We’ve already seen Angry Birds and Bejewelled in the Chrome store, but now Microsoft are joining the HTML5 casual games party with a JavaScript port of popular smartphone game Cut the Rope.
The end result is an authentic translation of the game for the web, showcasing some of the best that HTML5 has to offer: canvas-rendered graphics, browser-based audio and video, CSS3 styling and the personality of WOFF fonts.
The making-of video sometimes makes for slightly uncomfortable viewing – it comes across as a somewhat contrived Microsoft advert. So I was surprised to see the Creative Director playtesting it on what appears to be Chrome on OSX in the video…
In Microsoft’s defence, it’s worth noting that IE seems to have the fastest 2D canvas implementation, and Visual Studio seems like a capable tool. It’s also really interesting to see Microsoft actively promoting JavaScript as a core language for creating apps in the new touch screen Windows environment, Metro.
But is that enough to justify locking certain levels to IE users? It seems a bit unnecessary to me. Stay classy Microsoft!
Play Cut the Rope and read about the making of.
[via @zambonini]