 Hi, I'm Tom Greenaway, and I'm the games lead for the web developer relations team here at Google. Now, I know what you might be thinking. Web games, is that really a thing? Isn't Flash a little bit passe? And compared to native mobile games on Android and iPhone, can the web really even compete? Well, in this lightning talk, I will quickly highlight some of the opportunities, but also the challenges that the web offers to game developers. I'll touch on topics such as why raw performance isn't the most important thing in a game, what the major strengths and the weaknesses of the web are, and lastly, a few examples of game design patterns you can use to leverage when designing for the web. So firstly, the raw performance of the device or the games built for it, that's what decides the most successful games and platforms, right? Well, not really. In the history of game development, usually it's the platforms and the games that deliver some kind of mixture of innovation, ease of access, and last but not least, fun. In fact, I would say fun is the most important factor in games, much more important than the graphical fidelity. But let's dive into these three properties a little bit more in depth with some examples. So innovation, think about when the first motion controlled games took off. The best-selling console out of the PlayStation 3, the Xbox 360, and the Nintendo Wii, it was the latter, the console with the weakest performance but the most hardware innovation. And ease of access. Well, this can mean many things, whether games are easy to buy and download, or whether a device is portable and always with you. This is one of the reasons why mobile gaming has boomed over the last decade. The Google Play Store and the Apple App Store have made it ridiculously easy to download a game to your device. And these games are right there in your pocket, always ready to play. And lastly, what about fun? Some of the most successful mobile games of all time were not pushing the graphical limits of their devices. They focused on being fun. Think of the early mobile hits like Fruit Ninja or Angry Birds. In other words, if you play to the strengths of your platform and make fun your priority, there are often compelling game designs waiting to be discovered. So what are the strengths of your platform? What are the strengths of the web? Well, firstly, it's the most open and biggest platform that's ever been created. Nearly every device in the world has a web browser. And there are no limits on how you can monetize. Microchains actions, subscriptions, paywalls, or ads. There are no rules on the web, right? And the web is instantaneous and almost frictionless. With just a tap, a user can jump into your content via a link they find anywhere, whether that's on the web or inside of an app. But like the hero of any great story, these strengths are also the web's greatest weaknesses. It runs on almost all devices. So to take full advantage of that, you must design your game to be responsive and to be aware of different devices, screen resolutions, and potentially develop for the lowest common denominator. For example, Mobile Safari only supports WebGL 1.0. And what about payments? Well, the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store ushered in a new era of simple and trusted payment processing when in-app purchases were created. And sadly, the web doesn't have built-in payment methods like this, which means that there's a higher friction when users are being asked to pay. However, there are a lot of web platforms and APIs which help alleviate this problem, such as Google Pay, Stripe, PayPal, and even browser APIs like web payments. And lastly, the instantaniousness of the web that I mentioned? Yes, it's great that a user can load your content instantly, but to make that really work, you need to fine-tune your content to load as fast as possible. And the weakness is that just as easily as a user opened your web page, they can close it as well. The ephemerality of the web is both powerful and yet fragile at the same time. But if you play your cards right, you can make a game successful on the web by leaning on these strengths and mitigating these weaknesses. So what's the most unique feature of the web that we can hone in on with our game design? It's the link. The beauty of the web browser is that just as easily as you were linked to a piece of content, you as a user know that you can now share that link to someone else. And so that cycle of being linked and then linking others to content, that's the power of the web really. It's viral. It's the modern day word of mouth marketing machine. So how can you work the link itself into your game design? The key is that we want to drive virality. We want to give the user a reason to share the game and for the link that they share to be meaningful, not just to them, but to others as well. So what interesting information can be shared in a link? Well, here are three categories you can experiment with. Competition, collaboration, and exploration. But what would the URLs of these games really look like? Well, I could create a puzzle in a game, and then I could share a URL, and that URL could be a playable link to that particular puzzle. Or I could finish a level, and I could share the URL. And what I share could be a player ghost of me completing that level for others to compete against. And lastly, I could be playing a roguelike game discovering new areas of the world. And I could find a secret room. And then if I share the URL, that could teleport a friend into that same room that I've discovered. Now, for example, here is a game called Shellrock I.O. Where players compete in a Quake-style arena shooter. If the player shares their current URL, their friends can deep link into that exact room the player is in and compete against them. Also, here's a little game I made called Space Board. Built using the Slick Game Development Tool construct, which, by the way, not only produces HTML5 games for the web, but is on to itself an entirely web-based development environment. So I designed this game to demonstrate how URLs can be used to transmit data for the purposes of game design. And inside of it is a level editor I built into the game. When you play the game, you can send a link. And the link contains the entire level's design that you've created. Here on the left is the game itself being played. Try it out. The game can be played on desktop or on mobile. And why am I showing a QR code as well? Well, because QR codes can be a marketing tool for promoting content in the physical world. If you access that URL in the QR code, it will take you to another level I made. But this one's a little bit more intense. Now, you can imagine that Space Board could also generate QR codes of levels that could be shared with a friend in person as well. So in summary, if you're curious about the web's potential for game developers, think about how you can play to the strengths of the platform. Support as many devices as possible. Think outside the box when building your monetization model. And build your game to load as fast as possible so users can jump into it and play your game instantly. But most importantly, make your game fun, design it to be viral, to leverage the URL so users have a reason to share it and spread the word about your game. Thanks and see you next time.