Will Eastcott is an entrepreneur and veteran technologist of the games industry with experience at EA, Sony, and Activision. He has been credited in many AAA game franchises such as GTA, Call of Duty and Max Payne. He is best known for co-founding PlayCanvas, the web graphics creation platform. As CEO, he has championed the company's mission to make graphical web app development more accessible and collaborative through open-source technologies and cloud-based tools.
View all authorsMaking a video game in 48 hours is tough. In fact, it's one of the most gruelling mental challenges you can face. But every 4 months, thousands of die hard game developers enter Ludum Dare, a game jam of epic proportions. And they're not doing it for the prizes (there aren't any) or even the glory. They're doing it to give the gift of a game. And when it's a game you have created yourself, it's a very personal and powerful gift.
Last Summer, PlayCanvas participated in the world's premier startup accelerator Techstars. Unlike most other accelerators, Techstars continues to host participating companies several months after the programme finishes. So when we left for our recent US tour, we also moved out of Warner Yard, Techstars' base of operations in London.
And now that we're back from our travels, we've found a new home: IDEALondon.
If you're building HTML5 games, chances are that you want as many people to play your game as possible and, in an ideal world, you'll make some money in the process. Monetization on the web is harder than it is on mobile app stores, where payment processing is standardized and credit card details are stored. But there are still a number of options. One great platform you should consider for your game is the Chrome Web Store.
Yesterday, we announced an imminent update to the PlayCanvas Math API. It's a rare event that we introduce breaking changes and we only do it because we're certain it's going to help you be much more productive. So what have we changed?
So Ludum Dare 28 came and went last weekend and the theme was 'You Only Get One'. Here's a quick round up of the superb PlayCanvas games that were submitted this time around.
Today, we plugged a magical Leap Motion device into one of our USB ports and fired up PlayCanvas.
PlayCanvas has now completed the 3 month long Techstars accelerator and to mark the occasion, a glitzy Demo Day was held at an exclusive theatre in London's Victoria.
Will took to the stage (to the sound of Gangnam Style!) to present the technology to a 350 strong audience of angel investors, venture capitalists and the press.
On Wednesday, 18th September, I flew out to Warsaw to run a workshop for onGameStart, the world's most awesome conference for HTML5 game developers.
Want to work for one of the hottest startups in London?
PlayCanvas is one of 11 companies shaking up the London startup scene. Our goal is to re-invent how video games are built, shared and played, and to do this we are building a world class team. Finding amazingly talented people is hard but, as usual, the Techstars crew have the answer.
Play Dungeon Fury in mobile and desktop browsers now
Something incredibly exciting is happening in the mobile browser space right now. WebGL is rapidly being integrated into browsers and all of a sudden, game developers have the technologies they need to deliver high quality 3D video games without having to deploy a native app. To show what is possible today, PlayCanvas has developed the game 'Dungeon Fury', a light-hearted fantasy game that pushes your reflexes to the limit. Dungeon Fury represents the world's first 3D HTML5 browser game that is built specifically for mobile (although it works great in desktop browsers too!). And if all this wasn't cool enough, the whole game was written using only a web browser, made possible with the PlayCanvas game engine!