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Nicholas Lovell
Home   >   Analysis and Opinion   >   Opinion   >   A pivotal moment in browser-based games

A pivotal moment in browser-based games

By on December 16, 2008

I’m sorry to bang out about Unity, I really am.

But back when I was a callow youth, I remember a moment when I thought the computer game business would change forever.

It was an ECTS in 1996. I saw Ridge Racer on the PSOne. Lush graphics, fast framerates, it looked like you were actually driving! None of this suspension of disbelief problem.

I remember my jaw dropping, and thinking “This is it: from this day on, games will go mainstream, and it’s all thanks to Sony.”

I had my first jaw-dropping moment in over a decade this morning. I checked out an online demo of a tropical paradise in Unity’s browser engine.

It’s almost as good as Crysis. In a browser. In my view, the world has changed again.

OK, so there is no collision mesh. There’s no physics integrated into this tech demo, and I’ve yet to see how AI responds.

But load it up and (this is important) right click and choose “Go Fullscreen”. Wander around, look at the stork fishing in the lake, and tell me this isn’t the future of games.

http://unity3d.com/gallery/live-demos/tropical-paradise

A screen capture from Unity\'s tropical paradise demo

About Nicholas Lovell

Nicholas is the founder of Gamesbrief, a blog dedicated to the business of games. It aims to be informative, authoritative and above all helpful to developers grappling with business strategy. He is the author of a growing list of books about making money in the games industry and other digital media, including How to Publish a Game and Design Rules for Free-to-Play Games, and Penguin-published title The Curve: thecurveonline.com