladius at this moment.
The engine will provide the basis for developers to create WebGL games. It offers 3D rendering, physics, loading of resources and sound. More capabilities will be added in the future.
But Gladius is part of a larger project at Mozilla, Paladin, which centers around gaming. Apart from the engine, the team is working on creating a Joystick API as well as Mouse Lock API for Firefox , both required to enable real gaming in the browser.