Best of both worlds: browser and desktop game?

Question

When considering a platform for a game, I've decided on multi-platform (Win/Lin/Mac) but can't make up my mind as far as browser vs. desktop. As I'm not all too far in development, and now having second thoughts, I'd like your opinion!

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Browser-based games using Java applets:

• market penetration is reasonably high (for version 6, it's somewhere around 60% I believe?)
• using JOGL, 3D performance/quality is decent; certainly good enough to render the crappy 3D graphics that I make
• there's the (small?) possibility of porting something to Android
• great for an audience of gamers who switch computers often; can sit down at any computer, load a webpage and play it
• also great for casual gamers or less knowledgeable gamers who are quite happy with playing games in a browser but don't want to install more things to their computer
• written in a high-level language which I am more familiar with than C++ - but at the same time, I would like to improve my skills with C++ as it is probably where I am headed in the game industry once I get out of school...
• easier update process: reload the page.

Desktop games using good ol' C++ and OpenGL

• 100% market penetration, assuming complete cross-platform; however, that number reduces when you consider how many people will go through downloading and installing an executable compared to just browsing to a webpage and hitting "yes" to a security warning.
• more trouble to maintain the cross-platform; but again, for learning purposes I would embrace the challenge and the knowledge I would gain
• better performance all around
• true full screen, whereas browser games often struggle with smooth full screen graphics (especially on Linux, in my experience)
• can take advantage of distribution platforms such as Steam
• more likely to be considered a "real" game, whereas browser and Java games are often dismissed as not being real games and therefore not played by "hardcore gamers"
• installer can be large; don't have to worry so much about download times

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Is there a way to have the best of both worlds? I love Java applets, but I also really like the reasons to write a desktop game. I don't want to constantly port everything between a Java applet project and a C++ project; that would be twice the work!

Unity chose to write their own web player plugin. I don't like this, because I am one of the people that will not install their web player for anything, and I don't see myself being able to convince my audience to install a browser plugin.

What are my options? Are there other examples out there besides Unity, of games that have browser and desktop versions? Did I leave out anything in the pro/con lists above?

Answer 1

I'd suggest writing a game first.

It's easy to get caught up in how to make the best game ever,which can run on anything from an abacus to SkyNet, but the reality is that you're going to have plenty of challenges ahead of you just finishing a game that runs on your own PC.

Write a game first, for one platform (whether that platform is "Windows native with DirectX", or "Java applet" or even "pure AJAX in a browser"). If you can do that, then you can start thinking about how to port it to other platforms. But trying to do everything is a sure way to end up achieving nothing.

Or to put it another way:

I've decided on multi-platform (Win/Lin/Mac)

so you've actually decided nothing. Decide on a platform to develop on. Then make the game. Then make it work on other platforms.

Don't worry so much about what your "audience" will find acceptable. If your game is fun, then yes, people will happily install Unity. Just like they'll install your game if it's not browser-based. But the important point is not "what do I have to install to play it", but rather "is it worth it". Your focus should be on making a game that is worth the installation.

And unless you're planning to sell 20 million copies of the game and live off it, your "audience" doesn't really matter that much, does it? What matters is putting the game out there so those who are interested can try it.

But a single-platform game is a lot better than an unfinished cross-platform nothing.

A game that requires me to install Unity is a lot better than something that takes you an additional 3 years to develop because you insisted on reinventing the wheel.