So do you want to be a multiplayer web game developer?

In my first article “Do you want to be a game developer?” (http://ezinearticles.com/?So-You-Want-to-be-a-Games-Developer&id=70920), I looked at various game genres, including web/email games. This is one of the easiest ways to start developing games: you are not restricted to one language or platform, and the costs are quite low. In this article, I’ll take a look at the various technologies you can use and give you an idea of ​​what’s possible and how to get started.

Web games fall into several subcategories: email games, browser games, and multiplayer games. Email games are by far the simplest; They’re not technically web games and you don’t even need a computer to moderate them, just to send and receive. Browser games can be implemented in Flash, JavaScript (dhtml), Java, and even ActiveX/COM. I guess most single player games are implemented in Flash, but I’ll save that for a future article. To get you started, I’ll show you what’s involved in developing multiplayer web games.

Before you start, go and take a look again at the Online Multiplayer Games Directory: http://www.mpogd.com. It’s a great resource and gives you an idea of ​​the kind of games out there, from small free games to massive games like Sony’s Everquest.

Great multiplayer games are not web based but work over the internet. They tend to have their own custom written clients, with encrypted protocols, fast 3D graphics, and large teams of customer support staff. I recommend http://terranova.blogs.com/ as an excellent blog on this – you’ll find articles and quotes from luminaries like Richard Bartle, who produced the first Mud (short for Multi User Dungeon), and Professor Edward Castranova. ; an expert in the economy of the virtual world. Sludges also often use their own clients, usually Telnet-based. Although these are not web games, I recommend that you broaden your experience as much as possible. Slimes in particular, while not the most popular genre, are still around and provide a good model for interactive games.

Breaking into computer game design and programming is as easy as becoming a full-time commercial game programmer, which is to say, it’s not! But there’s nothing stopping you from developing your own web game, and MPOGD will be happy to list you in their directory. If it’s open source, you can set it up and find other developers on Soiurceforge.net.

There are two categories of web games: real-time and turn-based, and this determines the type of technology that drives it. Real time is more complicated: the server must support multiple connections at the same time, and care must be taken to synchronize actions between clients. If you attack someone and they’ve already moved but your client isn’t up to it, then your game won’t be popular.

A cross between multiplayer web games and custom client games is possible with Flash from Macromedia. Flash-based multiplayer action games are likely to become more prolific; now there are quite a few. Unfortunately sourceforge has a lot of such ideas that haven’t made it past the planning stage. Also, what exists may not be open source, as creating such games requires a lot of work. Googling for flash, the multiplayer game returns a couple million results, but add open source and it’s down to a few hundred thousand.

Unless you’re an excellent Flash developer and can also write good server code, I’d suggest sticking to turn-based games. The good news is that the web is an area where open source development is prolific. A search on sourceforge.net for ‘game servers’ turned up several mature or beta projects. Fancy developing an RPG in Java? Use Ariane. Or if C# is more your style, take a look at Ovorp. The most popular languages ​​are C++ and Java (for the server), but now C# projects have started to appear and you will also find C, Perl and Python. But don’t limit your searches to sourceforge; there are also many projects in other places. An excellent resource for finding games is dmoz.org-= the Open Directory Project. Take a look at http://dmoz.org/Computers/Open_Source/Software/Games/ and http://dmoz.org/Games/Video_Games/Roleplaying/Massive_Multiplayer_Online/Independent_Developers/

For example, Black nova Traders, found on sourceforge at http://sourceforge.net/projects/blacknova and has its own URL http://www.blacknova.net/ BlackNova Traders is a web-based multiplayer space exploration . game inspired by the popular Trade Wars BBS game. It is classified as a turn-based mud. It is coded using PHP, SQL and Javascript. BNT is officially in Beta, but it’s a pretty complete game that’s just not finished. In fact, it may never be as long as the developers keep tweaking it.

If you are going to develop a web game you need a server. Yes, I could do it online, but that’s slow. It is best to set up your own server.

A good starting point with the most popular technology is the open source LAMP family. That’s Linux, Apache, MySql and Php. If you are replacing your Windows PC with a new one, wipe the old PC’s hard drive and install a Linux distro and connect the two with a crossover network cable. What was a relatively slow Windows PC is now a nice development server running Apache, Php and Mysql. Linux Guis is pretty friendly these days, but if you’re not sure how to manage Linux, download webmin from webmin.com and install it. It makes all Linux administration tasks like configuring Samba (if you want to share drives), adding virtual sites to Apache, etc. very easy. Or even easier is the WAMP path with everything installed on your Windows box. For the pros and cons of this, take a look here. http://ezinearticles.com/?Windows-vs-Linux–Hosting&id=21972

A word of caution. You might consider exposing your web server to the internet through your dsl connection. There is nothing wrong with it, although it limits you to having two or three users at a time. If you have a static IP, it’s pretty easy to assign a domain to it. It can also be done with a dynamic IP connection. Look up dynamic dns to find out how to make it work. Make sure in any case that you have sufficient firewall protection. An unprotected Windows PC will probably be taken over in less than 15 minutes. I highly recommend you buy a firewall router or invest in a professional software firewall at the very least.

In future articles, I will talk about the basics of game software development and start developing an open source game.