javascript games and graphics quality

So my kids and I are playing around with making some web-based games and I googled both PHP and Javascript games and the batch of JS games I found all seem to have bit-map graphics coming right out of 1987...I am assuming there's a reason for that (other than the lac开发者_运维百科k of artistic skills of programmers), could anyone kind of go into it some? Also, any links to some good web-based games would be appreciated (preferably PHP/Javascript/MySQL).

Thanks

Ironically, it is usually the lack of artistic skill of programmers. pimvdb pointed out a great example. Even more is possible with WebGL. Another great example would be http://www.ro.me/ that displays the graphical capabilites of modern browsers.

Warning: the demo I posted needs a pretty beefy computer to run smoothly, and works only in modern browsers

I am assuming there's a reason for that (other than the lack of artistic skills of programmers), could anyone kind of go into it some?

HTML5 games are untested and it's a very new area. There is are simply not enough game studios getting involved, and no artists getting involved.

That and the whole area is young so advertising and finding the good games is hard.

Basically compare this to the state of flash games in 1997. There were very few good games back then, it's simply a matter of age and market share.

I recommend SVG instead of bitmaps, it is a perfect choice for HTML5 games. See e.g. http://raphaeljs.com.

Take a look at some demos made in Construct 2 the HTML5 game maker:

http://www.scirra.com/construct2/demos

The reason you will find a lot of games have 'not modern' graphics is for a couple of reasons:

• A lot of games are created by individuals/indie gaming community, they like the retro style for nostalgia
• It's easier to create retro graphics sometimes for the less artistically inclined! (like me!)