Angry Birds Compared with Enter The Story

I'm currently watching a video on how they ported Angry Birds to HTML5. I have never played Angry Birds. I once played Tetris. That was fun for an hour. I once played Worms briefly, but lost interest after 5 minutes. it was plainly a well made game though. Most games just do not interest me, that's why I am making my own different kind of game.

Anyway, I spent the last few months creating a web based game engine, so everything this guys is saying sounds very familiar. Except he's an expert programmer and I am not. :)  A few things stand out:

1. Getting games to work on a browser is very hard work. These people are world class and it they need a whole team of people to do it, and they expect to continue to upgrade the engine as time goes on. For a one man team myself that is just not a serious proposition.
2. I was right to change my approach (you will see what I mean when the new games go live). There is just no way that one person can do anything boundary pushing and still have time to focus on gameplay. 
3. Angry Birds is an established formula a variation on an established formula. They did not have to reinvent the wheel and experiment with fundamental concepts as they went along. Most games are like that. It allows for much more polished games, and instant market. But it's not for me: I want to make a big difference, not an incremental one.
4. It does not work.

While listening to the video I'm trying to load the game. I use the latest version of Chrome. It is designed originally for Chrome. it should work. it doesn't. Or rather, it is SLOW. The guy keeps talking about instant start, and it isn't instant. I have to wait. Then wait some more. Yes, I am playing a video at the same time, and yes my rural download speed is terrible. But other web sites all work OK. My own game (he said smugly) loads as quick as a normal quick web page. but this does not. Also, it constantly nags me to log in. yes, I get that they want my details so they can hassle me for money. But I am tired of web sites that nag you for money all the time. The best ones, big sites like Google, and little (but profitable) sites like XKCD, do not.

Still seeing a "loading" screen.

I think other people live in a different world from me. I just don't see how loading screens are fun.

OK, now it's finally loaded and all I see is this:

I click somewhere and again get the "log in" nag screen. I am sorry, but give me a reason. Why go to the trouble of logging into something I may not even enjoy? At least let me see a few seconds of it working! It's also surrounded by ads, so it's not like they are making no money. Although granted, the chances of them advertising the kind of stuff that interests me is about zero.

I feel like an alien. Millions of people love this game. They shoot birds at people or something. There is no story, just bouncing stuff and explosions. I must sound like a terrible snob or the most boring person on earth, but how is that satisfying? What does that say about me that I don't get excited by the idea of (a) doing what everyone else does, or (b) shooting things?

But this blog post is not about the gameplay. The main thing is that my game loads MUCH faster, and does not nag people for money. It is also has actual stories. Those last two differences are why I will probably never be rich. :)