HTML 5 games may not be ready for prime time, but this retro 2D shooter is hard to put down

We’ve seen quite a lot of growth, potential and hype surrounding HTML 5, which also tends to take most of the credit for CSS 3, JavaScript and WebGL. Some game developers are embracing it, like Mozilla’s in the creation of this 3D first-person shooter, but others like Wooga, have rejected it.

This is all fair play when it comes to evolving technologies, but when we do see interesting experiments in this space, we’re compelled to show them to you. That is the case for the recently released Empty Black by Mary Rose Cook: a curious HTML 5 game that manages to capture our attention, despite being (or perhaps because it is) an old-school, 2D pixelated shooter.

To quote Filip Visnjic of Creative Application, this free game is the “most fun we’ve had playing with a square in a long time.”

There are tons of satisfying details hidden in the game, like the health meter, which as Indie Games points out, chips away when your block character is shot at. Other gems include the mid-way save states, which chime a note and remember your progress even if you accidentally close your browser tab (which I did). Here’s a dramatic teaser video of the game:

To create Empty Black, Cook tapped into her own JavaScript library, Andro.js, which helped her “compose objects from fragments of behaviour.”

Check out the game via the link below and let us know your thoughts in the comments!

➤ Empty Black

Image credit: Thinkstock