Web game potential?

[Keppy]

Seeing as my application development isn't my strong point (nevermind on linux) I quite fancied the idea of creating a browser based game aimed at the pandora.


My initial ideas are based around text-based MMO's ie. nukezone, and I have a half made game engine somewhat similar to urban dead.


Basically I'm curious as to whether other similar projects are in the making and whether there is actually any real demand for something like this, particularly on the pandora?


(I have noticed B-Zar's war game which looks cool)


Edit: Appologies if I've posted in the wrong forum.

 

[Yannick]

Obvious strong points in developing in javascript/html(4/5) are


portability


fast javascript engines (on modern browsers)


the 800x480 resolution is becoming a minimum standard on mobile devices


i recommend developing for a browser running fullscreen on the pandora


bad points:


there's no real standard for 3D yet, (webGL but any real content for that out there?)


I couldn't really make out what your intentions are with your project (commercial, ad supported, open source)


but i do recommend at the very least open enough to get hobby content creators interested

 

[Keppy]

I couldn't really make out what your intentions are with your project (commercial, ad supported, open source)


but i do recommend at the very least open enough to get hobby content creators interested

I had planned it to be non-commercial, maybe ad/donation supported. Open source is tempting, but it's something I would probably look at later, but obviously if there's much interest my mind could be changed. And of course anyone interested in helping etc. is welcome, my main concerns were based around whether I would be wasting my time making something people have little interest in, as I wanted to aim this more at the pandora than in general since I would like to contribute to the pandora community.


webGL? I've never looked much into the graphics side of browser development, certainly initially I had intended this to be text/image based. Most of my experience is with general database fueled websites.


My idea was to write this in PHP/Javascript/HTML4 (need to get round to having a decent look at HTML5) with MySQL.


Edit: typo-world.

 

[Yannick]

my main concerns were based around whether I would be wasting my time making something people have little interest in

it's verry hard to tell you now if your game will be fun and how many will play it.


If you believe it will be fun to build and fun to play, then just get started.


I can tell you however, that around these circles, there's allot of people that will appreciate your efforts.


Even if they don't play your game themselves, they will recommend it to people that might like it.


That does require something that is playable (even if it's a proof of concept)


I hope this answers your question.


EDIT:


sindce this would be a webgame, you're not really developing straight for the pandora.


you are developing for "800x480 screen resolution + keyboard"


your game should be equally fun on every device that meets these specs even if you only run it yourself on the pandora

 

[bzar]

If you believe it will be fun to build and fun to play, then just get started.

This is the most important part. Make a game you want to play. If you don't find it fun, why would anyone else? I'm playing my game quite a bit

 

[Keppy]

it's verry hard to tell you now if your game will be fun and how many will play it.

Yeah I know what you mean, I kinda meant more along the lines of genre-wise rather than my (future)game specifically.

EDIT:


sindce this would be a webgame, you're not really developing straight for the pandora.


you are developing for "800x480 screen resolution + keyboard"


your game should be equally fun on every device that meets these specs even if you only run it yourself on the pandora

Yeah I'm aware of this, I was just planning to make pandora 1st priority then sort out code & CSS for other devices 2nd. Although come to think of it depending how I go about it there could be little difference. :blink:

This is the most important part. Make a game you want to play. If you don't find it fun, why would anyone else? I'm playing my game quite a bit

Yeah, testing/debugging would be a nightmare otherwise


Thanks for the feedback guys.


EDIT: Regarding proof of concept etc. I have just discovered my part made game is still live (even though I haven't paid my hosting :blink: ). I don't want to give any links as I made it a while ago and it has some security holes which could very easily be exploited (fail), but I'll cobble some screenshots together for some feedback.


EDIT2: 3 screenshots, please excuse the design - I was mostly mucking about with ideas functionality-wise at the time. The idea was for some sort of action bar (inc. 'attack', 'cast magic' or something) below health and AP & XP.


It has a 10x10 map, which you can move around and go in and out of buildings, and it picks up anyone else there.

Spoiler

Spoiler

Spoiler

 

[doublebeta]

If playing my game becomes no fun it wouldn't get made at all - development sure isn't any fun and I know pretty well nobody else will want to play it .


I've written a text only RPG (Pokemon again ) - but I wrote mine in C mind you - but if you'd like to take a look, let me know. Preferably PM me, i'd rather not release it to the whole public. It's GPLv2'd.


(Now i'm working on a graphical Pokemon fangame RPG - yeah I know, laame hmm? Meh)

 

[Keppy]

I've been doing a spot of development but hit one or two walls, biggest problem is how I should approach adding 'turns'/'action points' to every user in the database periodically. My only idea so far was sticking some code that gets run on every page view to check the last update time and time since in order to add 'turns' to all players correctly. I would have thought this could lead to problems, particularly with more players (2 people refresh at once sort of thing) but I suppose there are a few ways around that. I have noticed things like cron jobs on cpanel which appear to be able to do something like this but I am a bit unsure. Any suggestions/recommendations?


Ideally I would want to run a PHP script every hour (or some other period of time).

 

[bzar]

I've been doing a spot of development but hit one or two walls, biggest problem is how I should approach adding 'turns'/'action points' to every user in the database periodically. My only idea so far was sticking some code that gets run on every page view to check the last update time and time since in order to add 'turns' to all players correctly. I would have thought this could lead to problems, particularly with more players (2 people refresh at once sort of thing) but I suppose there are a few ways around that. I have noticed things like cron jobs on cpanel which appear to be able to do something like this but I am a bit unsure. Any suggestions/recommendations?


Ideally I would want to run a PHP script every hour (or some other period of time).

I have this particular issue myself. I have implemented a maximum turn time by having the end of turn time calculated at turn change, and then checked against at each action. Sometimes with many many clients the time-triggered turn change gets multiple executions and the next player gets credits and unit repairs multiple times. I have been trying different "atomization" techniques, but none of them are truly atomic and so the problem persists. It's not often that it happens, but it's a bug nonetheless.

 

[Keppy]

I have this particular issue myself. I have implemented a maximum turn time by having the end of turn time calculated at turn change, and then checked against at each action. Sometimes with many many clients the time-triggered turn change gets multiple executions and the next player gets credits and unit repairs multiple times. I have been trying different "atomization" techniques, but none of them are truly atomic and so the problem persists. It's not often that it happens, but it's a bug nonetheless.

My only suggestion for this would be when the turn change occurs, record the IP address of the client triggering and the fact that turn change has executed somewhere (personally I would pop it into a MySQL table) then if any other attempt to execute a turn change occurs, it checks if it's already in progress. Having a pause (sleep???) after registering a turn change is occuring and then a 2nd check could stop multiple clients running a turn change at once, since it would also check it's own IP against the authorised one.


Thats my best idea at the moment, I'm not exactly a guru with this :lol:

 

[bzar]

My only suggestion for this would be when the turn change occurs, record the IP address of the client triggering and the fact that turn change has executed somewhere (personally I would pop it into a MySQL table) then if any other attempt to execute a turn change occurs, it checks if it's already in progress. Having a pause (sleep???) after registering a turn change is occuring and then a 2nd check could stop multiple clients running a turn change at once, since it would also check it's own IP against the authorised one.


Thats my best idea at the moment, I'm not exactly a guru with this :lol:

I currently do something like that by updating the turn change time immediately, so any subsequent requests after that won't trigger the turn change. The problem is calls that happen so simultaneously, that the new time hasn't yet reached the database. The same would occur with IP recording. Thanks for the input, though

 

[Keppy]

I currently do something like that by updating the turn change time immediately, so any subsequent requests after that won't trigger the turn change. The problem is calls that happen so simultaneously, that the new time hasn't yet reached the database. The same would occur with IP recording. Thanks for the input, though

I see, the main thing I was getting at was having that slightly delayed re-check (say... 3 seconds?) so that if 3 clients do it at once, on the re-check 2 clients will discover they should not execute (via IP), and only clients attempting the update would experience that 3 second delay.


I think this'll work in my case at least... I've answered my own question I suppose! :blink:

 

[Keppy]

I have been chugging along with this project and have got a bit further. It's on the internet here but you currently cannot register or anything.


Design and CSS is pretty basic for the moment, the only setup with any effort currently is the normal-PC variant, the pandora one has set width and one or two things though. One or two variants don't actually exist yet either. I may replace this system at some point but it's not a priority. :blink:


Ideally I was planning on trying some testing in the near future (not sure when exactly) and was wondering if anyone would have any interest?


All comments and criticism welcome (constructive though I hope )


A screenshot of in-game: (the blue bit is where your username would go, and 'Ricochet' is the faction name)

Spoiler

PS: Appologies for the double post.


EDIT: Anyone interested in getting involved in any way feel free to post here or PM me or something.