Quote:Original post by DrPepperCorn
...projectrockstar. I then got to thinking on how you would go about making something like this.


Are there any books on this kind of thing
what languages (im assuming java script, asp (dont know this))
Any sites out there exploring this

Books, I doubt it. It's just a website. So books on website development (CRUD) would be a start. The only difference is some persistant game logic that runs at a set interval.

Languages? Correct, &#106avascript, asp.net and SQL. Essentially you need something on the client side (or not if you want to keep it real simple), then something on the server side for the web app, and something for the database. Research LAMP or ASP.net and MS SQL Server.

Any sites out there? Not sure, I would be specific in your Google searches on this, you might find something. "Persistent game world over http", "turn based http game technology (or framework)"

The tricky thing with this is making sure it scales. CRUD is easy....but the time necessary for the RU in the CRUD in the context of your game needing to update every x minutes is directly related to the quantity of players and the algorithms at run time. Make sure you have enough CPU/RAM on your game logic server, and make that an actual seperate server from the one serving the website.

The gamelogic server needs to retrieve the entire gamestate for everyone from the DB and essentially run a "turn" for the gamestate, and then update the DB. So you can see where that could be a long running task for the CPU and DB and of course you want it to finish quick enough where the players can still play the game before the next turn occurs.

I documented the hell out of a game like this I was going to build once, but never built it.