XKCD’s recent webcomic – Click and Drag – has got a lot of attention, for all the right reasons. For those that haven’t seen it (really, who hasn’t?) the comic includes a small interactive window, allowing you to explore, via clicking and dragging, what seems to be an extraordinarily large image of the xkcd world. What’s come after this comics release though, has been a great display of creativity from the javascript community.
Firstly, Florian Wesch (@dividuum) strung all the images from the comic into zoomable full screen application (think, google maps – but with the comic) using the open source Javascript library, leaflet.
Soon after, PubNub (@pubnub) used their own API, the canvas element, and Javascript websockets to create an interactive, MMO styled explorer for the world, where multiple users can explore and interact all at the same time.
More recently Kajajjlubben released a Javascript powered explorer styled game (I use the term game loosely here) titled Press and Move – where you can walk and fly your little animated man through the detailed world.
With great demos like this, its easy to see a beautiful and creative future for Javascript, and its surrounding community.
Check them out:
XKCD Map by Florian Wesch (@dividuum)
XKCD MMO by PubNub (@pubnub)
Press and Move by Kajajjlubben