Spawnapps bringing applications to your browser

02. September, 2011Tags: Interview, News, Spawnapps

spawnapps

Spawnapps is a new technology that increases the accessility of desktop applications. As the technology is invented by a group of game developers, the first target is games and they have started this from MMO games. The deal with publisher Gamigo made Fiesta Online their first project. We did an interview with Alexandre Macris, co-founder of Spawnapps.

When we read about the deal between Gamigo and Spawnapps a few weeks ago, we decided to contact Spawnapps for an interview. Many thanks to Mr. Alexandre Macris, co-founder of Spawnapps for taking the time to answer DevilsMMO.com's questions.

DevilsMMO.com: How exactly does Spawnapps work? We know that it uses client’s system resources to execute the application. Does this mean, Spawnapps is only useful with the “application streaming” feature? Why would a gamer prefer to use Spawnapps and not just install the game client?

A.Macris: In the web page, after clicking the "play" button, a small piece of the game (we call it the "seed") is transferred to the end-user PC. Then we run it and while it executes we stream the remaining assets. This choice differentiates us from Cloud Gaming technologies that executes applications on distant servers and stream the display as a video. Each of these technologies have pros and cons. The important point here is that both technologies' goal is to address an ongoing demand for accessibility. By accessibility I mean "easiness" and "rapidity" of access. The "application streaming" feature is the answer to the "rapidity" need. "Easiness" is brought by the in-browser SpawnApps player (that we call a "spawner"). We have built the spawner to mimic a video web player as it is a familiar web pattern to all of us. Such video players have totally replaced the old download link and nobody sees today a benefit of hosting a video as a downloadable media compared to make it available in a YouTube or Dailymotion embed. So the temptation is huge for me to respond to your last question with the following one: "Why would a gamer prefer to download & install the game client and not to just spawn it?" This sums up our challenge: make this question answer-less to all our end-users.

Spawnapps demo : Batman Arkham in web browser!

DevilsMMO.com:We know about your partnership with Gamigo for Fiesta Online. Are there any other popular MMO games that will use Spawnapps technology?

A.Macris: Some other are already in the pipe and we are pretty sure more will join the movement. The reason why the MMO community is that much a forerunner in the accessibility field is because of the free-to-play model. This model attracts very demanding players. MMO operators need to seduce new players by bringing to them always richer content and also by removing the barriers to entry mainly represented by the client download & install.

DevilsMMO.com: What is your main target in terms of application types. Is it games or other software?

A.Macris: Games come first. Each SpawnApps co-founder has spent 15+ years in the game development. We have built the SpawnApps technology to serve our industry. Of course, we also plan to address other audiences. Any desktop application out there can benefit from getting an increased accessibility. Seeking for a photo or video editing tool, we all have installed trial versions of such applications before choosing the one that fits our expectations. Wouldn't be simpler if we could experience such applications from within the web page they are advertised in without having to install (and uninstall) them on our PC? Any software developer out there can benefit from having the trial version of his products accessible trough a spawner.

DevilsMMO.com:What would be the disadvantages of playing an MMO game with Spawnapps technology? As MMO games rely much on connection quality and high latency is gamers’ nightmare, would the gamer experience any sort of latency issues or connection problems?

A.Macris: There is no disadvantage per say. The general rule, on the bandwidth side, is that the user experience remains the exact same than if the game client has been downloaded and installed. Exception only applies to the first 30 minutes of play (it is an order of magnitude and might vary depending on the game size and the connection speed). During this early phase, assets streaming occurs in the background of the applications and the player can experience short lags. The exact same lags can occur when you are watching a video on the web. What do you prefer: Watch a download progress bar for hours (until the several Gigs MMO client finish downloading) or start play after a couple of minutes and experience few lags?

DevilsMMO.com:How stable is Spawnapps? It is common for some games to have problems on low-end computers. How much memory/CPU does Spawnapps use? Would there be any issues in that department?

A.Macris:There is no performance penalty related to SpawnApps. Any MMO client will run as fast as if it has been installed the "old" way. There is no emulation of any kind. On our web site, we present a few videos and the one of Crysis 2 running in-browser is a good example. Of course the limit here is that SpawnApps would not allow Crysis 2 to run on a netbook.

DevilsMMO.com:Do you think MMO developers will prefer Spawnapps over technologies like UNITY 3D (of course the development cost is much higher when they convert the game into UNITY)?

A.Macris:Unity3D is a great technology that is progressively getting to the MMO space. This is a good point as it raises the technical level of in-browser (social) MMOs. Unity3D is an all-in-one middleware. So it is fine if your start from scratch. If you already have a game engine and mostly a production tool chain, then, as you mention, the transition is highly hazardous. Also for having spend some time in the middleware business back in the early 2000, I have learned that game developers like to chose and assemble technologies. By choosing SpawnApps (for getting in-browser) we offer them the freedom to choose any other piece of technology for their 3D-engine, physics, sound, network etc. They could develop a MMO client using the Unreal Engine 3 for example and being in-browser (and plugin-less) thanks to SpawnApps.

DevilsMMO.com:How about software licenses... Let’s say I want to run a commercial video editing software owned by the company I work for. Does this mean I can run the software without a license on the computer I am running the Spawned application?

A.Macris:One of our focus is to stay non-intrusive in our customer's businesses. So we don't change anything on their licensing model. As an end-user, you will experience the same thing than if you had installed the app. If you don't have a valid license of the app you will get a message from the app asking you for a serial or initiating a 30 days trial period.

We are also working with some developers to raise the user experience to a more sophisticated/transparent level. For example, you can purchase a game from within a Facebook app using Facebook Credits and being able to run it from anywhere (our DRM technology is able to link the license to your Facebook account instead of a given PC). We plan to announce initiatives on this side soon.

DevilsMMO.com:Can you tell us any of your future plans? Where do you see Spawnapps in 2 years (for MMO games)? Do you think it will become a popular standard in MMO gaming?

A.Macris:The future of SpawnApps in the MMO field is linked to the feedback we will get from the MMO gamers. We hope the community will like the new user experience and will help us to make it even better. This could drastically change the way any curious gamer first experiences a new MMO in the future. Right now, you need a significant amount of patience to play a new MMO: you need to create an account, download a heavy client, install it, run the updater that will download and install the updates, log in, create your avatar, and then at last start to play.

In the future, by removing the download and install obstacle, the account creation will become the new barrier. This barrier can be removed quite easily by MMO developers through the support of auto-generated guest accounts. So here comes what should be the user experience in the near future: a landing web page advertising an MMO embedding a Spawner. You click the play button, you wait a couple of minutes and you play the game. No account creation, no long download & installation. At the end of your session you are just prompted to choose if you want to save your avatar. You might even never need to create an account if you experience such an MMO directly from Facebook! I wonder how many MMO gamers will get nostalgic about the "old" discovery process after having experienced this one...

For more information you may visit Spawnapps website