If you’re a younger reader you may remember the astounding discovery in IT of the famous Chrome ‘Dino Game’. When your internet cuts out, usually it’s a frustration, but Chrome had an ingenious solution, give users an exclusive minigame to play as they waited to reconnect. Added in 2014, the ‘Dino Game’ was simple, you control a T-rex moving from left to right, avoiding obstacles and chasing a high-score. The concept proved popular enough that Edge, Microsoft’s Chrome competitor, would add its own minigame titled ‘Surf’. The minigame has also been available to mobile users since 2021 after the addition of a widget for IOS and Android.
The ‘No internet’ game has become almost a tradition for browsers, with many users even playing them on their own without disconnecting from the internet. Similarities could be drawn to the old developer tradition of ‘easter eggs’ for eagle-eyed software users and gamers. The simplicity, replay value and accessibility these games possess seem to make them a favourite addition to any browser, and appealing to players no matter how stable their internet is.
Operatic Additions
Now Opera, creator of the Opera GX gaming browser, is hosting a game jam to find its own ‘no internet’ game for its mobile browser. Last year they hosted a similar jam to find a game for their desktop version, and rather than adapt this for the mobile platform it looks as if Opera intends to solicit a bespoke minigame. The brief released by Opera tasks devs to, “Become the moral support of millions of gamers on mobile when the absolute worst happens… the connection runs out!” However, the theme behind the jam is a mystery. So it remains to be seen just what the finished game or indeed the entries will end up looking like at this time.
The Opera GX Mobile Game Jam is set to run from October 18th to the 4th, with the theme of the contest being revealed on the 4th. An additional cash prize of $2000 USD is being offered for the developers who’s game is played the most between October the 18th and November the 22nd.
Opera previously released its mobile version of the popular Opera GX browser on mobile last year due to popular demand. It also added mobile game functionality to their GameMaker engine, which also powers the in-browser games available on Opera’s GX.games site, allowing developers to publish freely for IOS and Android.
