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HTML5 Is it worth buying the HTML 5 module for web export? 🤔

FoxyOfJungle

Kazan Games
I am looking to buy the web export module in order to export a specific game that would be for Android, is it worth it?

I know that there are some incompatibility issues on this platform, I would like you who have used it to give me feedback on what problems you had, if was needed to disabled anything, if had to modify a system... Functions, structs, data structure, mathematics, these things work perfectly? Did you have a specific problem with that? I had used the Web module once in GMS 1.4 and it was horribly buggy, so I would like to know if it has improved to a usable level as well.

I want to put the game on Itch.io, will I have a lot of work to make it vertical (game orientation)?

I’ve read all these related articles, so I’d just like your opinion, thanks!
 

kburkhart84

Firehammer Games
If you really want the game to be on Android, it would likely be better to buy the recently price decreased Mobile export. The HTML5 version is going to be compatible everywhere but does have many limitations. The mobile exports have limitations as compared to Desktop, but HTML5 is even worse, and moreso on mobile. Whether it is worth it for you or not will mostly be determined if you feel sure you can monetize and recoup your investment, either now with this project or over time eventually.

I know that there are some incompatibility issues on this platform, I would like you who have used it to give me feedback on what problems you had, if was needed to disabled anything, if had to modify a system... Functions, structs, data structure, mathematics, these things work perfectly? Did you have a specific problem with that? I had used the Web module once in GMS 1.4 and it was horribly buggy, so I would like to know if it has improved to a usable level as well.
In general, all the base GML things should just work. Where they don't, the manual generally says. I know there are some bugs though, so don't expect everything to just be perfect. Seemingly it is good enough though(or the workarounds are viable) because I don't really see too many complaints about it.

I want to put the game on Itch.io, will I have a lot of work to make it vertical (game orientation)?
If your game is better horizontal, you can find some code(via an extension I'm sure) that checks the orientation and asks the user to rotate the screen. It is up to you if you enforce that or if you try to make your game work vertically. Typical aspect ratio code would just add black bars, and going from horizontal to vertical would mean big bars, so you would certainly prefer to do some actual work on it instead of doing it the "easy" way with such code...but many HTML5 games I've seen just ask you to rotate your screen instead.
 

FoxyOfJungle

Kazan Games
Thank for replying.

If you really want the game to be on Android, it would likely be better to buy the recently price decreased Mobile export. The HTML5 version is going to be compatible everywhere but does have many limitations. The mobile exports have limitations as compared to Desktop, but HTML5 is even worse, and moreso on mobile. Whether it is worth it for you or not will mostly be determined if you feel sure you can monetize and recoup your investment, either now with this project or over time eventually.
Ah, I already have the Mobile module, it was because a customer wants me to export to the web too. So I was curious to know if it was such a nightmare to make it work.


In general, all the base GML things should just work. Where they don't, the manual generally says. I know there are some bugs though, so don't expect everything to just be perfect. Seemingly it is good enough though(or the workarounds are viable) because I don't really see too many complaints about it.
That's fine! The game has no extensions, external dependencies or uses those polygon/vertex functions. I will have to take a look at some of the functions that the game uses to find out if it is incompatible then.


If your game is better horizontal, you can find some code(via an extension I'm sure) that checks the orientation and asks the user to rotate the screen. It is up to you if you enforce that or if you try to make your game work vertically. Typical aspect ratio code would just add black bars, and going from horizontal to vertical would mean big bars, so you would certainly prefer to do some actual work on it instead of doing it the "easy" way with such code...but many HTML5 games I've seen just ask you to rotate your screen instead.
Okay. The game will always be vertical, so I don't think it would be necessary to check it maybe :)

Some questions:
  • And how does it look to save progress? If you want to save the progress, it is only saved in the browser cache, if I clear the browser data, everything will be deleted, right?
  • Can you tell if it is possible to change the progress bar when loading the game files at the beginning?
  • Will an HTML 5 game made on GMS 2 run on mobile browsers? Can you tell if the user would have problems using controls on the screen? I have seen reports that mouse functions are somewhat problematic.
Thank You!!
 

kburkhart84

Firehammer Games
Ah, I already have the Mobile module, it was because a customer wants me to export to the web too. So I was curious to know if it was such a nightmare to make it work.
Part of whether it will work is about the performance as well. I don't know what your game does and how performance intense it is, but that IS possibly something to look out for. Native Android games are typically faster than the Javascript that is HTML5.

That's fine! The game has no extensions, external dependencies or uses those polygon/vertex functions. I will have to take a look at some of the functions that the game uses to find out if it is incompatible then.
You are probably fine then, assuming performance is fine. I don't know if it breaches licensing to have me test your game just to see if it even works on HTML5 as is, but if it doesn't I'm willing to do so if you are willing to send me the thing(I have the Web export). I wouldn't be willing to supply builds or anything as I KNOW that this would breach the contracts, but I think we would be OK if I simply tested it and told you how it worked.

Okay. The game will always be vertical, so I don't think it would be necessary to check it maybe
In that case, you would still likely want to test, and ask the user to rotate the screen if they go horizontal on accident. I didn't know your game was already on Android and working in a vertical aspect ratio or I would have said that, but the point applies no matter which way you are going.

And how does it look to save progress? If you want to save the progress, it is only saved in the browser cache, if I clear the browser data, everything will be deleted, right?
I'm guessing that yes indeed the data would be deleted(not 100% sure though). HTML5 is really not meant for the bigger games overall as I see it. I'm sure the bigger games that are built with it use different technology for save data, like saving to a web database somewhere on a server.

Can you tell if it is possible to change the progress bar when loading the game files at the beginning?
It certainly is. I don't know exactly how but I remember there was even a tutorial on it, I think it was from Yoyogames themselves in fact.

Will an HTML 5 game made on GMS 2 run on mobile browsers? Can you tell if the user would have problems using controls on the screen? I have seen reports that mouse functions are somewhat problematic.
Yes, they will. You have more concerns with things like performance, but yes they can work. One thing is that you can't depend on multi-touch though. I'm not 100% sure if the web-browsers simply don't transfer multiple touches to the web code, but it seems like that was the issue, so you needed to not do anything that needed multi-touch(unlike native Andoid builds). I could be wrong about that point of course.
 

FoxyOfJungle

Kazan Games
You are probably fine then, assuming performance is fine. I don't know if it breaches licensing to have me test your game just to see if it even works on HTML5 as is, but if it doesn't I'm willing to do so if you are willing to send me the thing(I have the Web export). I wouldn't be willing to supply builds or anything as I KNOW that this would breach the contracts, but I think we would be OK if I simply tested it and told you how it worked.
I just bought the module now on Steam, lol!
I am enormously grateful for the offer!! :)

I'm guessing that yes indeed the data would be deleted(not 100% sure though). HTML5 is really not meant for the bigger games overall as I see it. I'm sure the bigger games that are built with it use different technology for save data, like saving to a web database somewhere on a server.
Yes, but as this game is just a game of questions and answers with a fishing level, it must be something simple to make it work, I think.. There are only a few logics with fish movement and data structure.

Yes, they will. You have more concerns with things like performance, but yes they can work. One thing is that you can't depend on multi-touch though. I'm not 100% sure if the web-browsers simply don't transfer multiple touches to the web code, but it seems like that was the issue, so you needed to not do anything that needed multi-touch(unlike native Andoid builds). I could be wrong about that point of course.
I will test to see what happens. From what I've seen, you can't just open the .html file and that's it 😆

Thank you!!
 

FoxyOfJungle

Kazan Games
I already managed to make the game work on itch.io and it was perfect, except for the fact that the game had a huge screen lol (720x1280).
I need to look for some way to fix this...

Edit:
I fixed evertything, now it's 100% working. Thanks.
 
Last edited:

kburkhart84

Firehammer Games
Glad you got it figured out. My answers were all based on not really knowing what your project actually was, nor what it was doing, what functionality it was using. If you had mentioned it being a simple thing like that I probably would have been more positive about it.
 
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