Shall We Play a Game? – Play the Promise of Google Stadia, At a More Practical Bandwidth

The lackluster launch of Google Stadia left many gamers in the lurch. Sure the lure of playing AAA games inside your browser sounded very attractive, but bandwidth became a bugbear which could not be overcome, yet.

While you are waiting for technology to catch up to marketing hype, point your browser to another online gaming haven—one where a slow Internet connection is not a handicap, rather it is a godsend.

Just head on over to GameSnacks and grab a “byte” of online gaming that works on “any device, on any network.” Sounds a lot like the same promise espoused by Google for its ill-fated Stadia launch. The caveat here, however, pertains to that one salient point about working on “any network.” Bring your slow, your dirty, your clogged connections and head to GameSnacks for practical online game play that really is for the rest of us.

By rest of us, we are talking about ALL of the real-world gamers who could not play with Google Stadia. Ironically, GameSnacks is a product of a Google niche group known as Area 120. This self-professed “workshop for Google’s experimental products” is both a program and a product. It is an early access program that enables small groups of developers to wrangle their craziest product ideas into an entrepreneurial environment, as well as sitting barefoot on futon pillows. Area 120 can also be a product when it helps to spin off a successful concept like GameSnacks.

Figure 1. A playpen for affluent Google Devs.

Oddly enough, Google claims that the bulk of the product ideas that are launched by Area 120 will be failures. Gee, thanks for the support and encouragement, Dad. Hmm, was Google Stadia fomented at Area 120? Then to seal the deal and sell developers on the merits of joining Area 120, Google states the now hackneyed, ‘our teams learn’ from their failures; gag!

Figure 2. Computer game development is always better when you don’t use computers and you can sit on the floor.

You can learn more about the Area 120 program at: https://area120.google.com.

Regarding GameSnacks, Area 120 has helped organize a collection of HTML5-based games that you can play inside your Android browser using just about any kind of Internet connection—bandwidth is NOT an issue with this gaming service. Currently, the GameSnacks catalog holds six tasty games from five talented developers:

1. Bridge of Doom
2. Bubble Woods
3. Road Fury
4. Groovy Ski
5. Jump with Justin
6. Jewelish Blitz

Figure 3. GameSnacks is an online gaming smorgasbord—if you’re hungry for playing HTML5 titles inside your Android browser; you know, like you were promised with Google Stadia.

And the developers of these games are:

1. Famobi
2. Inlogic Games
3. Black Moon Design
4. Geek Games
5. Enclave Games

Playing these games is simple—just click the “Play” button and your browser is whisked to a new window (or, Tab; dependent upon whether your Android device is a mobile device or a desktop SBC) where each title is loaded and playable after less than one minute of leisurely download time.

Figure 4. Currently, the list of available game titles is a little thin, but it is growing.

Figure 5. These devs are all old hands at HTML5 gaming, but they’re still looking for more programmers who are willing to contribute to GameSnacks.

OK, I am a sucker; after a score of 668,544 in Bubble Woods using my ODROID-XU4 Android desktop browser, I was hooked on GameSnacks. The play is fast, the graphics and sound are topnotch, and, best of all, my WiFi-enabled network connection was more than adequate. Furthermore, these are not just “afterthought” HTML5 games from forgotten devs. The developer of Bubble Woods, Famobi, for example, has an entire catalog of HTML5 games that are available as “freemium” titles and a large selection of ready-for-purchase games. So there is a wealth of gaming titles for enabling GameSnacks to give you a steady diet of online gaming goodness.