So You Want to be a Multiplayer Web Games Developer?

In my first article "So You want to be a Games Developer?" (http://ezinearticles.com/?So-You-Want-to-be-a-Games-Developer&id=70920), I discussed various games genres, including Web/Email games. This is one of the easiest ways to start developing games- you aren't restricted to one language or platform and the costs are pretty low. In this article, I'll look at the various technologies that you can use, and give you an idea of what its possible to do and how you get started.

Web games fall into various sub categories- email games, browser games, and multi player games. Email games are by far the simplest- technically they aren't 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'd guess that most single player games are implemented in Flash but I'll save that for a future article. To start with, though I'll take you through what is involved in developing Multiplayer Web Games.

Before you start, go and take a look again at the Multi Player Online Games Directory- http://www.mpogd.com. Its an excellent resource and gives you an idea of the type of games out there ranging from small free games to the massive games like Sony's Everquest.

The big multiplayer games aren't web based but they do work across 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 such as Richard Bartle who produced the first Mud (its short for Multi User Dungeon), and Professor Edward Castranova; an expert on virtual world economics. Muds also tend to use their own clients, usually based on Telnet. Although these are not web games, I recommend you widen your experience as much as possible. Muds in particular although not the most popular genre still do exist and provide a good model for interactive games.

Breaking into computer game design and programming is as easy as becoming a fulltime commercial game programmer- i.e. its not! But there is nothing to stop you developing your own web game, and MPOGD will be happy I'm sure to list it in their directory. If its Open Source you can set it up and find other developers on Soiurceforge.net.

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

A crossover between multiplayer web games and custom client games is possible with Macromedia's Flash. It is likely that multiplayer action games based on Flash will become more prolific- there are quite a few around now. Sadly sourceforge has many such ideas that have not got past the planning stage. Also what does exist may not be open source as creating such games takes a lot of work. Googling for flash, multiplayer game returns a couple of million results but add open source and it drops to a few hundred thousand.

Unless you are an excellent Flash developer and can write good server code as well, I suggest you stick to turn based games. The good news is that web based is an area where open source development is prolific. A search on sourceforge.net for 'game servers' returned several projects that are mature or beta. Fancy developing an RPG in Java? Use Arianne. Or if C# is more your style, have a look at Ovorp. The most popular languages are C++ and Java (for the server) but C# projects have now started appearing and you'll find C, Perl, and Python as well. But don't limit your searches to sourceforge- there are many projects elsewhere as well. An excellent resource for finding games is dmoz.org-= the Open directory Project. Have a look at http://dmoz.org/Computers/Open_Source/Software/Games/ and http://dmoz.org/Games/Video_Games/Roleplaying/Massive_Multiplayer_Online/Independent_Developers/

E.g. Black nova Traders, which is located on sourceforge at http://sourceforge.net/projects/blacknova and has its own url http://www.blacknova.net/ BlackNova Traders is a web-based, multi-player space exploration game inspired by the popular BBS game of TradeWars. It is classified as a turn based mud. It is coded using PHP, SQL, and Javascript. BNT is officially at Beta but is a pretty complete game that is just not finished. In fact it may never be as long as developers keep tweaking it!

If you are going to develop a web game you need a server. Yes you could do it online but thats slow. Best to setup your own server.

A good starting point with the most popular technology is the Open Source L.A.M.P. family. That is Linux, Apache, MySql and Php. If you are replacing your windows pc with a new pc, wipe the hard disk on the old pc and install a Linux distribution and hook the two up with a crossover network cable. What was a relatively sluggish Windows PC is now a good development server running Apache, Php and Mysql. Linux Guis are pretty friendly these days but if you are unsure of administering Linux, download webmin from webmin.com and install it. It makes all the Linux administration stuff like configuring Samba (if you want to share drives), adding virtual sites to Apache etc very easy. Or easier still is the W.A.M.P route with everything installed on your Windows box. For pros and cons of this have a look here. http://ezinearticles.com/?Windows-vs-Linux--Hosting&id=21972

One word of caution. You might consider exposing your web server to the internet down your dsl connection. Nothing wrong with that though it limits you to having two or three users at once. If you have a static IP its pretty easy to map a domain to it. It can also be done with a dynamic Ip connection as well. Search for dynamic dns to find out how to make that work. Be sure in either case that you have enough firewall protection. An unprotected Windows pc will likely be taken over in under 15 minutes. I strongly recommend that you buy a firewall router or invest in a professional software firewall at the least.

In future articles I'll discuss the nuts and bolts of game software development and start developing an open source game.

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Play Multiplayer Flash Games Online

Flash games, which last were a great success in the past are part of almost all gaming sites that are found growing in popularity. This Flash games that are playing like this, players are broadly classified as single games, multiplayer games and Flash. Multiplayer games are those in which a player can bring in more at the same time. There are many types of multiplayer games that are currently on the market.

Two-player games areCommon Multiplayer Flash Games, where the first part of the game and his players set a target for the second player. Now the second player must try to beat the visitors by the first player. There are also other types of 2-player games where both players play together and try to complete the task assigned to one of the other players have done before. The most popular game of this type is the flash cricket, where players are different teams of 2 andtry to win the match by batting and bowling during their turns.

Multiplayer flash games are also of the type where more than 2 players are involved at the same time. For example a team of 22 players can play a game of football, by connecting online. Here each player takes control of the individual football player and they play as a team sitting in different places, sometimes even from various parts of the world. The gaming sites have started to promote their best Multiplayer Games conducting online contests and giving prizes for the best team.

multiplayer strategy games are a big hit among the youth of this generation, in regard to planning and participation, mastery. In reality, all this multiplayer Flash games, of course, help to strengthen the bond between friends and to find those, many new ones. Gambling sites have tried all possible means, a good business through the promotion of these multiplayer games. Yougone one step further and got themselves linked to social networking sites, where they host their games and help people play them along with their friends. It also provides a very good platform for people to make new friends. One can log into any game and challenge any other player who is currently online and is looking to play the same game. The server also finds a perfect match for you, if you are not able to find the right person to challenge.

One drawback with multiplayer flash games is that, they have to be played online and can't be played by installing them on your computer. One would expect to play these multiplayer games by installing them in machines that are connected in a LAN, which is not possible. But even this would not be a problem for a real-time gamer, which is always connected to internet and want to try out new things.

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