#Why HTML5

[smallfightercat]

i find it annoying when on google i search something like "how to make an artsy personal website" and lots of the results will be like "use wordpress" or "make sure it's good for search engines", like shut your fuckin' mouth, i wasn't lookin' for that, i was trying to figure out how to build and design a website that isn't boring looking. literally every html/css tutorial i've been on has taught me how to make your basic website but not how to make it look less boring. i wanna have stuff like the snazzy websites people have trending on neocities plus more accessibility but i can't figure out how to do that with the knowledge i have currently.

[riggedbones]

i could totally make a video game. easy peasy

[nexo-nex]

It's lk crazy how most eah games from the website weren't archived properly and now they're not lost but a secret worst third thing: the games are literally unplayable

[abridgertonfan]

Nicola Coughlan for Screen Daily’s Emmys 2025 special, on speaking out about important issues:

“If you have a platform and you’re willing to reap the benefits of it, why would you not give a little bit of that to people who are not doing as well?”

https://edition.pagesuite-professional.co.uk/html5/reader/production/default.aspx?pubname=Screen%20Supplements&edid=0fb3a7f2-9130-48de-8a67-d179b2796f02

[toastylicious]

i was on one of those free html5 game websites and tell me why this was on it

[alterrune]

RE:KMRG SIDE STORIES - TWO EVENTS AT ONCE?!

Oh hey, looks like Summer Nights' rerun theme has been announced!

What's "Summer Nights"?

A special Splatfest, Susie. Happened last summer, too. Every time one of those splatfests happen, Kyle dolls up the blog for it. Fuckin' awesome work on that, by the way.

Thanks, Dystopiac. Here are the themes.

So which team are you picking? Since Big Man will be Air, I'm assuming Air?

Yes, I'm going team Air on this one.

Did you get that last nostalgia trip?

Yes again, Advisor. We're eight-for-eight on nostalgia trips being triggered. What was I reminded of this time, you may ask?

Well, I was actually reminded of a bunch of games by Nitrome.

Nitrome made some really good Flash games back in the day, and they actually have been trying to covert every single one of those games to HTML5 so people can still enjoy them today.

Their entire artstyle is 16-bit pixel graphics, and they're really charming.

I believe we ripped one of their games in the past! If my memory serves me right, it was Super Treadmill.

But which games did the Summer Nights teams remind you of?

Well, I'll show you.

-🔺💜🔵💕✍🏼🌸🃏-

For Team Land, I saw an ol' classic: Steamlands, along with their Player Pack update.

I made so many levels with this game's level editor. I think I still have an old USB flash drive somewhere in my IRL household chock-full of levels I made with the in-game level editor.

How many levels are on that flash drive?

I dunno, around 50, maybe?

50 LEVELS?! That's quite a lot.

Yeah, they were curated over the course of a few years, mind you.

-----

For Team Sea, I was reminded of a game me and my younger brother used to play Co-Op mode a lot on: Mutiny.

It's simple: fling bombs (or yourself) at opponents, and take them out before either they take you out or you run out of turns.

Sounds like a lot of fun!

It really was. Me and J-Man had a lot of fun blasting our guys away. Sometimes I even booted up 2-player mode by myself and treated it like a sandbox mode, as it had every bomb unlocked from the start.

-----

As for Team Air, it reminded me of a couple things, but most notably the first Nitrome game I ever really played.

MEGA MASH.

This game's a "Nitrome Enjoyment System" game, meant to be a 7 in 1 cart. The whole premise was that the game cartidge is so badly damaged the games are bleeding into each other, making it so you have to play 7 different games at once in order to beat all 30 levels.

Two of the games are even prequels to other Nitrome games, those being "Ninja" and "Balloon". "Ninja" is a prequel to the Final Ninja games, and "Balloon" is a prequel to the Hot Air games (btw, the original Hot Air game was Nitrome's first ever flash game)!

A majority of the games on there have you travelling through the air, hence why I was reminded of it when Team Air came to mind.

Oh! That sounds like quite an intriguing game! I like that all those different games types can blend together so well.

-----

And you wanna know how I found out about Nitrome? MOSHI MONSTERS. No, I'm not kidding. Moshi Monsters had an area known as the "Moshi Fun Park", and other flash games were hosted there, with some Nitrome games being thrown into the mix.

How fitting that my namesake was what introduced you to Nitrome.

Indeed, M.O.S.H.I., indeed.

-🔺💜🔵💕✍🏼🌸🃏-

So, you gonna doll up the blog for Summer Nights again? God, I hope you are.

Yes, but I'll have to find a way to have it and the RE:KMRG theme included.

You always do, Kyle.

"Yes. The only time you didn't make your Tumblr have a fancy theme was with us. I don't really mind, though, it was the first time you'd done something like that."

Heh, thanks guys. Funny how, just like SiIvaGunner, I'm about to run an event for Summer Nights as well as this one. Two events at once, I've never done that before.

But I can make it work. Like Alter said...

I always do.

[pvposeur]

USEFUL TIPS FOR ANYONE USING NEOCITIES

So, I saw this super awesome post called BEGINNERS GUIDE TO BLUESKY and it more or less inspired me to make a post of my own pertaining to the the likes of Neocities.

What is Neocities?

Long story short, it is an open-source web hosting service that is both F2U (1 GB storage/200 GB bandwidth) and P2U (50 GB storage/3000 GB bandwidth). It's kinda sorta a spiritual successor to the now defunct GeoCities.

Why Use Neocities?

HELPFUL LINKS

Neocities has a full on Tutorials Page to help people wanting to learning how to code. Though I will say that I'm a bit surprised they don't have W3 Schools on there.

CREATIVE FREEDOM

If you Browse on Neocities, you will see how vastly different all of the websites look. That being said, you have an enormous amount of creative freedom when it comes to making your website. You can build it from scratch or look up some pre-made templates from websites such as templatemo, HTML5 Templates, TEMPLATED, template4all, and many more.

Now it is important to note that Neocities doesn't allow certain things such as jQuery, PHP, Python, SQL, etc. In fact, the only things allowed on Neocities are HTML, CSS, and JavaScript! Though I do think it is important to note that you can turn your website into a blog using Zonelets, have a Guestbook/Comments Section with Guestbooks, embed your Bluesky feed with Embed Bsky, embed your Twitter/X feed with Twitter Publish, and much more!

What Do People Use Neocities For?

Some people use it for blogging & portfolio & educational purposes. Some people use it to share their writings & artwork & music. Some people use it to help people with finding neat things. Some people use it for shits and giggles. There are legitimately a number of reasons people use it and you know what? That's 100% a-okay!

Are Any Programs Required To Use Neocities?

Technically, no. The reason I say this is because Neocities has a built-in HTML Editor. However, I don't like using it unless if I absolutely have to (which is next to never). Instead, I use Brackets. It's very user-friendly and it legit lets you know if there's a goof somewhere in your code. Legit 10 out of 10 recommend. Though I will say that some people use Notepad++.

[ibraesil]

Since the release of HTML5 in 2008, tags such as <b> (bold), <i> (italic) have been softly deprecated for the benefit of users of screenreaders*; instead, it is preferable to use the semantic tags <strong> and <em> (emphasis) respectively, with style defined in CSS. If for some reason they aren't appropriate, it's still preferable to use CSS style attributes within a <span> container to ensure that your text will be interpreted correctly in modern (and future) browsers.

That's why the only tone tag I accept is '/span'. /span

* also to clarify the division between content (HTML) and style (CSS)

[a3itsolutions]

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[loveletterworm]

would you be okay with me using your character idea generator to make adoptables? if you so desire i could give you a portion of my profits :)

You can do whatever you want with designs you made from your results, it would be strange of me to act like I have some kind of ownership over like, the concept of triangles just because it's possible to get a picture of a triangle from it.

And actually due to a convoluted situation with my GameMaker license I think I actually can't accept a situation that would allow me to profit from the generator but mostly specifically the HTML5 version. This is because I have an older version of the license from before they sold commercial licenses for desktop/web/mobile all in one thing, so I only have a commercial license for the desktop version, but they made exporting to HTML5 free for everyone a while ago as long as it's not done for commercial use...So that's why donations aren't enabled on the itch.io page, because even if I could tell myself the donations were for the desktop version that I do have the right license for, I thought about it and was like. "If I'm having to think this hard about a loophole for this then it's probably not a legally sound move". (And looking at the analytics of how there's about 1500 more people using the web version then downloading the windows one then yeah my logic would probably not have held up in a court of law.)

You didn't ask me to talk at length about 90% of that but I did anyway for some reason. But yeah you can use your results for whatever you want I have no desire to stop anyone from doing this. I feel like it'd be like if coolors.co started demanding royalties for use of the color green.

[developmentservices12]

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[polyhexian]

Reply too big to keep in replies, forgive me

Flash emulation won't actually work with the way the site is coded. It's really difficult to truly illustrate HOW fucked the site is if you aren't familiar with it.

So the flash games are INTEGRATED into the site. They don't just play. They send scores and those scores are validated by the site and then affect the game in real time by awarding points. Thats backend stuff and it seems EASY. But flash EMULATION will not really let that process work. Not blanket. Ruffle is a browser add on for flash and you can play some games with it but every game has needed to be worked manually and individually to try and get it to play correctly and to let it send scores.

Here, so like. Last year you may recall having heard about the data breach. It was a long time coming. Neopets has terrible security and always has. So someone got backend access, downloaded the server and this had all of the usernames and passwords ever used. Were they hashed? Yes. Was the hashkey stored in the server and thus also available to the hacker? Also yes.

As a result neopets finally moved from http to https. Great!

Not for flash games.

Every game has links in it right. Backend stuff. Mechanics. But all those fucking links redirect to http, not https. And you cannot change that without editing the game and you can't do THAT without a program that makes flash elements. So they're basically unfixable on site. On one fell swoop, every single flash game broke at once. You could play them but scores were now unsendable.

The workaround neopets USERS found was, I shut you not, using developer tools to modify the way your entire computer communicates with the internet

"oh, that seems simple"

Look the fuck at what is IN the js file

It is 538 lines! It is manually overriding the links used in these games. This IS hacking. Technically this is against the rules, it's just not being enforced.

Don't worry, I'm terrified.

The workaround before this STILL had you download a new browser, modify it, take your internet offline and manually reinstall an old version of flash to create a jury rigged flash browser. Oh my God this is so dangerous and we Still do this. Did I do all this fiddler stuff? Yes! I did! Because neopets is very much like transformers in that there is a small user base but every single person there is fucking insane!

So.... Emulation is not a solution. Every game needs to be individually ground up REMADE in html5. And you can't just import the old game and tweak it. It has to be made from scratch. That's why there are so few html5 games. It's incredibly difficult and time consuming and probably not all that worth it when there's so much to be done.

This is what I mean when I say the site is virtually unplayable. This is the kind of shit that we have to do to make the site work. You basically cannot play unless you are accessing fan sites and communities to find resources that can offer fixes to everything that is broken. There are legitimately pages of this website that have not been updated since 1999. Until like two years ago you still could not say "gay" on the forums because the chat filter caught it. And do you know why?? Staff literally did not know where the chat filter was stored in the backend. They could not find it. The site traded hands and staff so much that no one remained who knew where it was.

There is LITERALLY a guy who found backend access several years ago and can, whenever he wants, get into the server and look at everything. HE could have stolen those passwords (which the other hacker was selling for $10,000!!) At any time he wanted. Instead he just made an anonymous reddit account where he would post info about how the fucking site works and why things are broken and "yeah they lied about fixing this its still broken" or "yeah actually they secretly shadowbanned a bunch of people from submitting scores to the big yearly event next year if you dm me I can tell you if you're on the list"

And he IS STILL THERE!!!! HE STILL HAS SERVER ACCESS!!! ITS BEEN YEARS AND THEY HAVENT KICKED HIM OUR BECAUSE THEY STILL HAVENT FOUND THE BREACH!!!!!!!

This. THIS is what staff is dealing with. THIS is the absolute shit storm they need to tackle if they want this site to work. The way pets are stored, the way accounts work, all of those things cannot be changed without causing severe issues conflicting with users accounts, pets, items, and all of that was originally coded in 1998/1999 and it cannot be changed. It cannot be modernized. They need to find ways to integrate old code that cannot be changed into a site coded for a modern internet. That is beyond the scope of normal site building.

All that is to say... I'm hesitant to believe things will improve, not because I don't think staff wants to, not because I don't think they have the drive and the passion to throw everything they have at it. Just because... Jesus dude I don't know if they actually have the resources to fix this mess at all.

[realjaysumlin]

Why are African people wanting to leave their own continent when they should be selling to people outside of Africa to bring outside currency exchange rates into their own benefits? This is the craziest thing to me.

If you live in an area where your cost of living is much lower than living in places with a higher cost of living is much worse for you, economically speaking. You stay put, but put the higher currency in your pocket instead of bringing your labor and paying a higher cost for living in that area than when you can be much better off with having their money coming into you and your cost of living is low.

$100.00 USD can't do much of anything living in America but $100.00 living in Ghana and making a $100.00 USD can do wonders for you at a rate of 14 to 1 ratio is good living. Let's dive a little deeper into a person living in Texas and they smoke cigarettes that cost $10.00 per pack and this person smokes a pack of cigarettes a day after 30 days this total amount is $300.00

A nurse in Ghana makes on the average of 500 GHS a month which doesn't add up to much compared to the person who is blowing their money up in smoke. Africa is always on the bad side of the trade compared to what Africans are paying for a damn iPhone that is costing them on the average their annual income.

You're paying a years salary for a fucking phone? Are you going mad? Reverse that by selling American products cheaper to Americans using their own currency for your damn benefit, now if you want to go pay for an iPhone you can afford it without putting yourself in the fucking poorhouse.

Africa needs higher currency exchange rates coming in, not taking your cheap labor to places that cost you more to live than your own place where you have it better. I live in America and most of my clients live in Kawait because the Kawaiti danar is 3 times higher than the USD.

My Kawaiti clients are already getting a discount from me because their currency exchange rates are much higher than ours, so I can sell to them at retail pricing and we are both happy, it's even better if I get everything wholesale.

This is what makes exporting and importing more sensible than my greedy people in India who are selling shit like they live in Kawait with outrageous prices that we can get here in America cheaper because they are acting like we don't price check.

Someone in India wants to charge me $5400.00 USD for a fucking HTML5 video player when I can go to WordPress and build my own for $65.00 USD, now why would I pay someone who can live in luxury for a year and a half if not more? Do they not understand that we know what their currency exchange rates are?

[jhanvi24av]

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[resharc]

a recap on jam

It's been a few weeks since I finished the Acerola Jam 0 (check out the jam if you haven't, there's a lot of cool games!) and I've had a bit of time to decompress and think about my experience. I also was literally unable to do this until this week so hahaaaaa.

If you haven't already, please check out my game jam game, Gunmatic Aberration. Some of what I'm gonna go over will make more sense if you've played it.

but maybe you like having no clue what I'm talking about, in which case, read on

A Summary

This was a good experience and has given me a good bit to think on for the other game. Which is both good and bad: part of the reason why progress has seemingly stopped is because of this. I've been working on stuff behind the scenes and polishing up bits (and rethinking others) to show off later.

I'm happy I was able to release a project that people could, you know, play. From start to finish, with very few bugs that soft-locked or broke the game. People found it fun too, which was a plus.

However, there's a few things that were problems and I'm unhappy with:

The game is confusing to play without any guidance; there wasn't obvious enough signposting or tutorials, which meant I had to tell people how to play (this is not a good sign).

The balance isn't great: some rooms are too hard. Others are too easy. Some powerups just suck, others are too good.

The boss doesn't take advantage of the core gimmick.

The presentation is lacking.

The last one is the thing that stings the most.

The Problem Of Visibility

In the three weeks the game has been around in the jam, my game was viewed 52 times, downloaded 19 times and rated 4 times. I posted it a few times and passed it around my friends. Around 6 of those downloads were from my friends. These are, by all means, not bad numbers. Someone on the Acerola discord found that the mean number of ratings is around 4 - so I'm perfectly average.

Part of this is just due to there being over 900 entries. Part of it is luck. A lot of it is because the game fundamentally doesn't catch your eye. My visual competency is, well

The biggest problem, I feel, boils down to marketing. Let's list a few problems with Gunmatic.

The game looks like a flash game made in 2008. This isn't bad but there's a stigma against those games.

The thumbnail does an awful job at describing the game and getting people to click.

The screenshots are confusing without context and frankly, suck.

The title sucks.

Part of this is just my own general competency. I am not a good artist by any means. This is something I struggle with constantly - I can, at best, make nice-ish looking animations and use some basic tricks to make it look a bit smoother. You can see this in a lot of my other clips. I also suck at names (honestly, my other game has some awful names...).

Focusing on GA, I could've done a few things better here. The easiest ones here are, add a gif to the screenshots and make a better thumbnail. I've done a quick mockup below of what that could look like (note i spent like 5 minutes on this). I could've used the gif in this very post on my screenshots screen too.

Getting People To Play

The second hurdle was actually getting people to play the game. It's one thing to get people to click, but how do you get people to actually play it?

I had a click-to-download ratio of about 3:1. That's, all things considered, not that bad! However, getting people to actually download your game, in a game jam with 958 entries, is difficult. Why play this flash game you need to download when you can play MEGA CHESS, which looks like a Real Game that you can play in your browser?

It probably would've been smarter if I'd just exported this to HTML5 and embedded it into the browser. This would've reduced the hurdle to play significantly: a lot of the most popular games in the game jam were, expectedly, browser games. And games Acerola had boosted (hint hint haha jk unless..........?).

Playtesting

This relates to my other issue: a lack of playtesting. by people who weren't me, i mean.

This is probably one of the hardest problems I've faced - both here and in my actual game. Unless you have friends who are into game development, it's hard to get someone to sit down, play your game, and give you their thoughts on what works and what doesn't. It's a fairly significant ask of someone! They have to play it for a bit, understand how it works, suffer through any problems, and then formulate their thoughts.

I developed Gunmatic Aberration over 2 weeks while working full time. I had a lot of dead time to fill in those two weeks - I should have been bugging my friends for their opinions and telling me what sucked and what didn't.

I didn't do that often.

This, above everything else, is what hurt the game the most. The game is fun, but it's incredibly unpolished and has more potential than anything else. The randomness of the game hurts it (it's a roguelite, after all): you can effectively just Die if you get a difficult room without the right powerups. It's difficult to figure out how to play without explicit instruction. These are all problems born from the developer being the only person to play it.

This is slightly just anecdotal, but I believe the top games in the Game Jam are both made by exceptionally talented people who also had some people giving them feedback. Maybe some more than others - but there was a conversation that I didn't have until the last few days.

i guess thats it?

So! That's what I did for about half a month in March. Then I went on a holiday and have been ruminating on this since.

You might be asking, "wait a fucking minute, you haven't posted anything since... November! What the hell! What have you been doing for the 4 months prior!"

That's cause, uh

um

woah check this out

[juney-blues]

why is it such a pain in the ass finding animation software that can export to html5 <3

i know i can just embed a video file but have you considered that i don't want to do that, for really stupid reasons.