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I am wondering with what kind of languages such a multi-player online game was written?

I am trying to find a list of web programming languages which could be sufficient for both of these websites. My thought was HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, SQL.

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    \$\begingroup\$ Please stop asking this on every Stack Exchange site you find... Read each site's FAQ carefully before you post, and make sure your question is suitable for the site. \$\endgroup\$
    – user14904
    Nov 2, 2012 at 9:20
  • \$\begingroup\$ please stop stalking \$\endgroup\$
    – Lisa Wurm
    Nov 2, 2012 at 9:21
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    \$\begingroup\$ @LisaWurm Welcome to GDSE! We don't want to stalk you, we want to keep topic of the site consistent, so questions people come here for, aren't covered with 'spam'. HTML, CSS, Javascript, PHP, SQL is fine to start with. \$\endgroup\$ Nov 2, 2012 at 9:56

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There are basically two types of web browser games from technological perspective:

1. Games that do not require server back-end (client only)

These are mostly casual arcade-like games - e.g. shooters, platformers and side-scrollers - which usually require no data persistence, networking or multiplayer capabilities, or which only require client side data persistence and multiplayer capabilities (e.g. hot-seat, split screen).

To create such a game you only require to create code, that will run on the client side.

This can be done using either native web browser technologies - HTML, CSS and JavaScript - or using various technologies that come as web browser plugins and extensions - Flash, Java applets, Silverlight, and possibly some others.

2. Games that require server back-end (client + server)

These are more complex games such as turn-bases strategy games and RPGs, which usually require some server side data persistence, networking or multiplayer capabilities. It can also be simple client side games, that just require some ranking or top scores capablities.

These games also require the client side code, same as the games without the server back-end, but they also require the server side code, which will communicate with the client code to transfer and process the game data to provide the required persistence and multiplayer capabilities.

For this there are literally tons of options, ranging from PHP, Python, Ruby and MySQL all the way to ASP.NET, Java and Oracle or the most recent options such as using JavaScript with Node.js. Presently it is possible to write server side applications and web applications with just about any popular language. The choice here would be limited by the specific requirements of the game at hand - server OS, security, performance, load balancing, ...


As for your question about what is sufficient, it mostly depends on if you require the server back-end or not.

If it is a simple enough game that can run on client only, then I think that especially HTML5 + JavaScript is presently a killer combination for any client code. It is native to the web browser and it has most of the capabilities of technologies such as Flash and Silverlight, therefore it is sufficient and most straightforward.

For the server side, if there are no special and strict requirements on some of the aspects mentioned above, you could just stick with the programming languages and frameworks that you know and like to use, and it would be sufficient.

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