Ludum Dare 32 & Unity WebGL Update

[TomFulp]

If you made a game for Ludum Dare 32, share it on NG and we'll feature it in our Ludum Dare Collection! Be sure to tag it with "ludumdare32" so we find it. Also enable rev share under your account page in case it becomes a big hit!

Last week Chrome ended support for the Unity plug-in SO we reached out to hundreds of Unity devs on NG, asking them to try porting their existing Unity games to WebGL and let us know the results.

The results so far are... Bad. Very bad! Unity relies on rendering features that aren't currently supported in WebGL. All this rush to make HTML5 replace everything... FRUSTRATING. I'm not sure how much the Unity team can solve on their end, vs how much the WebGL team needs to address. Until then, most Unity games don't seem to work as WebGL exports. They also tend to become bloated in size when converted.

As a temporary fix, Chrome users can paste "chrome://flags/#enable-npapi" in your URL bar then click "Enable" on the first highlighted npapi item. This returns you to the pre-update settings and should work until September.

Hey, Flash games continue to work just like they always have for the PAST 17 YEARS.

Don't miss the Lakeview Cabin Fan Art Challenge! Top ten will receive Steam keys for the Lakeview Cabin Collection!

And holy crap, Pico Day is this weekend. Be sure to check the site Saturday!

[Bit]

I've really enjoyed all of the LD games I've played so far.

The games tend to me simple, but people always think up cool stuff.

Like the one where you catch unicorns with your butt.

• 

  100 Dollars Unicorns

  by TD2TL

  #LD32 - How to make extra money : Catch unicorns with your butt and sell them to robots

  Game

  4,934 Views

  (Everyone)

Edit: Heh. Look at the last three digits of the URL.

[Megacharlie]

Will you see my messages in the lifestream chat? Cant wait!!

[LucidShadowDreamer]

Damn you Chrome D:
I trusted you :'(

[Bcadren]

I honestly don't know if this is an issue that will (or can) be fixed. Part of the charm of Unity was that it worked the same everywhere; using a .NET-based rendering system; with Cg renderers.

It'd be WebGL side to implement different graphics (and I doubt that'll be done). I don't think Unity can create a whole new rendering system for this one slice of the market (and it would remove the charm of working the same on most systems with little code associated specifically with the port).

Feels like an evil thing for google to do; I mean they literally removed support.

It's not a 'not supporting anymore; deprecated' it's a straight removed with intent. I don't understand why.

[VicariousE]

At 4/20/15 05:08 PM, TomFulp wrote: Hey, Flash games continue to work just like they always have for the PAST 17 YEARS.

Damn we're old. I still have a few stand-alone Flash files, you know, the ones that were self-executable? Some of them are less than a megabyte, still never fails to amaze me! Too bad there's not much Flash on-site anymore :(

Really wish the Portal header animation was optimized, it really saps the CPU big time!
Also wish the Audio Portal visualization thing would scale properly, and not crash Flash in general

[xinelu]

I tag my game properly and it not appers on the Ludum list D:!!

Help!

[Swiftstrike111]

I switch to Firefox two days back. Been working well.

[Soupcat]

Around what time will pico day start? I'll be working till midnight in GMT time sadly enough :( still hope to catch most of the event!

[Matt-Porter]

Looking forward to FINALLY meeting you at the office this weekend. I'll also be meeting TylerNG, Deathink, and a few others for the first time. Here's hoping the car rental process and drive from Vermont goes smoothly!

[Emrox]

At 4/20/15 05:08 PM, TomFulp wrote: And holy crap, Pico Day is this weekend. Be sure to check the site Saturday!

Hey this has nothing to do with the newspost but you should get some of those "Hello my name is" stickers for Pico Day. It might be a little easier to go up and talk to people you know. Also last year I met this one guy who I thought was a completely different guy and we didn't figure it out until like five minutes into the conversation.

Actually did we have those last year? I can't remember. Anyway they should be mandatory.

[VicariousE]

At 4/20/15 09:56 PM, Matt-Porter wrote: Looking forward to FINALLY meeting you at the office this weekend. I'll also be meeting TylerNG, Deathink, and a few others for the first time. Here's hoping the car rental process and drive from Vermont goes smoothly!

Bring some maple syrup, cheese or some shit, there will be folks there from all over the world! Hope the trip goes safely and smoothly, and you arrive well rested, you'll need it with those guys!

[VicariousE]

At 4/21/15 01:25 AM, Emrox wrote:

At 4/20/15 05:08 PM, TomFulp wrote: And holy crap, Pico Day is this weekend. Be sure to check the site Saturday!

Hey this has nothing to do with the newspost but you should get some of those "Hello my name is" stickers for Pico Day. It might be a little easier to go up and talk to people you know. Also last year I met this one guy who I thought was a completely different guy and we didn't figure it out until like five minutes into the conversation.

Actually did we have those last year? I can't remember. Anyway they should be mandatory.

http://lovingthedark.newgrounds.com/ said she'd bring a few packs. I thought there were name tags last year, on the white table in the garage. If you had kept your old usericon, you could've worn that, by way of a name badge. Could just print something up, cut it and use clear box tape. Just leave extra tape at the top, trim the rest, looks cooler that way, or just use a badge holder you like.

If I hadn't met you before, I'd I.D. you by a green winter cap with red stripes!

or so I recall

I always got the impression name tags were for encounter groups, AA meetings and otherwise unpleasant activities, like jury duty, hospital visits. But there's some good places that need name tags too... most of those I got filming events as a private contractor or under news/press affiliation.

[Wiesi]

At 4/20/15 05:08 PM, TomFulp wrote:
Hey, Flash games continue to work just like they always have for the PAST 17 YEARS.

GO FLASH! GO! :)

[Asandir]

At 4/20/15 05:08 PM, TomFulp wrote:

As a temporary fix, Chrome users can paste "chrome://flags/#enable-npapi" in your URL bar then click "Enable" on the first highlighted npapi item. This returns you to the pre-update settings and should work until September.

In addition to that, you have to clear your cache and then restart Chrome, worked for me after that.

[Radaketor]

At 4/20/15 05:08 PM, TomFulp wrote: As a temporary fix, Chrome users can paste "chrome://flags/#enable-npapi" in your URL bar then click "Enable" on the first highlighted npapi item. This returns you to the pre-update settings and should work until September.

But after September, do we need to switch browsers if we want Unity games to work? That's a shame, there were a bunch of them that i really liked, some of them on my favourites and i'm a lazy guy, i'll probably just never play them again because i'm too lazy to switch my browser.

Hey, Flash games continue to work just like they always have for the PAST 17 YEARS.

I hope at least Flash never dies.

Don't miss the Lakeview Cabin Fan Art Challenge! Top ten will receive Steam keys for the Lakeview Cabin Collection!

And holy crap, Pico Day is this weekend. Be sure to check the site Saturday!

I'll try to do something for the art challenge, trying to get more into NG contests.

Will Pico Day have a live stream like you guys had last year (and maybe the year before, i dunno, i wasn't here)?

[ThePhenomenon]

At 4/20/15 05:08 PM, TomFulp wrote: Hey, Flash games continue to work just like they always have for the PAST 17 YEARS.

Well that's all we need. Flash for ever.

[Luis]

At 4/21/15 03:04 AM, VicariousE wrote:

At 4/21/15 01:25 AM, Emrox wrote:

At 4/20/15 05:08 PM, TomFulp wrote: And holy crap, Pico Day is this weekend. Be sure to check the site Saturday!

Hey this has nothing to do with the newspost but you should get some of those "Hello my name is" stickers for Pico Day. It might be a little easier to go up and talk to people you know. Also last year I met this one guy who I thought was a completely different guy and we didn't figure it out until like five minutes into the conversation.

Actually did we have those last year? I can't remember. Anyway they should be mandatory.

http://lovingthedark.newgrounds.com/ said she'd bring a few packs. I thought there were name tags last year, on the white table in the garage. If you had kept your old usericon, you could've worn that, by way of a name badge. Could just print something up, cut it and use clear box tape. Just leave extra tape at the top, trim the rest, looks cooler that way, or just use a badge holder you like.

I dont remember seeing nametags last year but with the roster as large this year it might not be a bad idea. Have been busyer than usual upkeeping the roster this year, its like 2.5x more people than any other year.

[exotworking]

Last week Chrome ended support for the Unity plug-in

R.I.P.

[TomFulp]

At 4/20/15 06:02 PM, Bcadren wrote: It's not a 'not supporting anymore; deprecated' it's a straight removed with intent. I don't understand why.

Maybe they want to push more people to the Play store to buy stuff :P

[TomFulp]

At 4/20/15 07:31 PM, xinelu wrote: I tag my game properly and it not appers on the Ludum list D:!!

Help!

I manually update the LD32 list so I tend to wait for stuff to make it through judgment. I went ahead and added it though!

[TomFulp]

At 4/20/15 08:26 PM, Damien wrote: Around what time will pico day start? I'll be working till midnight in GMT time sadly enough :( still hope to catch most of the event!

Starts around 10am and goes all day... Tends to clear out as midnight approaches but then there are usually people who hang out on the cam all night.

[TomFulp]

At 4/21/15 01:25 AM, Emrox wrote: Hey this has nothing to do with the newspost but you should get some of those "Hello my name is" stickers for Pico Day. It might be a little easier to go up and talk to people you know. Also last year I met this one guy who I thought was a completely different guy and we didn't figure it out until like five minutes into the conversation.

We didn't have them last year but we will this year!

[TomFulp]

At 4/21/15 05:52 AM, Radaketor wrote: But after September, do we need to switch browsers if we want Unity games to work?

Yup, after September, it's time to switch browsers! I'm kinda excited to see the new non-IE browser Microsoft has in the works... Hopefully they'll include Unity plug-in support :)

Will Pico Day have a live stream like you guys had last year (and maybe the year before, i dunno, i wasn't here)?

We're planning to stream on the NG Twitch channel and I want to do some stuff from my phone with Periscope.

[Cyberdevil]

Ludum Dare always generates so many creative gems, and much of it entirely non-noticably-commercial too, no excessive splash screens and ads and such stuff that seem to be the norm with so much such stuff now! Groovy times.

At 4/20/15 05:08 PM, TomFulp wrote: Hey, Flash games continue to work just like they always have for the PAST 17 YEARS.

Yeah! Flash! Wooo! It's still so lightweight compared to these other contenders. So much great stuff you can do with it. So easy to use! Hope it gets a boost now.

Strange decision to drop Unity on Chrome though, as they're bound to lose a large chunk of users with that move... wonder if they have anything planned. A secret agenda. A revolutionary technology to rue them all... I do use FF though so personally things won't change much/at all.

And holy crap, Pico Day is this weekend. Be sure to check the site Saturday!

Looking forward to that live stream!

[tjardo]

Perhaps a bit off-topic, but I don't get what that Unity stuff is all about. Why Unity? It barely works (using latest FF), scales over other parts of the website, and we have Flash and html5 already. What has Unity got to offer that the others don't?

[tjardo]

At 4/21/15 05:52 AM, Radaketor wrote: But after September, do we need to switch browsers if we want Unity games to work?

Yup, after September, it's time to switch browsers! I'm kinda excited to see the new non-IE browser Microsoft has in the works... Hopefully they'll include Unity plug-in support :)

Isn't that really just IE with a different name? If they really are going to make it so different they could've (and should've) made IE into a decent browser, imho.
..Let's just say I'm not getting up my hopes too high.

[TomFulp]

At 4/21/15 02:11 PM, tjardo wrote: Perhaps a bit off-topic, but I don't get what that Unity stuff is all about. Why Unity? It barely works (using latest FF), scales over other parts of the website, and we have Flash and html5 already. What has Unity got to offer that the others don't?

It's a great tool for game development and more and more people are using it due to the ability to publish to mobile and console.

[NeonSpider]

At 4/21/15 10:10 AM, TomFulp wrote:

At 4/20/15 06:02 PM, Bcadren wrote: It's not a 'not supporting anymore; deprecated' it's a straight removed with intent. I don't understand why.

Maybe they want to push more people to the Play store to buy stuff :P

It's because they're really big on pushing everything plugin-related to the Pepper API. In the old days you had the competing APIs of ActiveX (only worked on Internet Explorer) and NPAPI (Netscape Plugin API -- originally made for Netscape, which became Firefox, and which everything except Internet Explorer used).

Google seems to be trying to wrestle control by forcing their Pepper API and then dropping support for the NPAPI, and hoping enough people exclusively use Chrome that they'll just all think the plugins are "broken" when it's really just Google trying to force their hand.

Unity browser plugin wasn't very portable anyway so that's no loss to me. If they want it to work on Chrome they'll just need to make a Pepper API version of it. No other ways around that. Same as if you want your plugin to work in Internet Explorer you have to make an ActiveX version of it.

At 4/21/15 02:16 PM, TomFulp wrote:

At 4/21/15 02:11 PM, tjardo wrote: Perhaps a bit off-topic, but I don't get what that Unity stuff is all about. Why Unity? It barely works (using latest FF), scales over other parts of the website, and we have Flash and html5 already. What has Unity got to offer that the others don't?

It's a great tool for game development and more and more people are using it due to the ability to publish to mobile and console.

Except it doesn't work on Linux and now it appears it won't work for Chrome users under Windows either. Developers should just stick with Flash.

If you're going to include support for something like Unity on Newgrounds, why not also include support for Java applets, Silverlight, ActiveX, Shockwave Director, and whatever else kinds of game plugins exist regardless of what they work on?

I still think it'd be nice to have games searchable by what platform they are (Flash/Unity/HTML5).

[user222]

I wouldn't like to go off topic, much, but we are working on sponsoring webgl games for the past 2-3 months, and we have some slightly promising results about WebGL games.
Few days ago, when Chrome decided to completely block out the npapi thingy, it seems that most of websites and unity developers realize that they need to work on WebGL games. The results are getting better as days pass by. We have only 2 parking webgl games for now, but probably 5-10 webgl games (different types/genres) are worked on background.

Additionally, webplayer is great for fast-paced multilayer games, webgl is kinda unstable with the networking. I hope it will be solved soon, as multiplayer games were/are the most popular games when it comes to unity. And by popular, i mean most profitable for the developers, ofc.

Good job promoting webgl, Tom! There weren't many good webgl games on LD jam, but hopefully, the devs will work on that for the next jam :P

p.s. I'm from Y8 and Network, so I hope this won't turn out as spam :)