Every year the gaming industry is replenished with hundreds of new projects. If large AAA games are advertised throughout the creation and post-production process, and system requirements make gamers grab their hearts, then things are easier with small toys. Although there are some flagships among them (for example, indie projects created by experienced developers without a publisher), they generally do not require large resources. These games include browser games, and for the most part, any amateur programmer will make them. However, you can also see truly mastodons among browser games.
Sometimes, in addition to the browser itself, you need to install a plug-in, but this is true mainly for flash games. According to their structure and gameplay, such games are divided into single-player, multiplayer and mass-multiplayer.
The first, so-called single-player, browser games work with the Adobe Flash plug-in (although modern projects use HTML5 technologies that do not require other utilities). They are designed for one player and in their mass are quite primitive. Single-player browser games belong to the casual genre: they do not require serious training, have simple rules, and the gameplay obeys simple algorithms without much variability. Usually they lure the audience with a bright picture, intuitive gameplay and a minimum of text.
Multiplayer browser games are already designed for multiple players. Board games are widespread among such projects: checkers, chess, backgammon, cards. By launching the game through a browser, the user automatically connects with other players using the server. The application can require the presence of all players or saves progress (user progress) and displays it to other users at any time convenient for them.
As for mass-multiplayer browser games, their audience includes hundreds and thousands of players. They are usually a set of interrelated HTML pages containing images and canvases of text. JavaScript technology provides such projects with some interactivity (mostly chats and timers). It would be possible to use the same Flash in this case, however, the Internet pages of browsers are rather limited in terms of the variability of actions.
Now, to create large projects (for example, Drakensang Online, Battlestar Galactica Online or Tanki Online), Unity3D technology is used, thanks to which such games get high-quality three-dimensional graphics and are as close as possible to full-fledged MMOs. They, like other browser projects, are undemanding to hardware, but in some cases may require additional software installation.
The vast majority of browser games are distributed according to the free-to-play model: their installation and “pumping” the character is completely free. At least you can enjoy this at the initial stages, and then the conditions and rules gradually become more complicated, and often you can pass this or that tricky level only with the help of donations: a real currency that is brought into the game to buy improvements, skills and equipment.
Like other game projects, browser games (especially large and deeply developed ones) can drag the user headlong and even cause game addiction, albeit much weaker than the same MMORPGs. Therefore, you should not take them seriously: for the most part, they are designed to pleasantly pass boring evenings or a break at work.
