Palm Helping WebOS Game Development

There's been a lot of concern surrounding the WebOS and gaming development.  Having an SDK based on html/js/css limits things and virtually rules out 3D gaming. However, Palm wants to remind us that some level of gaming is possible and that HTML5 is more powerful than you might think.

To that end, Palm has posted a "webOS™ and Game Development" article on their developer website detailing what kinds of games are possible on the WebOS; "puzzles, word games, card and board games, innovative social games, and the list goes on – even simple arcade games" according to Palm.  Also posted, is an article describing Palm's implementation of the <canvas> tag, which allows for 2D dynamically generated graphics.  It's not 3D fast-paced gaming, but it's a start.

Not only that, yesterday it was announced on the Palm Developer Network that Palm has opened up a "webOS Game Developer Café" forum section where game developers can share experiences, tips, and most importantly, give Palm feedback that they can use to improve the SDK. The new forums section is already starting to payoff. This thread reveals both a lightweight javascript animation library and information on CCS3 animations.

These things, combined with that recent Game Frameworks Engineer job listing make us think Palm's actually listening to users and wants gaming to be a competent part of the WebOS. I wonder what the gaming situation will be like a year from now. If the twenty five games already in our Homebrew App gallery are any indication, we'll be seeing better games in the App Catalog than you might have expected.