HTML5 Curation

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Revision as of 20:46, 27 October 2019 by ThePowerPlayer (talk | contribs) (Wrote HTML5 curation tutorial)
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HTML5 games are not nearly as endangered as Flash games, and are in fact often cited as replacing the Flash medium. However, they still pose a risk of disappearing at some point in time. Therefore, the following page is a tutorial on how to curate HTML5 games to add to Flashpoint.

Before You Start

This tutorial will assume you've read the standard Curation Tutorial, which is highly recommended to go through. Try curating a Flash game before moving on to HTML5.

Identifying HTML5 Games

If a web game doesn't ask to enable Adobe Flash Player and there's no sign or mention of any of the other Platforms, it is very likely an HTML5 game.

To confirm this, press F12 to open the Developer Tools of your browser and click the Network tab. Look for a .html file, likely under the title "index.html". Copy the file's link and go to it. If it plays an unobstructed version of the game, you've found the source of your Launch Command.

Make sure to always use http:// instead of https:// to make sure Flashpoint grabs files from the fake Internet instead of the real one!

Grabbing The Game From The Internet

Since links to a .html file won't automatically download like a .swf file, use a browser extension such as Tab Save to easily download the file.

Moving The Game Into Flashpoint

It's good practice to name content folders directly after the URL of your file to prevent softlocking. In Flashpoint Core's Server/htdocs folder, create a series of folders named after the URL leading to your .html file.

In Flashpoint Core itself, create a new game and fill it out with as much information as you can, including the Launch Command you found earlier. The Platform should be "HTML5", and the Application Path should be "FPSoftware\Basilisk-Portable\Basilisk-Portable.exe". The Basilisk browser is used in Flashpoint to run HTML5 games.

Test your game. Almost all HTML5 games will certainly be multi-asset, so don't be surprised if the game doesn't work at first. Check the Flashpoint Redirector for a series of URLs of the assets for your game, assuming your content folder is based directly off of the source URL. Select Tools/Copy all 404 Not Found URLs. From here, you can either use cURLs Downloader to batch download the assets (see here for more information) or paste the list into Tab Save or a similar extension, then insert the files manually into your content folder.

Test the game repeatedly to check for additional assets the Redirector calls for. Once you're sure you've downloaded all the assets, test the game again to make sure everything works properly as it does online.

Wrapping It Up

Follow the proper Curation Format, including all content folders requested by the Redirector.

Pack everything into a single .zip file and submit it to the #other-game-curations channel of the Flashpoint Discord. Use the HTML5 emoji when submitting.