作者：Joe Osborne
作为一种用于创造网页游戏的新工具，HTML5已经成为了2012年社交游戏领域的一大热词。King.com最近发布于Facebook的《Pyramid Solitaire Saga》便是一款基于HTML5技术的游戏（游戏邦注：但德国社交游戏开发商Wooga则在最近宣布放弃HTML5），该公司产品经理Levina Nilsson在最近媒体采访中解释了King.com看好HTML5技术的原因。
levina-nilsson(from games)
为什么你们决定使用HTML5创造《Pyramid Solitaire Saga》？
虽然原因有许多，但主要是为了跨平台为玩家创造出无缝的游戏体验，并希望通过《Pyramid Solitaire Saga》去测试我们在这方面的技术水平。我们希望玩家能够根据自己的需求而随意选择在台式电脑，平板电脑或智能手机上玩同一款游戏，并且无需下载原生应用。我们同样也希望减少电脑与手机开发间的障碍，所以我们才决定尝试HTML5并观察它是否是一个可行的游戏平台。
比起去年出现的HTML5游戏，《Pyramid Solitaire Saga》不管是从外表还是音效看来都更加吸引人，而你们又是如何做到这一点呢？
作为一家领先的休闲社交游戏开发商，我们始终坚持站在跨平台创新与开发策略的前沿。而为了实现这一目标，King.com已经投入了大量的资源去吸引更多优秀开发团队。我们不只是想要尝试HTML5，我们也想要创造出一款非常出色的游戏，在之前成就的基础上向前再进一步。因此我们在游戏中添加了许多图像资源，并不断完善游戏理念，希望将其打造成Facebook上最受欢迎的纸牌类游戏——《Pyramid Solitaire Saga》在发布后一个月内便获得了超过100万的日活跃用户。
pyramid solitaire saga（from games)
当然我们也未放弃其它游戏。我们拥有一支团队专门致力于维护游戏的持续运行，并为玩家创造出更棒的游戏体验。今天，我们不仅拥有Facebook上最受欢迎的纸牌游戏，从总体的月活跃用户来看，King.com也是排名第二的Facebook游戏开发商。
HTML5之前一直难以成为众开发者所期待的领先游戏开发工具，那么现在的它是否已经“修成正果”了？而这对于玩家来说又有何意义？
答案是还没有。尽管HTML5已经成为了众人的关注焦点，但是它仍然是一种非常年轻的技术，也只有那些足够成熟的开发者才能驾驭得了它。除此之外我们也还未能创造出最佳游戏体验。但这不仅是因为HTML5还未准备好，市场上大多数手机设备和浏览器也还未准备好迎接这一新技术的降临。所以现在的玩家仍需要继续下载手机游戏的原生应用，并且他们所经历的游戏体验也还不甚完美。
使用Flash和Unity等工具我们已能够创造出华丽的3D图像和让人震撼的特效，而你是否也希望能够在HTML5中看到这些功能？这是否是HTML5游戏开发者所关心的内容？
我想在早期阶段我们最好不要在这一新技术身上抱有太多期望。根据我们的经验，如果你需要某些内容，你就必须亲自参与创造这些内容；因此我们便与谷歌保持紧密合作并致力于研究他们的开放源码解决方案PlayN。同时为了更好地进行游戏开发，我们还创造了自己的游戏框架Wrath。Wrath与PlayN的结合有助于我们创造出一款单独的游戏并将代码基应用于所有设备上（游戏邦注：这时候便不再需要面向网页去使用Flash或者面向iOS去使用C++）。可以说Wrath是出自King.com之手的第一个开放资源。而我们也希望有更多开发者加入这个探索过程，努力推动HTML5成为一种真正有效的游戏开发模型。
今后King.com是否还会推出更多HTML5游戏？
会，尽管HTML5现在还存在着种种不足，但是我们仍然相信这是一种极具潜力的工具。
现在我们已经知道为何开发者们会转向HTML5了，但是我们却不清楚它能满足玩家的何种需求？
玩家终究希望能够在平板电脑，智能手机以及电脑上享受到一种完全同步的游戏体验，而这也正是HTML5的长处所在。玩家们只是还未注意到HTML5的优势。HTML5正如人们预期的那样能够兼容多个平台。如果玩家有这种需求，那么即使是创造智能手机的大型公司也将不得不研发能够处理HTML5技术的产品。对于我们的用户来说时间和便利便是最宝贵的财富，而在不远的未来HTML5（它可让用户可以无需下载原生应用或在不同设备上追踪游戏情况）便能够帮助他们有效地储存这些财富。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）
Add CommentTweetWhy Pyramid Solitaire Saga is King.com’s HTML5 play [Interview]
by Joe Osborne
HTML5. A relatively new tool for making browser-based games, it’s become one of the key buzzwords for 2012 in the social games world. In fact, it might mean nothing to you. (For those still not in the know, check out all of our HTML5 coverage right here.) But it will … eventually. Even King.com product manager Levina Nilsson (pictured below) admits that HTML5 isn’t quite there yet.
When we learned that the social game maker’s recent Pyramid Solitaire Saga on Facebook was built using HTML5–right when Diamond Dash maker Wooga has seemingly dropped out of that race–we had to know why King.com was bullish on the tech. So, we recently chatted with Levina to find out just that as well as her thoughts on
Why did you decide to create Pyramid Solitaire Saga in HTML5?
We had several reasons to try HTML5 out, but ultimately we are aiming for a seamless gaming experience across platforms for our players and chose Pyramid Solitaire Saga to test capabilities in achieving this. We want players to be able to play the same game on desktop, on their tablet and on their smartphone when and where it suits them and without having to download native apps. We also want to reduce development friction between desktop and mobile and therefore it was natural to try HTML5 to see if it is a viable gaming platform.
Compared to HTML5 games released even last year, Pyramid Solitaire Saga looks and sounds way more impressive. How did you manage that?
As a leading casual social games developer we aim to remain in the forefront of cross platform innovation and development strategy. To achieve and maintain this, King.com has invested a lot in resources attracting the most talented developer teams. We didn’t just want to try HTML5, we wanted to make an awesome game and push the boundaries of what has been achieved before. Therefore we put a lot of graphical resources into the game, perfected the concept and worked towards the goal to be the most popular solitaire game on Facebook, which Pyramid Solitaire Saga became within one month of launch along with more than 1 million daily active players.
And, with all of our games, we didn’t stop at launch. We still have a team working on the game to make it an ongoing, and even better experience for players. Today we are not just the most popular Solitaire on Facebook, looking at monthly active players we are now sharing the second place as the largest card game overall on Facebook.
HTML5 has had a rough time of becoming the de facto leading game creation tool that developers have been clamoring for, so is the time finally here? And what does that mean for the players?
Ultimately, no. Even though there has been a great deal of discussions about HTML5, it is still a very young technology that has to be used by more developers to be able to grow and be more mature. When it comes to delivering a great game experience, we are not there yet. But, it’s not simply that HTML5 isn’t ready, but also most mobile devices and browsers on the market aren’t ready either. For now, it means that players will have to continue to download native apps for mobile games and that the gameplay experience isn’t as seamless as it will be in the future.
With tools like Flash and Unity making leaps and bounds toward lush 3D and believable physics, do you expect the same from HTML5? Is this even a concern for HTML5 game creators?
In this early stage you can’t expect anything really. Our experience is that if you need something you must be a part of making it happen; therefore we worked closely with Google and their open source solution PlayN. To ease game development even further, we also developed our own game framework, Wrath. Wrath combined with PlayN helped us to build a single game and use the code base for all devices (i.e. no more need for Flash for web, C++ for iOS, etc.). Wrath will be the first open source contribution from King.com. We hope that more developers like us will continue to explore, and try and develop HTML5 to be a truly efficient game development model.
Can we expect more HTML5 games from King.com in the future?
Yes, even if we feel like HTML5 isn’t there yet we still believe in the potential that we see.
Now, we know the reasons why developers are moving toward HTML5, but are there any reasons that the players should demand it?
Players that eventually want to seamlessly enjoy a fully synchronized gameplay experience both on their tablets, smartphones and on their computer without any hassle should demand HTML5. HTML5 is at its best when players doesn’t notice it. It just works everywhere as expected. If the players demand it, even the big companies that create smartphones will feel the pressure to develop products that can handle HTML5. Time and convenience are the rarest currency for our customers and HTML5 (without having to download native or track gameplay across multiple devices) will save them that in the future.( source:games.com)