Where do I find a flash developer to do this?

[Stanley Lyndon]

Greetings all!

I have an awesome idea for a online turn based strategy board game, with concepts similar to the game at tacticsarena.com (move, attack, turn, pass, etc.) I have already started working on the graphics and it is all going smooth there (board layout, texture, models, etc.)

I posted this job on guru.com and I am getting exorbitant bids by Flash developer firms. But, I need to find a single enthusiastic programmer who would love to take up this project as much for the interest and the fame of accomplishment as for the money.

Where is the best place to start looking for one? And, what all skills should I enquire if he possesses? I take it that Actionscript 3 and familiarity with a socket server like ElectroServer 4 is a must. What else?

Thanks!

[renderhjs]

I take it that Actionscript 3 and familiarity with a socket server like ElectroServer 4 is a must

not essentially, even AS1/ AS2 can do magic stuff, AS3 is not long enough out in order to find many devs beeing "good" at it.
Perhaps you should ask in a different way, like a system/ engine with DB- conection, pathfinding, iso view, max file size,... ect. and then get in contact with someone interested who could explain you what he could/ would do this and that way.

[Stanley Lyndon]

I am a complete Flash newb (just a designer wishing to develop my idea well) so most of what you mentioned went over my head, but I guess I will do my research before asking questions.

Btw., forgot to mention, the game is pretty much like chess. Except that all units need to be killed for the opponent to win the game. So, I suppose pathfinding wouldn't come into the picture, but then again, I will do some research on it. Max file size, I am hoping to keep it below 5 MB and I suppose that would be pretty reasonable.

[VENGEANCE MX]

Turn-based games are simple enough, and AS1 code is more than up to it. You'll need a confident coder, but not necessarily an expert. Once the connection's established (note: they will need a bit of knowledge about firewalls and networking), it's pretty much like writing any other game.

[Stanley Lyndon]

Oh thanks a lot, that post improved my desire to get my idea a domain.

Btw., I guess I am going to digress on my own thread, but since I don't know where else to post, I will do it here.

Does ElectroServer 4 have the ability to tunnel its connections and flash through port 80 (so no firewall blocks it) by default? If not, are there proven workarounds to get this done? If not, I would need to choose another server (which I don't really want to since everyone says ES is the best out there and at the same time, it seems to fit the bill for me).

[jobemjobem]

Hi Stanley,

Today ElectroServer 4 does not have that ability. However, it is a feature currently in development. ETA - Within a handful of weeks. There is nothing you'll need to do differently when it is available. You can just turn it on and the game will use HTTP instead of binary/text over a socket.

[Stanley Lyndon]

Within a few weeks sounds great Jobe. Thanks.

Anyway, if anyone reading this thread is interested in a collaboration, do PM me. I will be extremely happy to discuss my ideas with you.

Good day everyone. And, thanks for all the help.

[renderhjs]

I am a complete Flash newb (just a designer wishing to develop my idea well) so most of what you mentioned went over my head, but I guess I will do my research before asking questions.

Btw., forgot to mention, the game is pretty much like chess. Except that all units need to be killed for the opponent to win the game. So, I suppose pathfinding wouldn't come into the picture, but then again, I will do some research on it. Max file size, I am hoping to keep it below 5 MB and I suppose that would be pretty reasonable.

well of course it wont hurt if you know somewhat what the programmer needs to do wich will only improve your conversation with him/her.

anyway some things I could imagine such a game could consist of (not essential)

- iso view = isometric perspective, the view that made simcity 2000 popular alowing to see 3 sides of a block for example but still giving the engine the ability to arrange objects next to each other in a line and combining it with classic 2d effects.
This perspective is quite easy to handle in flash, other PC game examples are; Diablo, The Sims, Theme Hospital,...

- pathfinding= mechanic to autmaticly find a way of a figure if you click on a destination but some obstacles are in the way and the figure has to move around that obstacle. Often used in strategy - slightly more advanced as ISO imo.

- DB = database connection,- like storing highscores or other stuff that will be compared with other players, anything else could be stored with the flash cookies (shared files)

- linear animation script/ system. A way to play combat animations after each other with the ability to skip the animations (pre defined before the animations even start- but to please the players eyes some combat animations can be played back). Pretty popular in games like FinalFantasy or Advance Wars on the Nintendo DS.
Same perhaps for messages players, bots,NPC´s send

- socket server stuff - but I know nothing about it,never went into that stuff

- perhaps some little eye candy stuff like menu tweenings (soft transistions, decent glow, slide, blur animations) and perhaps to spice up a little bit the battle stuff some particle stuff

anyway I think that with a list like this you already have a interesting list to discuss with a likely candidate- ask what he/ she could contribute perhaps you didn´t already thought of or wich could be done better or better

[VENGEANCE MX]

Does ElectroServer 4 have the ability to tunnel its connections and flash through port 80 (so no firewall blocks it) by default? If not, are there proven workarounds to get this done? If not, I would need to choose another server (which I don't really want to since everyone says ES is the best out there and at the same time, it seems to fit the bill for me).

By the way, ES4 can use port 80 by default already (already tried it, works fine, but you need to run ElectroServer with super-user privileges to use said port), and it got me past my school's firewall, but something else (webgeek said it's probably a proxy) stopped me completing the connection (didn't get to the cross-domain policy, which Flash needs for multiplayer games). Doesn't mean it wouldn't work in other schools, though, so you could probably already get quite a wide audience without having to resort to the tunneling Jobe refers to.

[Stanley Lyndon]

Thanks a lot renderhjs. That was pretty informative. Thanks for taking the effort.

[691175002]

I would consider asking about Java experience. Its not necessary however I would consider it helpful when working with Java socket servers.

I wouldn't be completely fixed on AS3.0. In a turn based game the speed is hardly necessary and aside from speed you aren't gaining anything major.

If you post some example graphics you may have a better chance of finding someone.

[Stanley Lyndon]

Thanks, but I would rather have it done with the industry standard sockets instead of venturing into Java or XML which would probably increase the load at the client-side probably effectively reducing the number of players who would play it.

I will post the graphics I have worked on so far and some screens from the game design document in a short while.

The game would be similar to the game in this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXK2kqaWdzo

The Game Board


The specifications of the soldiers on board:

However there would be only 7 mobile (soldiers) and 2 immobile units on either side of the board unlike what is there in the above screenshot. And, all the 9 units have been modeled already. Only the animation part is left, but for that, I would need to know exactly what the developer would want (the specifications) before going into the render.

A complete game design document had been meticulously prepared by me. Some screens from that:




As you can see, I have put in a lot of effort over many months into creating the game so far (concept, design specs, etc.) I would really like to find a dedicated developer to finish it off nice and good.

I would pay of course, but just not in the very high ranges (I cannot afford a lot, unfortunately.) But, in turn, I can guarantee you that this project would look great on your portfolio and we can include your logo and link on the flash loader as credit too.

Thanks 691175002, your post just showed me how ignorant I am about coding. I read somewhere that using XML instead of sockets increases the load on the client side much more. I just assumed what I previously said. But, I still suppose it would make it much easier to code going with an already created socket server like ElectroServer right? Since the one time license fee of $700 for a 500 connection server is very much on the affordable side.

Thanks in advance again everyone!

P.S.: There is no AI involved in this game. It is purely multi-player.

[691175002]

Thanks, but I would rather have it done with the industry standard sockets instead of venturing into Java or XML which would probably increase the load at the client-side probably effectively reducing the number of players who would play it.

Almost all flash socket servers (Including ElectroServer and SmartFox) are coded in Java and use XML to format packets. If you are going to be making any modifications server-side you will need Java (Although they can run actionscript as well which is pretty slick).
Note that any real language can create sockets and you can format packets however you want.

If you are going to be implementing any form of security to prevent cheating you will need to do it server-side.

[samvillian]

That is how you are supposed to present a game. Showing graphics, showing that you are willing. I myself am not good enough of a game developer to do this lol, i suck.... But i hope people are interested.

[691175002]

Sockets are the means of sending the data and XML is how the sent data is organized. XML can be a bit bloated:

<Data>
    <Damage>26</Damage>
</Data>
As opposed to something like:
DMG|26

However the overhead isn't too bad on larger messages, and for something turn based it isn't a huge issue.

I would say a commercial server is pretty hard to do without. There are open source alternatives (Oregano isn't too bad although it is pretty old) however the commercial ones are much better.
I noticed that there has been some activity over there though: http://www.spicefactory.org/
Both Cinnamon and Red5 look interesting however they are pretty early in development.

[slicer4ever]

hey man i'd be willing to help you all you need is php and xml since it's turn based so it can be all held on your server (if it was real-time that would be a whole diffrent story) either way i'd be willing to help you

aim: slicer4ever06=-)

i'd love to discuss this more with you, from the images i've seen of the design i'm unsure if you'r using 3d(this is as3's stronger suit from what i understand, i only have as2 unfortuantly and i'm no expert in the 3d field) if 3d is a must(those images can still be used they just need to be rendered into bitmaps in all 4 possible directions(can even have a camera rotate around the board with the bitmaps changing appearance)

xml is not something hard to work in i've been doing it for the past year and i love it=-)

either way i'd hope to talk to you more

this defiantly isn't something that can be done in a week, getting all the coding done well take a tad bit=-)

edit: as i go more into this it woudn't be 2 much xml - in game data to be sent, just what a unit is doing and who he may be attacking, etc, etc i truly don't see much problem with the server side as long as it stays in turn base

[Stanley Lyndon]

Yeah, will contact you on AIM now.

No it would not be 3D. It would be an isometric engine and like you mentioned, animations would be rendered in 2D on all 4 directions (as the units turn).

[691175002]

Just something to watch, with a packetsniffer and XML it would take very little effort to send extra messages from a separate program or forge messages that arent legal.
The firefox extension TamperData can trap flash's packets and lets you edit them before sending them.

[Stanley Lyndon]

Thanks for the heads up. I knew about that. That and other memory editing programs. Once the code is done, a few checks and few extra (confusing) calls need to be implemented I suppose. But anyway, those probably come much later in the development. Thanks again though.

P.S.: Still looking.

[JerryScript]

By the way, ES4 can use port 80 by default already (already tried it, works fine, but you need to run ElectroServer with super-user privileges to use said port), and it got me past my school's firewall, but something else (webgeek said it's probably a proxy) stopped me completing the connection (didn't get to the cross-domain policy, which Flash needs for multiplayer games). Doesn't mean it wouldn't work in other schools, though, so you could probably already get quite a wide audience without having to resort to the tunneling Jobe refers to.

If you are using AS3 to connect via sockets, the security restritctions are a bit different. The standard xml-cross-domain file served via http isn't enough. I had to send the file on socket_accept to get cross-domain connections to work in AS3 (see my post in the server-side forum).

Stanley - you will need to find someone who is as good with server-side scripting as with actionscripting. Most of your important game logic should be carried out by the server, not by the SWF file in the browser. This will prevent the easiest form of tampering with the game, and insure that things remain synced regardless of what might happen with someone's browser (sometimes my wireless mouse has it's own idea as to which button should be pressed LOL).