Hello,

Someone that I know is asking me about the feasibility of a browser game which is cross-platform and run through a cloud. We are discussing the game to be run on Windows and OS X minimum for computers and all the major smart phones and tablets. Ideally he wants it tied to his website online, but once the end user gets the game then there could be the option to play it offline. For online, there are thoughts about including voice or even video conferencing in multi-player mode eventually. The expansion to 2 to 5 languages is being examined.

The game will certainly start as 2D but might be remade into 3D in a year or two after the first one.

The cloud issue is was makes this topic particulary unusual or unique to me in combination with the scalability of the source code.The game itself will start fairly simple but eventually aquire custom variations to suit end user markets.

Game will be somewhat changeable in text and objects by the end user input. Logic and dynamic writing seems to be needed here.

Please Recommend or Critique The Possibilities Which You Know in the Following Areas:
Language? Languages?
API?
Gaming Cloud?
Development Environment?
Cloud data base? (This will be the core of the project, will it not?)
Open Source libraries vs Licensed Proprietary Ones?

Have you used Cisco, Oracle, Microsoft, or other development environment to implement most if not all of the above general categories?

This is only a feasibility study and nothing is decided. Timeframe has no start or finish yet.

Please provide information and/or links to help me. I have been studying the forums but still don't see the technical relationships in this topic from various threads in the forums, likely because of the cloud based issue.

[Edit:] For clarification, the end user will play the game by selecting objects which will allow choices of text to alter the course through the game. It will be a learning game for all and the possibility of AI or logic interaction with the single player or interaction with the decisions of other players in multi-player mode. It is a learning game intended to be both fun and informative.


Clinton

What purpose does this "cloud" serve in your proposed design? I ask because this feels like a winning Buzzword Bingo card ;-) Think about the game you want to make, then decide what technology would be necessary to accomplish it.

Put another way: you need to go into a lot more detail about the game itself, and leave off technical decision-making until you've nailed down the scope and feature set of the game. Effectively you're asking what the best house to build out of pine logs is, instead of designing a house and then finding out what kind of wood to use.

Effectively you're asking what the best house to build out of pine logs is, instead of designing a house and then finding out what kind of wood to use.

Hi, Apoch

The target community where the "houses" will be made is determining the general building materials, so we are asking for what is more specifically on the market to implement according to predetermined end user needs. We want to know our options in these general categories, which is harder than you may believe because of the combination written in the first post.

A general game design will be customized by the end user and if need be also by the game developer to satisfy the player. The variety of end user needs causes this dynamic adaptability of the game. Player input will be crucial for game adaptation. Static houses is a difficult comparison because the games will change, sometimes in real time through the cloud - way beyond conventional game development thinking.

The basic game design to start is already decided. The target market determines the general technology in this case and not the game design. ( Did everybody catch that the first time in reading it? )

What specific technologies are used together to meet all these basic predetermined areas so they work well together and let the game be scalable?:

Please Recommend or Critique The Possibilities Which You Know in the Following Areas:
Language? Languages?
API?
Gaming Cloud?
Development Environment?
Cloud data base? (This will be the core of the project, will it not?)
Open Source libraries vs Licensed Proprietary Ones?[/quote]


Cloud makes all this extraordinarily possible but also complex beyond even a fairly simple game source code. We want to put these general catagories of technology at work to satisfy the target end user needs regardless of game source code used.
We are not interested in anything outside these areas, please, so let us not complicate this more than necessary - okay?

Clinton

Eh... He's sort of exactly correct though.

You say it's a feasibility study, which makes me think that there's maybe an NDA involved with the details we'd need to know to answer your question.

If there's actually no design in mind then it's really a question like, "What do you guys think about programming? Pros? Cons?"

You're mentioning cloud computing a few times. I'd recommend you do a whole lot of research on that particular subject before you consider pointing it at a game. I won't say anything like that the two are incompatible, but I have a really hard time seeing where that kind of technique would be beneficial in this kind of case (which is why I'm assuming that we don't have enough information here). That's no pine log. That's a space station.

As far as APIs and IDEs and even individual langauges... Come on now...

Maybe it would help you to break this whole situation down into individual questions and ask them one at a time, providing as much information as possible in each question.

The target market determines the general technology in this case and not the game design.

Then you have already failed.


This is Marketing 101 here: you won't sell things that people don't want to buy. It doesn't matter if your Shiny Widget is made with the fanciest Widget Manufacturing Process on the planet; if nobody cares about widgets, you'll fail.

Find out what people want. Then find out how to make it.

I've started a topic on the Lounge a month or two back about the Freedom Engine
Their purpose is that your game will be on the cloud, compiled there and then distributed to the right target.

Now, taking consideration what ApochiPiQ said, you can start by prototyping your game idea using Construct2.
This is a game maker kind of tool. It is great, simple, powerful, quick and export to HTML5.
If you like the tool you can even use it for the final game. But if your intentions are commercial, then you will have to buy the appropriate license.

I've been thinking about setting up a VPS for myself purely for the purpose of building some server-client tech that I could use in the future. My decision for this would be to get a linux debian server and program the server for that operating system. Since debian is pretty common amongst dedicated servers and VPS you can get, so if you get a VPS or dedicated server from a hosting company for the purpose of hosting a game you have pretty good changes of it being a debian. I'm rambling a bit cause I have to leave like 5 seconds ago, so I'll try and explain the rest and maybe you can piece the logic back together afterwards.

The user who administrates the server would set the settings for the game on their server, and then the players would pull configuration changes and updates from their server to their client install. This allows for different versions of the game to be run connecting to different servers so that you can gradually release new code to the public for updates and patches etc. Need to run, bye. Probably more to this but yeah. For a real time or any other type of network game where they need to set up their own configuration of the game play for their uses, I would build a Debian based server side application.

Google app engine might be worth a quick glance over for cloud purposes but will limit your language choices a little. I believe the actual cloud hosted software can only be java 1.6, python 2.5 or a somewhat experimental implementation of google go.

The front end choices will probably just be the usual HTML5 + JS combo. In the google theme again I love the look of the Google Chrome Native Client but that will limit your market to those running google chrome on windows, OSX (x86/x86-64 only, not powerPC) and linux (again, x86 and x86-64 only).

Good day,

I've started a topic on the Lounge a month or two back about the Freedom Engine
Their purpose is that your game will be on the cloud, compiled there and then distributed to the right target.

Now, taking consideration what ApochiPiQ said, you can start by prototyping your game idea using Construct2.
This is a game maker kind of tool. It is great, simple, powerful, quick and export to HTML5.
If you like the tool you can even use it for the final game. But if your intentions are commercial, then you will have to buy the appropriate license.

kuramayoko10,

So far this points us in the right general direction. The business model will reach final decisions soon. We all know as of today in a meeting what the basic needs are for the game so it is now a matter of my game designing overview in the coming days or weeks at the most. I will work with your two suggestions and decide if I can endorse either of them for our needs.

We have a rudimentary game design concept and will move to development of the demo very soon.

That was a unique insight you have in your answer and the kind of "think out of the box " needed. Unfortunately for some, my wording may have created a box for some readers in my previous posts.

For a real time or any other type of network game where they need to set up their own configuration of the game play for their uses, I would build a Debian based server side application.

Kyall,

Wonderful! Here's another option. Research has made it challenging to get such information for my relatively unique and special needs in a short time the way business demands it. I appreciate the easy response.

You say it's a feasibility study, which makes me think that there's maybe an NDA involved with the details we'd need to know to answer your question.

An insightful reply you have here, too. Listen, I understand the natural tendancy of game programmers to want and need the details in order to be sure of developing a game which meets the game design and satisfies the customer. I need to know my environment related options for a game by the title of my thread here.

In my previous posts, as it seems to have likely come to your mind, I indicated that the game will start simple in initial development and be scalable according to client needs - a concept which is slowly but surely increasing in certain markets.

The struct such as logic is surprisingly simple at the start. The game will however tap a rapidly increasing data base.

The game design is well under control, but thank you. Outline > Design > Implementation ... We are now in the design stage and gathering information needed for construct. It is indeed a feasibilty study but using the real world model of feasibility study which will employ test marketing in several weeks. If it goes well, then we go from the demonstration stage to the development stage in earnest.

Google app engine might be worth a quick glance over for cloud purposes but will limit your language choices a little. I believe the actual cloud hosted software can only be java 1.6, python 2.5 or a somewhat experimental implementation of google go.
The front end choices will probably just be the usual HTML5 + JS combo. In the google theme again I love the look of the Google Chrome Native Client but that will limit your market to those running google chrome on windows, OSX (x86/x86-64 only, not powerPC) and linux (again, x86 and x86-64 only).

Yeah, that's about what I found, too. It is vitally important that I get advice to be sure not to overlook any important options by accident. I am almost obsessive about research, but even I sometimes miss something important. My colleague hired me partly because he knows that I support my research with qualified advice, as well.

ApochPiQ,

Once again you hold someone to better communication. You are doing a great service around gamedev!

This community is fabulous!


Clinton