Perhaps one of HTML5's biggest applications is related not so much to apps at all, but rather to the gaming field. The cross-platform releasing capability inherent in HTML5 makes it an attractive option for some game developers, and that's led to more than a little interest in this development tool. This particular urge for new development is quite readily seen in the development of WiMi5, a complete, cost-free solution that better allows HTML5 games to see the light of day.

WiMi5 is not just a cost-free development platform, but it allows for a complete, start-to-finish development mechanism. It allows such games to not only be created, but also published and even includes tools to monetize the created games all from one website. Users get access to analytics tools to help determine what the next games should look like—potentially helping find where some are having issues in getting the complete experience—as well as social features to help that organic word-of-mouth advertising spread to draw more users.

WiMi5 can also offer a faster development cycle thanks to reduced programming need, and improved monetization, as noted earlier, to help keep the entire process running. With tools like an integrated payment system made available, as well as an easy to use mechanism for bringing in a virtual goods management system, the most complete launch of a new HTML5-driven title can be realized. Plus, WiMi5 is actually actively invested, at last report, in getting users into the games that its systems create, meaning game designers will actually have a kind of separate marketing apparatus working on said designers' behalf.

There is a cost involved to this, though; while it's a cost-free system, WiMi5 takes a cut of all micropayments made within the game, a 30 percent cut, at last report. But despite this, the WiMi5 platform has drawn plenty of users from around the world, with over 700 developers signing up for a closed beta. Now, the product is in public beta, and those interested can get in on the action.

The use of HTML5 in game development is a point that's been examined before, but always stands further examination. Not so long ago, word came out around the Nintendo Web Framework, an HTML5-driven platform that allowed indie developers to more rapidly get games into place for the Wii U system, a system that was—and to a lesser extent these days, still is—badly in need of new games. But it isn't just the Wii U that can benefit from the use of HTML5 in gaming; both Microsoft (News – Alert) and Sony's consoles—the Xbox One and the PlayStation 4—have at least some HTML5 component involved thanks to tools like XBoxie and Sonyfied. Beyond that, however, is the issue of PC and mobile gaming, two points that gain a lot of ground from HTML5. With HTML5 development, the games created can be released much more rapidly, and to all platforms at once since HTML5 runs via a Web browser, not by any proprietary system that requires a certain platform to operate.

Using HTML5 as a development tool opens up the floodgates as far as gaming goes, and poses an exciting new proposition to independent game developers: develop one game, and release it on a host of platforms. The end result is a powerful one indeed, and the kind of thing that's hard to pass up. It has serious implications for gaming as we know it, and WiMi5 may be just the tool to help get it in play.

Want to know more? Hear from a distinguished group of globally recognized authorities on everything from gaming, to responsive design to hybrid development at DEVCON 5 July 9-10 at the Kimmel Center at NYU.