enchant.js-ing in Boston

Hey! enchant.js Technology Evangelist Eric here.

Last night we (the “we” being Akihabara Research Center director Ryo Shimizu, fellow enchant.js-er Hidemy, and me) were in Boston to take part in the monthly Boston HTML5 Game Development Meetup!

Our presentation marked the one year anniversary of the meetup, which is co-organized by Pascal Rettig and Darius Kazemi (who also organized this month’s New Game Conference).The event was hosted by the lovely folks at MocoSpace in their gloriously creaky 100-year old office.

The event organizers were kind enough to grant us the first speaking slot of the evening. We started with some live coding from Mr. Shimizu:

After a discussion of enchant.js’ origins, development, and key features, I took the stage to present a more detailed look at what the engine has to offer.

You may be looking at the photos and thinking, “this meetup looks kinda small.” If so, you’re correct: just over 20 people were in attendance. But conversely, this intimate setting proved a boon. Nearly everyone present asked at least one question, and the resulting discussion felt like just that: a conversation with real back and forth.

After our talk we enjoyed a presentation from Microsoft’s Chris Bowen about IE9′s use of HTML5…as well as some tantalizing glimpses of still-secret Windows releases.

And what would an event be without swag? We’re pleased to report that all but two of the enchant.js t-shirts we brought went home with attendees.

We’ll be on hand next month at DevCon5 in Santa Clara. Hope to see you there!