Client Server what do i need?

Question

Simple question

if the Client is Android Game App

That send data to the server for Storing/Recalling Data as well as calculating data?

I hear sql is good for simple database stuff.what is good for rts game or street fighter game ? or an fps game?

do i have options ?

Answer 1

It depends on what you want to store.

Concerning the gamestate

For action games (as opposed to turn by turn games) you will need to run the gamestate at a decent speed (for performance) and more importantly for the player's experience you will have to update the clients regularly (multiple times per second).

Therefore a solution based on a C/C++ server would be preferable. But in the end any language able to provide good performance and proper network socket communication is fine.

The data should be stored in memory during the game session with eventual saves to the server's disks during the session or when players disconnect if you want persistent or semi-persistent game worlds.

You can use SQL to store data if most of it is relational. But if you want to store the gamestate and things that are better stored/retrieved in binary form then you will be better off storing the "save games" in files as you would on the clients.

Non action games and other data

If you have a lot of relational data, data about players, about game sessions, results, etc, then you can use an SQL database.

When it comes to turn based games, leaderboards and non gamestate related features any scripting language and database will do. But this is a separate subject.

Answer 2

You would need a server architecture, in java world its common to use a web archive on a suitable hosting site. These usually would come with a database and would allow you to store any necessary data using SQL.

You also have the option to use mobile game frameworks that come with server hosting like Moai or any of the other similar services.

This is a fairly advanced starting point, if you don't understand my answer you may want to start out making some simpler one player games first, while reading up on databases and server architecture.

Answer 3

I won't talk about architecture since that has been discussed by the previous two posters, I would check out Kryonet for your Client/Server needs.

It's pretty lightweight and speedy, and is perfectly suitable for action games. It uses it's own serialization system called Kryo.

Its definitely compatible with android and better yet: It's open source! Check em out.

Kryonet: http://code.google.com/p/kryonet/ Kryo: http://code.google.com/p/kryo/