Snail Bob dev champions the potential of HTML5

Hunter Hamster, the studio behind the Snail Bob series, believes HTML5 could streamline the production of mobile games – particularly for indie developers.

The firm has teamed up with Spil Games to create a HTML5 version of the Snail Bob series, which has been played more than 600m time through Spil’s online portal. The new version of the first game will released in early 2014, with HTML5 editions of its sequels to follow later.

"HTML5 is still a new frontier for many indie game developers like us so we’re looking forward to embarking on this new opportunity with Spil Games, said Hunter Hamster co-founder Andrey Kovalishin. "For us, reaching a global audience across all mobile and PC devices is key."

Speaking to Develop, Kovalishin went on to champion the new programming language, claiming it will reshape the way indies create games for mobile platforms.

"The future of mobile gaming is about ensuring everybody can easily and instantly access great games at any time from any device," he said. "HTML5 has the potential to make life easier for game studios that currently spend a lot of resources making different versions of games for every single platform. 

"HTML5 is still finding itself and developing, and there are restrictions – particularly lack of browser support – but this is changing. More and more companies are providing easy tools to help creative people re-invent how games are developed and published. 

"Plus, big players like Amazon now accepting HTML5 web apps into its Mobile App Distribution Program. That’s are important milestone as the industry continues to become more open-minded, and to some degree, enthusiastic about the HTML5 format."

Kovalishin added that while native apps will still have their place in the future of the mobile games market, the growth of tablets means more people are accessing apps through browsers, which HTML5 can also help with.