Sam: “Hey guys, I’m gonna try building a game in HTML5, and then we’re all gonna write modules to try and beat it.”
Everyone: “Awesome, let us know if you need any help.”
That’s pretty much how this story starts. Sure, it might make for a more interesting read if a rogue developer had to battle his bosses — and his own demons — to make his dream come true, or if Nintendo had approached us* out of the blue to remake one of their most popular games of all time, or if we were all on a speeding bus that would explode if we didn’t push the game live in time.
But I like the reality better. Not because it’s more believable, but because of what it tells us about the spirit of our team (and about talented folks everywhere). There was no debate about whether or not doing it was possible, or who would pay for the development, or whether we had the time. Our developers saw a challenge that seemed interesting to them, and they took it on. They decided to explore the possibilities of HTML5 by building a game inspired by their own nostalgia.
Sure, lots of games have elements of HTML5 in them now. But when it came to interactive games built fully in HTML5, we wanted something that would let crafty developers write code to play. So, using Node.js, Canvas, SoundManager 2, etc. we gave it our best shot.
In a couple of months of chipping away whenever spare time arose, our team came up with something really, really cool, and I want to share the first part of it with you.
Introducing… Dr. Mojo.
Take a look, play around with it (we’ve only tested it in Chrome), and see if you can beat our high scores. The whole thing is open source, so feel free to make it better. We’d love to see this thing evolve with your help.
Stay tuned, as we’re currently working on some functionality that will let anyone write modules to play the game. Let the best code win :-)
*Call us, Nintendo.
—Nick Kishfy