A game which is played by several players. The players may be working cooperatively or competitively (either against each other or the game).
7
votes
4answers
787 views
Multiplayer online game engine/pipeline
I am implementing online multiplayer game where client must be written in AS3 (Flash) to embed game into browser and server in C++ (abstract part of which is already written and used with other ...
7
votes
5answers
860 views
Multiplayer synchronization and pathfinding
I have a point & click type interface on a client, which runs an A* on the server, for path-finding.
The game is controlled like an RTS, but the world is persistent, so players should be able to ...
7
votes
3answers
536 views
Multiplayer tile based movement synchronization
I have to synchronize the movement of multiple players over the Internet, and I'm trying to figure out the safest way to do that.
The game is tile based, you can only move in 4 directions, and every ...
7
votes
2answers
391 views
Detecting wins in peer to peer RTS games like Starcraft
A typical RTS game is implemented with the standard networking model: peer to peer lockstep.
Consider Starcraft 2, given that Battle.net presumably doesn't know anything about the state of game given ...
6
votes
4answers
558 views
Has a multi player graphic adventure* ever been made?
By graphic adventure, I mean point & click LucasArts-type games.
Those games have a mostly linear structure in nature, and usually don't offer as many variants as other games types like action, ...
6
votes
5answers
1k views
Persistent game where you program your own bot(s) [closed]
I'm looking for an online game with a persistent world where you are allowed to code (and add) your own 'players' (it can be in any language / script).
A sort of RTS but for bots.
Does that even ...
6
votes
3answers
1k views
Network communication via Sockets. Is there a better way?
I'm building a game engine on the OpenTK framework that needs to support multiple players.
How I have the basic framework established is that there is a Client and a Server. The Server binds and ...
6
votes
4answers
725 views
Simplest most effective way to rank and measure player skill in a multi-player environment?
I know of the Truskill algorithm, it's quite complex but effective.
My question is there other algorithms/methods to determine a players skill for accurate measuring for multi-player competitive ...
6
votes
2answers
210 views
How important is a single-player mode in a 2-player game?
So say you have a 2 player game, taking Chess as an example (except it's an original game with no ready-to-go AI available).
Let's say there's also a social-aspect to the meta-game, so let's say ...
6
votes
1answer
415 views
Why do console versions of multiplayer games support fewer players than PC versions?
source
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20111205162848AAb1sl9
64 Players on P.C ( 32vs32)
& bigger maps with more vehicles & buildings.
24 on Consoles ( 12vs12) ( It ...
6
votes
5answers
433 views
What are the pros and cons of non-unique display names?
I know of at least big title game (Starcraft II) that doesn't require unique display names, so it would seem like it can work in at least some circumstance.
Under what situations does allowing ...
6
votes
3answers
743 views
Best peer-to-peer game architecture
Consider a setup where game clients:
have quite small computing resources (mobile devices, smartphones)
are all connected to a common router (LAN, hotspot etc)
The users want to play a multiplayer ...
6
votes
2answers
3k views
How to handle multiplayer in JavaScript?
I'm just doing a bit of research into tech to use for a mobile multi-player game.
It's more an experiment at present so for the moment, the only thing that Players need to be aware of is the other ...
6
votes
2answers
232 views
Networking Questions: Serialization and Frequent Small Packets or Fewer Large Packets
I'm working with a socket server and I'm trying to decide how to update all of the clients.
I'm currently sending few packets with entire objects serialized in JSON. In most cases this adds a lot of ...
6
votes
4answers
692 views
Server-side physic simulations with hundreds of players
I’m currently working on a singleplayer physics-orientated game where I would like the physics to be simulated server-side. This because the game will have leadersboards, persistant player ...
6
votes
4answers
774 views
Can Google App Engine communicate with a stand alone program?
If I create a client program using say C#, or develop something for the Android or Iphone, can I use Google App Engine for the server and communicate with the client application mentioned above?
6
votes
2answers
159 views
What to do with old data?
I have a game - virtual soccer manager. It is browser based game. It is split into 'seasons' each of them takes around a half of a real year. The central game element is a soccer match, each team ...
6
votes
1answer
214 views
Timestep in multiplayer game
I'm trying to wrap my brain around the concept of creating a server/client multiplayer experience.
My problem is mainly related to timestep. Consider the following scenario:
A client connects to ...
6
votes
3answers
491 views
Networking for RTS games with lockstep using UDP
Apparently from what I can gather Starcraft 2 moved to UDP in a patch. Now obviously with fps games there is no dispute that UDP is the only way to go. But with RTS games what benefits does UDP give ...
5
votes
2answers
788 views
What data to exchange in multiplayer real time games?
I am a hobbyist programmer and right now I am curious about what data is exchanged in a multiplayer session in real time games like starcraft 2. I did a bunch of searches. I found gafferongames.com ...
5
votes
3answers
1k views
networking without port forwarding
I'm trying to add networking functionality to my game. I want any user to be able to host the game, and anyone to be able to connect as a client. The client sends info to the host about their player's ...
5
votes
1answer
2k views
Network client-server message exchange and clock synchronization help
i'm doing a fast paced physics game that is a table hockey. With two mallets and one puck. The game runs on iphone / ipad and i'm doing the multiplayer part through GameCenter.
This is how the ...
5
votes
2answers
157 views
What perspective is suitable for sharing a screen across a table?
I'm thinking about a 2 player 2D arena game for a mobile phone, but I have the obvious problem of gripping. To avoid this, I think it shouldn't be a problem to play one in front of the other with ...
5
votes
1answer
172 views
Has anyone tried using one of those BAAS providers to create mobile games?
I'm hearing a lot about different companies offering back-end as a service (BAAS) for mobile apps but it seems like none of them are very successful with mobile games. Is there any reason why not ...
5
votes
1answer
469 views
Game networking topology - dealing with host leaving
I am working on a P2P game in Flash and I'm wondering what network topology would be most robust for dealing with people randomly joining/leaving. I was thinking the first user to join could be the ...
5
votes
1answer
215 views
How can I debug live multiplayer servers effectively?
I have a multiplayer server made by a small team of developers and we have bugs that crop up on our live server occasionally that we simply can't reproduce while playing with our small team on a live ...
5
votes
1answer
729 views
How does Unity's multiplayer support stack up compared to other engines?
I am currently starting development on a FPS game. I haven't decided on a developement tool. I am really drawn to Unity 3D but not sure how good the software is compared to others (the game has to ...
5
votes
3answers
430 views
What freeware frameworks and tools to choose if I want to build a game like Farmville or Club Penguin? [closed]
Say I like to experiment with multiplayer games and I do not want to reinvent the wheel and build yet another game server. I don’t mind configuring and writing wrappers and adapters (both in c++ and ...
5
votes
1answer
534 views
How often should multiplayer games communicate with the server?
I once heard that Runescape "ticks" every 0.3s, and that seemed like a very long period of time, although Runescape is kind of a slow game.
I'm building a more dynamic top-down shooter game, and I'm ...
5
votes
1answer
181 views
Handling different version clients in a multiplayer game
What are various ways of handling different version clients in multiplayer games? For example, when there's an update, some games allow you to play with people who have a different version of the ...
5
votes
2answers
2k views
Realtime multi-player game design principles for Node.js
I've been reading the Valve article on multi-player networking which has been adapted from Yahn Bernier's 2001 paper called Latency Compensating Methods in Client/Server In-game Protocol Design and ...
5
votes
2answers
1k views
Best way to go for simple online multi-player games? [closed]
I want to create a trivia game for my website. The graphic design does not have to be too fancy, probably no more advanced than a typical flash game. It needs to be secure because I want users to be ...
5
votes
2answers
328 views
How to manage merging/splitting viewports to create a dynamic splitscreen
I'm making a multiplayer 2D game where each player has an entity that they can move in any direction. This will be local only, so split screen.
Typically the player controlled entities will be in ...
5
votes
1answer
1k views
(Why) Should I choose Unity 3 or Cocos2d (or something third) for my app? [closed]
My colleague and me made an HTML 5 iPad game ( http://braille.gandzo.com/ ) and we would like to upgrade it, and our framweork is not enoguh, for what we want. Some of the things we would change are: ...
5
votes
1answer
490 views
iOS Game Center - Quit turn-based games for previous version of app
I have a game on the iOS App Store that uses Game Center for turn-based multiplayer (GKTurnBasedMatch). I recently updated the app with a new game mode and I had to change the network protocol for ...
4
votes
2answers
505 views
How can I alleviate network lag issues with players from other countries?
I am developing a small multiplayer game where players move through the map and interact with each other. The game is written in VB.Net.
When I tested my game with players on a LAN everything worked ...
4
votes
3answers
236 views
Is it worth having AI opponents step in for disconnected players in an online multiplayer card game
I have an online multiplayer card game resembling spades/bridge and I want to implement a system that autoplays when a client disconnects. Right now, there is a client and server. In the new system, ...
4
votes
3answers
322 views
How do I allow a player to build a dedicated server, but prevent them from cheating?
Instead of maintaining a central server, many games allow players to build their own server, like Minecraft.
But if you give them the server-side program, how could you prevent them from cheating? I ...
4
votes
4answers
359 views
How do you get a multiplayer-only game to reach critical mass?
Say you have a multiplayer-only game in which players are randomly paired head-to-head against a random online player...
How do get such a beast off the ground?
You need enough players online at ...
4
votes
2answers
846 views
Using a web service for multiplayer games?
I've been looking into web services for making multiplayer games and was just wondering how feasible would it be?
What I would like to do is make a simple MMORPG that uses a turn based fighting ...
4
votes
2answers
276 views
game multiplayer service development
I'm currently working on a multiplayer game. I've looked at a number of multiplayer services(player.io, playphone, gamespy, and others) but nothing really hits the mark. They are missing features, ...
4
votes
3answers
1k views
Multiplayer / Networking options for a 2D game with physics
Summary:
My 50% finished 2D sidescroller with Box2D as physics engine should have multiplayer support in the final version. However, the current code is just a singleplayer game.
What should I do ...
4
votes
2answers
500 views
HTML5 multi-player game data/event validation best practices
I'll start by saying that I am fully aware that this question might seem subjective at first, but I'll try and provide a specific test case scenario for it to be a clear question about validating the ...
4
votes
2answers
864 views
Multiplayer architecture in games like Diablo 2
So I've been wondering, what kind of architecture would games like world of warcraft, diablo 2 (which is most probably a different beast than WoW) use?
As far as I know, RTS games state-syncs every ...
4
votes
1answer
185 views
How to develop multi-player game without involving server side code?
There have been lot of cloud based frameworks released in past few years. They provide real-time communication among users but does not allow developers to write server side code.
So, how can we use ...
4
votes
1answer
94 views
Handling Different Aspect Ratios for a Multiplayer Game
I'm currently designing a competitive 2D, side-scrolling multiplayer game and I want support full screen play at any aspect ratio (e.g., 4:3, 5:4, 16:10, 16:9). Doing that is not so much a problem, my ...
4
votes
2answers
207 views
How to do simultaneous action without it being real time?
This is really a pacing question, but there's no tag for that:
The general concept is that the players are working in a team and need to be able to react to eachother's movement and observations as ...
4
votes
2answers
341 views
A simple example of movement prediction
I've seen lots of examples of theory about the reason for client-side prediction, but I'm having a hard time converting it into code. I was wondering if someone knows of some specific examples that ...
4
votes
1answer
465 views
Multiplayer box2d networking for turn based game
I am currently in the planning stages for a 2D game for mobile devices
which I will be making in C++ using cocos2d-x. The game will be turn based and each turn will have a phase in which the physics ...
4
votes
1answer
173 views
Are there any clever methods of regulating bandwidth usage for voice chat payload packets?
For example, suppose my code can determine that upstream bandwidth is unusually limited. And suppose I'm using a fully-connected mesh topology combined with a UDP-like protocol for voice chat. Is ...
