While using your Android device as a controller is nothing new, Small development company Brass Monkey has just made a potential breakthrough. They developed and released SDKs for Android and iOS devices not too long ago which allowed those devices to act as a remote controller for Flash-based, Unity3D-based and desktop games and apps. There was some understandable excitement generated at the idea of using your device as a sort of Wii-type controller, but there was one problem– there was no support for being able to play games on a web browser until now. Brass Monkey has officially enabled the ability to play games right through your browser.
It works in a pretty straightforward manner too. Using the brilliant mind of Francois Laberge of Emotely, Brass Monkey developed the necessary technology to convert devices into controllers and run games on the browser using HTML5 for both the interface and communication layers (with HTTP and WebSockets). That means Brass Monkey has turned browsers like Safari, Firefox or even Google’s own Chrome into virtual gaming consoles that work with your device and turn it into a controller. Moreover, the same SDKs Brass Monkey released to developers includes the ability to create games similar to those from Wii, Xbox, and PS3 consoles. Pretty neat, isn’t it?
Of course this technology is still quite young and needs to be developed further. Brass Monkey realizes this and has announced it has raised over $750,000 in seed financing from various investors. Also, it’s development efforts have not gone unnoticed. It was after all a finalist in the 2010 MassChallenge which is a competition for networks and startups. CEO Chris Allen is excited about the direction of the company and has since announced an Android version is in the works and will arrive to devices by March, while there is an iOS version out now. How many of you all will be trying out this cool concept? Be sure to sound off in the Comments section below and let us know what you think of the cool technology.
[via Tech Crunch]