Free MMORPG Forums

Roxane

Ever wanted to build a browser game?

Building Browsergames (http://buildingbrowsergames.com) is a blog geared towards the beginning to intermediate developer that is interested in building their own browsergame. It provides insights in different technologies used, has frequent blog updates, and offers an exentisve list of tutorials to get started yourself! Find everything you need to know to build your own browser game!


As a bonus, the developer of http://buildingbrowsergames.com is here on our forums! You can ask him anything directly in this thread and he will answer you.

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Eriond

Thanks! I'm assuming this is you, the developer? I didn't know you were into development! You should hang around here more often.

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firesnowball

Heres a question I have had for a while:
For hosting a PBBG, what would you reccomend?

Thanks,
FSB

bbrowsergames

I'm afraid you're incorrect, Eriond - as I'm the primary editor/owner of Building Browsergames. Roxane was just interested in getting the word out.

firesnowball: what language is your game built in? The tools you're using will affect your hosting options - if you want to build your game with Ruby on Rails or Django, you're looking at something like dedicated hosting or a VPS, as most shared hosts tend not to offer the setup that you'll be looking for.

On the other hand, if you're building your game with PHP, virtually any shared host will do - how much are you looking to spend? Personally, I use Slicehost for all of my hosting needs, but they're a bit pricey($20 USD/month) if you're just starting out and don't know what you're doing. If all you need is a place to put your game, shared hosting should do you just fine.

firesnowball

Thanks! I am using PHP currently to build my game and I have been looking as slicehost as an option, but it is good to know that shared hosting will work for now.

Aether5569

Or you can can make your computer a web server :P, very easy, and its free , although i wouldn't suggest sortten your codes like <?php will become <?... it becomes weird, and some shared hosting/hosting websites don't allow short cuts, atleast the ones i used.

Eriond

It's a good idea; but most ISPs don't allow you to do this, and can actually terminate service if they catch you at it.

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Aether5569

The only one i know that doesn;t allow it is verizon fios, Time warner does... I know that for fact because i do it all the time. It seems like verizon is kinda strict on their internet stuff.

DevilDawg

What about speed, however? If we assume you are developing a PHP MMO which may have 500+ people connected simultaneously won't a dedicated server be required to handle the bandwidth? Also you may end up paying for extra bandwidth your users are taking up.

bbrowsergames

I would be wary of making "you need a dedicated server when [foo]" statements - your game's needs will dictate what sort of server you need(and if you encounter speed problems, you should benchmark your game to try and figure out where the slowdowns are; dedicated servers are not an instant solution to any problems). If you have 1000 players simultaneously connected but are only serving flat files or cached pages to them, you'll be able to support far more players on a smaller server(or shared hosting) than you would with 25 players connected to pages that are running thousands of calculations.

Bandwidth requirements are also something that vary from game to game - an image heavy game will easily chew through two or more times the amount of bandwidth that a game without images will use - again, it all depends on the specifics of your game. Personally, I have yet to encounter a situation where the amount of bandwidth that a host provided me with wasn't more than enough for what I needed.