HTML5 is gaining a lot of steam lately but it’s ultimate test would be to bring to the browser what it’s rival Flash is already doing – Interactive browser based games. So I thought of compiling a list of browser based games that have been released or are in testing phase. All of these games are purely coded in HTML5 and most of these are even Open Source so if you want to try out building something for your own idea, you can use their codebase.

For those of you who don’t know, HTML5 is still a standard in the making but almost every major browser including IE, Chrome, Firefox and Safari now fully support HTML5 but support for HTML5 video is still foggy. What’s great about HTML5 is it’s non-dependence on any 3rd party plugin like with Flash. Let’s continue with the list of games based purely on HTML5:

(All the links take you to their respective game pages)

1. Pirates Loves Daisies

Pirates Loves Daisies was released just 2 days ago and it has to be the most awesome HTML5 based game yet. It was developed by Grant Skinner, the infamous Flash guru and hosted on Windows Azure which is Microsoft’s Cloud Computing offering based on PaaS+SaaS (Platform as a Service + Software as a Service) model. This games takes the capabilities of HTML5 and your browser to the limit.

The plot is pretty simple, it’s a Tower defense game where you (the pirate) have to defend your precious daisies from being destroyed or snatched by ugly sea creatures.

html5_game_pirates_love_daisies

2. Orbium

Orbium is a classic block game where you need to align at least 4 carousels which then explode and give you a certain amount of ‘orbs’. You need to align and explode a set of 4 carousels in order to proceed to the next level and there are 50 levels in total. The balls are inserted in a dial which has 4 receptors. The game has both the web and the mobile version (which is also essentially a web version tailored down to fit a mobile screen)

carousel_html5_game

3. Wizard Wars

This is another pure HTML5 based game where you need to collect a certain amount of gold stars that appear on the screen periodically. The evil wizard Zoltar will prevent you from collecting the stars and will gobble them up. You have to collect 50 golden stars to advance to the next level. Currently the game has only iPhone (and other smartphones that support HTML5 in their browsers) version available but you can still play it in your browser.

wizard_wars_html5_game

4. Time Waster

This game lives up to its name, wasting time! You can kill a lot of time by throwing blue balls in the track to knock off green colored balls off the track. The game does not has fancy graphics but it’s kind of addictive. In the beginning levels, you’ll be required to knock off green balls with blue balls but later on you’ll be required to knock off green balls but you’ll also have yellow balls in the track and you have to avoid knocking them off.

time_waster_html5_game

5.Contrasaurus

Contrasaurus, the big brother of dinosaur comes back to save America from the evil influence of Communism! In this game, you become the dinosaur (called contrasaurus) master to destroy the evil forces that are attacking America from Nicaragua. This game has some really cool graphics done purely on HTML5. The graphics are pretty fine which means that you may experience some delays in browsers that do not fully support HTML5. I tried it on my Chrome running on Thinkpad X100 and it did take some time to load but once loaded it was pretty smooth.

contrasaurus_html5_game

6. Canvas Rider

This game has to be the best HTML5 based racing game. It’s a truly community based game where users can create their own tracks (which becomes a level in the game) and share it with other players. This means that you can choose from thousands of different levels that other players have created. You can race on these custom tracks and your best scored are posted on the wall as ‘ghost scores’ which other players can chase. The button panel on the top-left comes in handy. You can add shading to the scene, go full-screen, pause and restart anytime you want. The game is light and loads easily on any browser. There are not much colors but it still is very addictive. This game was originally written in Flash but was then ported to HTML5 and now contains absolutely no Flash element which means you can also try it out on your iPhone.

canvas_rider_html5_game

7. Monkey Fortress

Monkey fortress is a HTML5 based strategy game that was written at the HTML5 game writing competition hosted by SPIL and Google. In this game, you need to protect the monkey from the falling coconuts. You do so by building a stone fortress around the monkey. The stones that you erect around the monkey are pretty flexible which means they can also fall over and kill the monkey so make sure you play smart. This game has some really nice graphics done.

monkey_fortress_html5_game

8. Crystal Galaxy

We hardly knew that there exists a game engine that is purely written in a combination of open web languages (HTML5, CSS and JavaScript). This engine called “EffectEngine” can create visually stunning HTML5 games of all sorts. Crystal Galaxy is a first person space shooter game where you navigate your space ship through the hostile space and protect it from all kinds of enemy spaceships coming and shooting at you. The graphics of this game are really sleek and so is the gameplay. You can play a navigation mission or a survival mission where you cover as much distance as you can while protecting your space ship. What’s unique about his game is the mouse-based control compared to the traditional arrow-based control. The game takes a while to load in your browser but once loaded, it runs smooth.

crystal_galaxy_html5_game

9. Word Squared

This is yet another game that was written in a competition, this time Node.js knockout competition where the contestants were required to write a game in pure HTML5 in under 48 hours! And see what was born, a truly multi-player clone of the famous Scrabble but written purely on HTML5. The game has some really nice graphics. You have to make a chain of words with as many characters as you can. The longer the word, the more points you get and move on to the next level. The game is so dynamic that you can pick a physical location from the tiny map that displays on the top right and the game will load the leader board that contains players who belong to that location! Absolutely stunning. This means that you can try it out with your friends but just locating them over the map!

word_squared_html5_game

10. Agent 008 Ball

Who knew that a snooker game could be combined with the infamous Bond 007 theme to make an Agent 008 Ball game! The graphics are yet again stunning. This game was particularly targeted for the IE9’s advanced HTML5 support but it loaded perfectly in my Google Chrome and ran smooth. In this game you are required to cue as many balls as possible within the given time. One of the balls is a bomb which, if hit, will explode in 30 seconds which means you will have to cue it within 30 seconds to avoid blowing off your ‘Bond’ table. Bond will be so proud!

agent_008_html5_game

I will compile a list of another 10 really awesome, visually stunning HTML5 games in Part-2 so stay tuned Smile and if you have any suggestions or want to get your game added in the list, just shoot an email (you can find my email in the Contact page)