Intel (News – Alert) developer division recently announced the newest version of its XDK HTML5 Cross-platform Development Tool. Version 1621 includes many new features that considerably expand the product's functionality, the most significant addition being support and integrated tools for HTML5 game development.

A primary component of this release of the Intel XDK is the Games Asset Manager. The tool enables developers to easily import and organize game assets, providing a comprehensive and useful alternative to working with a full game development environment. Furthermore, the Game Asset Manager supports four popular game engines: Cocos2d 2 and Cocos2d 3, EaselJS, Phaser and Pixi. The appropriate version of the chosen game engine is specified at the time of creation of a new Intel XDK project.

Developers can now start their projects by drawing from a catalogue of templates and samples built on the supported game engines, and coding is simplified with intellisense and auto-completion features. Intel also added several monetization and "featured games" plug-ins, including Facebook Connect, Twitter Connect, Google (News – Alert) Play Games Services, Phonegap Admob and SocialSharing. Once an app is completed, developers can easily package it for release on Android Crosswalk, iOS and Windows 8 platforms using another simple tool.

Intel added the ability to remotely debug through the on-device App Preview on iOS devices, a feature that has been available for Crosswalk/Android (News – Alert) for quite some time. The Intel XDK helps developers get the appropriate certificate and device provisioning profiles for connecting their device to a desktop via USB and begin debugging.

For Android Crosswalk, Intel added support for memory profiling, which helps developers gain important insight into how their app utilizes the device's memory. With this information, the app can then be fine-tuned for optimal responsiveness and performance.

Version 1621 of the Intel XDK also includes the usual assortment of bug fixes and other minor changes. The company noted that this is the first version of the product to support HTML5 game development, so it should be expected that there will be a relatively large number of issues. However, Intel is working as quickly as possible to ensure these have minimal effects on developers aiming to build cutting-edge gaming apps.