Post your multiplayer game idea - ElectroServer

[jobemjobem]

Hi guys,

We at Electrotank would like to hear your multiplayer game ideas. If you have a good solid multiplayer game idea that you'd love to build out, then post it here!

We would like to offer a free version of ElectroServer 3 to someone who we think would benefit greatly from it. If you feel that what is holding you back from developing a great multiplayer game is the price tag that usually comes along with it, then this could be a great opportunity for you!

Basic "rules"

• Electrotank is not looking to build any of these games. We have our own great ideas.
• Please post if you are serious.
• Electrotank can help provide you with guidance, especially with regard to the multiplayer hurdles. Other aspects of the game are up to you and your team if you have one.
• If you'd prefer to email me directly rather than to post here, then do so: jobe@electrotank.com
• Electrotank will choose a person if we feel that it is a good choice. This isn't a contest, so we can't just guarantee that we'll select someone.
• I'll post here when we have finished our search.

Why are we doing this? Well, ElectroServer 3 is a very successful product. Its being used by great companies like Nickelodeon, Rubiks, MiniClip, etc. What we are missing though are indie developers creating really cool creative "youthful" games, like rpgs, racing games, shot-em-ups, etc. We'd like to see a lot more of that.

We aren't asking for the source code. The only "catch" is that you can only keep the license if you finish the game.

Hopefully we'll get at least a few interested replies!

[VENGEANCE MX]

Question: Does Electroserver work on Macs?

[webgeek]

Yup, ElectroServer runs great on Macs.

[mixedtrigeno]

can you do real time battle multiplayer with electro server and flash?
something in the lines of rainbow six:3 top down view max players per room is 5. you meet sertain requirements in order to be able to play the other missions. there will also be a death match mode where you battle against each other in a level...well let me stop and first find out if it is even possible to do real time multiplayer battle-even if it is a bit of a delay in the commands- with flash without flash runing at 3FPS

[jobemjobem]

Hi mixedtrigeno,

Yes, that type of game is possible. Real-time shooters are possible using Flash and ElectroServer. Are you a capable programmer? Because multiplayer games require a good knowledge of ActionScript.

[Trickman]

jobe - just a quick question(s) and a comment;

can I test electroserver on my PC running as localhost? just on my computer - the reason being my web host wont allow me to install it on their server.

I have your book: game design Demystified, if for example, I was to commit but couldn't promise a hand-over date (due to other commitments) I'd rather test with the server on the CD... are there any major differences; and what is the upgrade compatibility like?

and the comment... maybe you should make it clear as to what the limitations of ES are (briefly)

thanks

[jobemjobem]

Hi Trickman,

ElectroServer 3 can easily be installed and run locally on your PC. Usually this is the best approach for game development.

I'd recommend downloading the latest version of ElectroServer 3 from the website: http://www.electro-server.com . The ElectroServer 3 free version and the full version are exactly the same with 1 difference: the free version is limited to a maximum of 20 concurrent connections.

There aren't many ElectroServer limitations at all. The only things that come to mind are:
1) It does not support audio/video transfer. Only Flash Comm can do taht for proprietary protocol reasons.
2) It does not currently support having 1 user in more than 1 room at a time.

Other thant that, ElectroServer could technically be used as the multi-user server behind major game releases, like Quake and games like that. Its just as fast, stable, and feature rich as any of those.

[jesserules]

hi jobemjobem,
i have made two games in ES, but should i post them here?
one of them is a game where you must create more burgers than the other person, and the other is a game of boxes (the game you play on paper and you must make more boxes than the other person.)
great book by the way.

[jobemjobem]

Hi jesserules,

Sounds like you've been buys. You might think about posting those in the forum. But for this specific thread I'd like to keep our options open to some edgier games.

Think weapons, more than 2 players, creatures, strategy maybe

[UnknownGuy]

I'm just wondering, I feel that I'm a fairly knowledgable programmer, even though I haven't released anything real special(Its coming don't worry, hopefully something by summer), is it a large leap from non-multiplayer games to multiplayer games, I mean is there a lot to learn, whole different ways of programming, or is pretty straight forward if you can code a relatively complicated single player game?

Wow, long sentence, and yes I know you can't tell what a "complicated" game is from my description, but I hope you get the jist of what I mean...

[EgoAnt]

I've been planning a couple multiplayer titles for a while, actually. I was really hoping to use Electroserver for them, but I haven't been able to find the time and money to pull the ideas together.

(Not to mention the difficulty I have had finding a great artist!)

Here are a couple of ideas I have been planning:

The first is a multiplayer space-based empire game, except you would establish a "stake" in each planet that you won battles at. Every stake you owned in a planet would give you a share of its resources. Battles would be handled as turn based space combat mixed with a collectible card game. It sounds MUCH more complex than it really is... Basically when you flew to a new planet you would have to challenge someone there for a portion of their stake. Each planet would act, in Electroserver, as a seperate room. So when you arrived at a new planet you would be logged in to that planet's comm-channel. You could then attack anyone who was at that planet, or just chat with them.

The second idea is a two player side scroller, but one player is the attacker and the other is the defender. The attacker just flies along and shoots stuff and gathers power-ups, nothing too complex about that, but the defender actually has to build the level on the fly. So player one goes barreling through the level while player two commands ships to attack them, or puts up obstacles.

I've sat down and pretty much mapped out the beginnings of a design doc on both, and for the first one I have a LOT of data... If only I had the $$$ to quit my job and work on it straight for a month...

[WilloughbyJackson]

I've sat down and pretty much mapped out the beginnings of a design doc on both, and for the first one I have a LOT of data... If only I had the $$$ to quit my job and work on it straight for a month...

I think we ALL know that feeling.

Jobemjobem, is there a development timelimit for this offer (I.E. a point in time when we have to start and when we have to finish by)? Because of my current schedule, I can't even begin programming work on such a large project until Summer.

[VENGEANCE MX]

So, is ElectroServer just a Socket Server? I got one free with the Flash MX ActionScript Bible... what kind of things set ElectroServer apart from other ones?

[Incrue]

Originally posted by VENGEANCE MX
So, is ElectroServer just a Socket Server? I got one free with the Flash MX ActionScript Bible... what kind of things set ElectroServer apart from other ones?

You can have that electroserver object in flash, wich can save to you a lot of time dealing with server code you dont have to worry anymore
I think that with electroserver becoming the most popular sockets server the tendency is for it to become the best, cos they will have to offer the best to the big and serious clients

[jobemjobem]

UnknownGuy,

Yes, programming multiplayer is a different way of thinking. For some games its not too difficult (think tic tac toe). And for others there are many concepts and things to take into account (think real-time shoot-em-up). I'd recommend starting by downloading and installing ElectroServer, and then going through the source files.

EgoAnt,

Sounds like you have a good idea there! We'll keep you in mind. Do you have the resources to database your users and maybe portions of your game?

WilloughbyJackson,

We would be interested in supporting someone that is starting a game in the near future. Shoot me an email when you are ramping up on your next big game. I'd like to know what you are up to.


VENGEANCE MX,

ElectroServer is a socket-server, I wouldn't say "just a socket-server". You can read about its features on www.electro-server.com. It has a lot of great features for game developers that other socket-servers don't have. As Incrue mentioned, there is an ElectroServer class that you can use with Flash to easily talk to the server.

[mixedtrigeno]

actually no i am not capable of doing such a project because my knowledge of action script is limited. i might eventually get to that point but not just yet. so therefore i wouldnt even dare to try a multiplayer game but i always had the idea of doing so but dont have the knowledge. but hey if anyone wants to take the idea and go forward with it feel free to do so i am sure everyone would love it...RAINBOW SIX:3-FLASH

dramatic isnt it?

edit:by the way i thought i read on the thread that it was pretty much impossible to do a real time battle multiplayer game in flash because of slowdowns. please correct me if i am wrong.

[blakfeld]

Ive always thought it would be great to do a deathmatch "coffee break" game, something either like Quake III, you know, rocket launchers and such, all out mayham (actually started one, and got part of it working, but I wasnt able to finish, and yes, I used electro server :-P) and the other one was a anime-ish melee battle, people could choose from swords and flails and things of that sort to take out their opponants, but I didnt finish, but I did that almost a year and a half ago, I bet I could do it now... but dont pick me or anything, not that you were planning on it, but dont if for some odd reason you were. (much thanks to webgeek btw, he really showed me how crazy I was when I first tried this multiplayer thing)

[UnknownGuy]

I just curious about one more thing(sorry for all the questions, just kinda potentially plan how a game would be built), is there a function for electroserver that simply passes a variable to all the other players(eg tellall(player1._x) type of a thing)?

[Dangerskew]

I always wanted to turn a team fighting game I made into multiplayer. One of the problems is though, I'm kind of confused by the whole thing. I tried to test it by uploading the tic tac toe example onto a geocities thing, and I wasn't able to connect. Is there some kind of tutorial for people who have no idea what's going on? Also, I was wondering, for people to be able to play your multiplayr games, would I have to have that program constantly running? It seems like it.

[slight]

There are definately some multiplayer games that I'd like to make in flash, and I've looked into it a few times. The thing that always held me back is not the one off cost of a socket server, (a free 20 user limit electro server would be fine to get started anyway) but the ongoing cost of hosting.

Even if you write your own socket server, good luck getting it hosted anywhere without paying a fortune for co-located hardware.

Jobem, if you were offering free hosting through webgamehost with this I would be all over it, but even with a free unlimited license for electroserver, it's still going to cost at least $17.99 / month for hosting (on top of my existing hosting bill) for something that is ultimately free to play.

For anyone who creates flash games as a hobby (and I'm sure most 'youthful' developers are in the same boat here), you can't make a multiplayer game unless you're prepared to pay for it monthly or it is a commercial venture from the start that at least pays for it's own hosting. So, you must either serve up ads or create a special class of paying player who has some kind of advantage over the other players. Either way is distasteful, and you now have obligations. The hobby ceases being a hobby and becomes a business.

Anyway, that is just my gripe. For a while I have been meaning to post something here about making money with flash games, so maybe it is time to do that.

PS. So this post isnt entirely wasted... The 1st multiplayer game I would make would play a bit like speedball 2 did way back when, but for 1 - 12 players, with AI bots contolling empty slots. The game has several enhancements over speedball 2 though, such as the team captain who can issue strategic suggestions to other players through a quick menu system, and the usually boring job of goalkeeper is made much busier by the ability to throw powerups out on the field for your team to pick up (speed, heal, double damage etc), and fire off offensive debuffs at the opposing teams (fireball, stun, slow, trip etc.) The multiplayer aspect could be done either realtime (quake style) or rapid turn based (globulos style)