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So far I've tried Bluetooth but it doesn't appear to work on either windows or Ubuntu (for this use-case; it can connect to printers fine). I've also looked up USB-bridge-cables, but from what I’ve read so far, they can't be used for this, either.

Since the game is a hobby-project, the solution can neither be expensive, nor require months of work. It's a turn-based game. Otherwise I wouldn't be asking but finding a different project after finding out neither Unity nor Unreal Engine can do this; currently, I'm using neither.

Is there a way to do local multiplayer on a combination of Windows/Ubuntu computers?

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    \$\begingroup\$ Are the computers on the same network? \$\endgroup\$
    – Vaillancourt ♦
    Nov 16, 2017 at 14:43
  • \$\begingroup\$ Cross play is definitely possible. And both Unity and UE can definitely do it as well. You haven't explained what you've tried so far. Just plugging communication devices doesn't make for local multiplayer. What techniques have you implemented? \$\endgroup\$
    – Sidar
    Nov 16, 2017 at 15:10
  • \$\begingroup\$ implemented? I played with sockets a bit, before I realized I don't get a connection. Then I spent a week or so searching the internet for ways to actually connect those bluetooth devices, not necessarily from within my program. Everything either didn't do what it's supposed to do or didn't do what I intended (because it was for computer to printer/mouse/keyboard connections, usually) \$\endgroup\$
    – some idiot
    Nov 16, 2017 at 17:23
  • \$\begingroup\$ about same network: they connect to the same wlan-box. Not sure if that was the question though \$\endgroup\$
    – some idiot
    Nov 16, 2017 at 17:27
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    \$\begingroup\$ LAN multiplayer works the same way as Internet multiplayer, using sockets. \$\endgroup\$
    – user253751
    Nov 17, 2017 at 0:07

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What language are you using? You said you are not using Unity or Unreal, are you using any engine or are you doing everything yourself? These details will be more important than the operating systems in question.

Also, please note that what you describe is not really local, since there is more than one machine involved. It might seem physically local, but from a programming point of view its the same as any network communication.

I have never worked with bluetooth, but I know on linux is difficult to work with (from a user perspective). You will probably make things a lot easier for yourself by just using sockets and TCP. Since you are on the same network, it should be quite fast, and for something turn based its even easier. Basically you need one player to host (start a server on some port) and the second player to connect to it. There isn't really anything game-specific about this, and the code will look very similar in windows and in linux, so OS choice isn't really a big factor. I would advise you to avoid developing a separate server, and just have one player as the host. In other cases this might make sense, but it seems an unnecessary complication in your case.

Search for simple TCP client/server examples in whatever your chosen language is. You will need to implement BOTH (client and server) into your game, server for host and client for second player. The code should be fairly simple and easy to follow.

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you can use socket io and NodeJS server but for that you must have back end knowledge because you have to develop back end in nodeJS and it hardly take 10-15 days to create back end so it's a good Alternative and it's free to do.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ 10-15 days: At 8h per day? With back end knowledge already present? If so, that's probably the multiple months of work I want to avoid. (I probably should have mentioned that) \$\endgroup\$
    – some idiot
    Nov 16, 2017 at 17:31
  • \$\begingroup\$ @someidiot try to search NodeJs with unity game engine you find easy tutorials there about how to do create sockets in unity and honestly it takes 10 days * 8h for me to learn back end and i know basics of unity \$\endgroup\$
    – Kartik Shah
    Nov 16, 2017 at 17:37
  • \$\begingroup\$ You don't have to use socket.io nor node.js for a socket server. \$\endgroup\$
    – user253751
    Nov 17, 2017 at 4:30

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