Several interactive entertainment companies have been developing cross-platform HTML5 games for broadcasters and brands for almost two years, including the creation of browser-based mobile games. The beauty of using HTML5 is that it offers what can be said to be a true cross-platform development.

What this basically means is that this will allow a developer to build a title once and be able to deploy it on a variety of different platforms. It doesn’t matter if you are using a desktop PC, tablet or other mobile device, the game will function the same regardless. In addition, the technology can also run on Smart TVs, or consoles like the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3.

Ludei, a venture-backed company based in San Francisco, is considered to be the company that fixed HTML5 performance for games. One of the reasons for this is its CocoonJS platform. Some of its features include:

WebGL: CocoonJS makes WebGL run inside an app on either iOS or Android (News – Alert). Develops awesome 3D games and apps.

Acceleration: CocoonJS' exclusive acceleration technology increases the canvas performance by up to 10x.

Multichannel Sound: Incorporate music and sounds for your apps and games without any glitches, and make the gaming/app experience more user friendly and interactive.

Multiplayer: Allow your users to play together with the CocoonJS cross-platform multiplayer extension: GameCenter, GooglePlay and local multiplayer.

Push Notifications: This extension will enable you to send users push notifications. Remind users about your app or game and stay top of mind. Don’t let them forget about you.

These are just a few of the features that are included in Ludei’s CocoonJS platform. Last week, Ludei introduced an update to this platform. It now delivers 10 times the speed and performance of Adobe (News – Alert)'s PhoneGap, and introduces the first true PhoneGap alternative for the developer marketplace. So I guess that you might consider the latest version of CocoonJS to be a PhoneGap killer.

Eneko Knorr, who is the founder and CEO of Ludei, said "Performance in HTML5 is no longer a problem for developers. Ludei's proprietary acceleration technology enables HTML5 apps and games to run at 60 frames per second on every mobile device. Now, finally, HTML5 is ready for cross-platform app development."

A challenge for developers is the massive variation in mobile handset performance and capabilities. Even when using a consistent feature set, how your game runs will vary a great deal between devices and OSs. Due to the fact that Ludei has been helping more than 20,000 game developers publish HTML5 on iOS, Android, Amazon, and other platforms, with native-like performance and features, you can see the vast experience that they have. 

With this latest update to its CocoonJS, Ludei opens the platform to every developer. By doing so, it dramatically expands its addressable market to more than one million developers on a global level. According to Ludei, since thousands of HTML5 app developers have been using Adobe's PhoneGap, they are locked into a system that requires considerable developer compromises in performance. Ludei's new platform is supposed to give developers a way to have a faster and better alternative.


Edited by Rory J. Thompson