HatPC custom levels actually work for me right now on Firefox, but they never did before. Odd....

And you're right, Thomas--right now, HTML5 isn't too widely supported. However, by the time we have a pretty good working draft of Aeon finished, I'm more than confident that HTML5 will be supported well enough for us to use it.... not to mention the fact that it would also allow options for the iPad, et cetera, in the future.

You expect Aeon development to take 5 years or so with GM? Even Livio should be able to complete it faster than that.

I use Firefox for playing HatPC, and it has always worked for me. something here smells fishy...

What happened to the old "Error code: 5672" or something like that when playing on FF?

Jellsprout - more like a few months, based on how fast HTML5 has been progressing and becoming accepted.

Isa - not sure, but it's gone!

HTML5 hasn't even been finalized yet. Do you honestly expect the entire language to be finished and every single website and flash application in existence to switch over to it in just a few months? Hilarious. Flash will be standard for at least a couple more years.

Haha, that's not a fair question or conclusion. Of course every website and Flash application won't switch over immediately--and Flash WILL be around for several more years. However, HTML5 will likely be working well enough and supported well enough to allow for an Aeon release. That's all I'm saying.

We'll cross that bridge when we get to it.

Just thought I'd give a brief update: YES, it appears we will be able to all work on the same project file using the free version, so we won't all have to purchase the HTML5 version--just one of us will, which is a price we could quite easily split up between us. Now, to make up a prototype...

I've been working on GameMaker for the past semester for this game design class I'm enrolled in, and I have to say that I really don't like that program. For something that is currently in its 8th version, GameMaker is remarkably unpolished and confusing to use. It has absolutely no collaborative features (in my experience), which makes working on the same project with other people a huge pain, unless maybe you plan ahead and take turns on when someone can work on the file.

I also hate how every time I work in GameMaker, I always run into some unforseen problem, because you expect something to work one way, but it really works in another far more unintuitive way. I was originally planning to use GameMaker make a rapid digital prototype for a game I'm working on for my internship, but I ended up skipping that idea and making it in Flash instead because Flash is at least more predictable.

As for HTML5, I really don't buy into the hype surrounding it. Like everyone said, Flash is still more widely used and more reliable than HTML5, and that won't change until some years. It's also far more complicated to work in, as you have to understand several different technologies just to get one application running: HTML5, JavaScript, CSS, PHP, SQL, etc. These technologies are actually pretty hard to learn well, because most of the online resources out there are pretty bad. But I guess the plan was to have GameMaker handle all of this for us, but I can only imagine how big the final files are.

Man, I really wish I had more time to work on Aeon... I'll probably work on it during the summer, but it probably won't be with the same level of efficiency as last winter.

I don't expect to have too many people want to / able to contribute, so collaboration wouldn't be a major issue. Also, regarding Game Maker being unpredictable, that's just because you're not used to it, haha.

Lastly, you're right: Flash won't be leaving anytime soon. The big benefit to HTML5 is that it could potentially be transferred onto other mediums. Right now, though, HTML5 isn't a good thing OR a bad thing. It's just something that could be good in the future.

Just wait until I get my demo out--then you guys can decide.