HTML5 game development could be one of the hot topics of Google I/O. Yesterday we got word of Strike Fortress, a technically impressive multiplayer title from EA, and today a new team has announced a set of development tools designed to help create HTML5 games quickly and easily. PlayCanvas, started by former developers from Sony and Activision, provides a collaborative environment specifically for building browser-based 3D games.

The drawback right now is that PlayCanvas games currently won't work in mobile browsers like Chrome for Android and Safari on iOS. This is because those browsers don't yet support WebGL, though the team expects mobile support to "improve in the coming months." The current demos are definitely on the simple side, but the PlayCanvas team says its combination of a "professional standard" 3D engine, design tools, and workflow features will make it an attractive platform for development.