Video Game Development with Angular and Web Technologies with Álvaro Herrero
Summary of episode #44 of the Angularidades podcast
Listen to the entire conversation in Spanish with Álvaro Herrero Couto on Spotify, YouTube, and other podcast platforms.
This podcast episode welcomes Álvaro Herrero Couto, a front-end developer from Santander, Spain, who works at HeroDevs as a consultant and runs his own video game production company, Herrero Games.
The conversation begins with Álvaro explaining his journey in video game development. Initially, he used engines like GameMaker and Unity but eventually shifted to using web technologies such as Angular, RxJS, babylon.js, Rapier, and AnimeJS for game development. He found these technologies provided a more efficient development experience, particularly for quick iterations and real-time updates.
Topics covered
- Technical decisions in game development and publishing
- The case for Angular Signals in game development
- Advances in web platform graphics performance
- Web performance and optimization
- Tools and technologies in video game development
- Challenges and advice for video game developers
Álvaro shares his experiences with different game engines and highlights the challenges he faced with Unity and the need for recompilation after every change. He contrasts this with the ease and speed of development using web technologies where changes can be applied instantly.
A significant portion of the discussion revolves around the technical aspects of game development using web technologies. Álvaro explains how he integrates Angular with Babylon.js to manage game states, animations, and user interfaces. He uses Angular for routing and UI components while relying on Babylon.js for rendering 3D graphics. He also discusses the advantages of using RxJS for handling asynchronous events and animations, which are crucial in game development.
The conversation continues into the challenges of targeting different platforms, particularly mobile devices. Álvaro explains how he uses Capacitor to package web applications into mobile apps, making it easier to publish games on platforms like Google Play and the App Store. He acknowledges the limitations of web technologies compared to traditional game engines but notes that advancements like the WebGPU API are bridging the gap, offering better performance and more capabilities.
Álvaro emphasizes the importance of scope management in game development. He advises aspiring developers to start with small, manageable projects and gradually scale up. He shares his experience of reducing the scope of his projects to ensure they are completed.
The episode also touches on the marketing aspects of game development. Álvaro highlights the differences between publishing games on consoles versus mobile platforms. He notes that mobile platforms offer more opportunities for visibility and iteration post-launch, whereas console games often rely heavily on initial release visibility.
In conclusion, Álvaro encourages developers to leverage their existing web development skills for game development. He believes that the continuous improvements in web technologies will provide ample opportunities for creating engaging and high-performance games.
Takeaways
- Alvaro’s choice to develop and publish games using web technologies was driven by ease of use and speed of iteration, eliminating the lengthy recompilation processes associated with traditional game engines.
- Video game development for consoles presents unique challenges regarding visibility and competition.
- Integrating Angular with babylon.js allows developers to manage game states, animations, routing, and 3D graphics rendering effectively.
- The limitations in web platform graphics performance compared to traditional game engines like Unity and Unreal Engine are being overcome with advancements like WebGPU.
- Strategic performance management includes reducing polygon counts in models and optimizing light and shadow use, with WebGPU enhancing graphics performance and profiling tools identifying bottlenecks.
- Developers should focus on small projects, complete them, and gather feedback to iterate and improve.
Stay tuned and check out who is getting interviewed for future episode releases at x.com/angularidades or LinkedIn.
