Looking for advice on backend servers for games. I'm kind of getting confused at some options.
I have found products like Smartfox Server, ElectroServer, Photon.
Then some products like OpenFeint, Scoreloop etc.
Would I be correct in saying that you might use something like OF or SL WITH Smarftox or ES5 etc? I had thought originaly that openfeint/scoreloop were just platforms for scoretracking only.
Looking for a solution that provides support for realtime multiplayer, with game chat lobbies/messaging/ingame chat etc.
Related
With the NHL season coming up, as well as Mango, I was wondering how easy would it be to develop an app?
Would like to do something simple (in theory) with schedule, favourite team: live score/stats. Score Push/Toast/Tile notification. Maybe team news, or league news.
Heres is the stupid part, I have no experience ever developing an app, nor have any programming knowledge.
Thanks in advance for any help.
I assume you will need Visual Studio 2010 and will have to know .Net 4 and use VB or C# as a choice of language.
Not really sure about anything else past that.
there are plenty of tutorials around which will help you with that. the designing bit is not difficult at all: it's very intuitive in fact. you'll need to go through some basics of coding though. I recommend the dev education resources in the app hub (create.msdn.com). Best of luck with the app!
Thanks for the replies. I look around and yes as mentioned the designing process is a pretty intuitive and the coding seems like something I can probably find help with.
Question that I have now, is how would be able to get the actual data? Are there services to which I can connect to have live scores, stats, news, etc?
I know these are newbie questions, and I know I can probably just find the info on various websites, but I am the type that like to get a conversation going and perhaps find someone that can help out..... in return I promise to make an awesome app!
N0MN0M said:
Question that I have now, is how would be able to get the actual data? Are there services to which I can connect to have live scores, stats, news, etc?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's the hard part. I considered doing something similar previously but there don't appear to be any free services for sports scores. I remember stumbling upon FanFeedr but didn't really look to deep into it.
I kind of figured ESPN would just update SportsCenter with Mango features that add everything I had in mind eventually.
Best of luck with your NHL app! I can help if you have any questions I’ve already written a multi-league football app that does the things you mention (and a few things you didn’t )
Probably the best way to start is to try and write some code that reads RSS feeds; that way you’ll be writing your team and league news functionality which will immediately make the app useful. You could then e.g. have a page that displays news for each NHL team such as using the following RSS feeds:
http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/rss
(note the terms and conditions on the Yahoo one say not for commercial use; but if you’re looking to make it a paid app there will still be plenty of sites that let you use their RSS feeds for free).
To start coding it there’s a tutorial video on how to write a simple RSS reader using visual studio and expression blend here:
http://www.windowsphonegeek.com/videos/creating-an-rss-reader-for-windows-phone-7-in-5-minutes
For getting the live scores data (e.g. as an xml feed) you’re most likely going to have to pay for it (and people who provide it charge wildly different prices so have a good shop around). E.g. these people seem to be popular and do NHL (although they’re not the company I use so can’t comment on what they are like – mine only do football)
http://www.xmlteam.com
http://showcase.xmlteam.com/index.php/samples/showfixtures/8/l.nhl.com
Also note that getting access to data from a provider is only the first step – you’ll also need to write some code on a web server somewhere that transmits the scores and other data out to users of your app. Most sports data providers will not want each individual app user to download from them; so they’ll expect just you to download from them, and your users to download from you (i.e. for that you need to write a ‘web service’ on your web server/hosting company, probably attached to a database).
If that all sounds too scary, and/or you’re not looking to spend any money yet (which is probably wise) why not make the main focus something other than the live scores? e.g. perhaps you could make the news reporting better than other apps out there - e.g. lots of different news feeds for each team - really in-depth background on each team, perhaps a way for fans to talk to each other, ability to post things on Facebook about their team, tv schedules, toast messages for news headlines as they come out, player profiles, pictures… etc. etc. You could even type the scores in yourself if you still want them or just provide links to websites from within the app. Have a hunt around though as you sometimes find fan sites that put live scores and stats into free RSS’s.
You asked how easy it is; mine took about 3 months (and I’m a developer with 14 years’ experience of Microsoft technologies) but it all depends how many features you’re trying to write, and how professionally (I wanted to write the best). There’s so many great forums and examples of code out there you’ll be up and running in no time.
Hope that helps,
Ian
Social media and mobile apps seem to be the new buzz words over at Silicon Valley. In fact, such apps are now a dime a dozen and one could imagine Apple changing their popular catchphrase “There’s an app for that!” into “There are a thousand different apps for that, all of which have the same basic features, but subtle useless differences.”
The problem isn’t that we are approaching the boundaries of utility as far as mobile apps are concerned, it’s just that once an app or social service gets popular, developers start crowding around its concept and make thousands of clone apps, with little in terms of differentiation. We need more unique and original apps that stretch the boundaries of what we can accomplish with our phones and tablets and make you think “Wow! Who would have thought I could do that with this little thing I carry around with me?!” What we’re getting are the same basic concepts, re-hashed to such an insane degree that app stores get crowded with half-baked clone apps and the really amazing ones are drowned out in a sea of filth.
In my opinion, developers should ask themselves three basic questions before designing an app or a social service:
“Has this been done before?”
“If it has, can I do it in a way that is better/more pleasant to use?”
“If no, would I be able to introduce any sort of useful feature except a wacky name?”
And if the answers to all three questions are unfavourable, then the developer should think twice about coding such an app. It would only add redundancy to the app store and contribute to the rising app discovery epidemic.
I shudder to think about all the high quality apps made by independent developers all over the world that haven’t been popularized simply because of an overly saturated market. The amount of lost potential in app markets today is simply staggering.
Apart from market saturation, redundant apps also tend to cause mental saturation. In this day and age, who among us has the capacity to remember a billion app names? If we can’t even remember such a numerous volume of apps, how can we aspire to use them?
In my opinion, authorities like Apple and Google should monitor the apps in their stores not just for quality, but for identity of vision as well. Apps that feel like cheap copies of pre-existing apps need to be banned! I, for one have had enough of my normal friends playing ruddy Fruit Ninja clones and asking me why it doesn’t look as good as it does on my phone!
There are shining examples of how stupendously done apps with a clear and fresh vision can go viral within days of conception. They are the intellectual property of individuals that have worked hard to develop not just the code for their apps, but the core concept as well. And we owe it to those striving developers to make sure that the integrity of that core concept remains preserved.
k33t said:
Social media and mobile apps seem to be the new buzz words over at Silicon Valley. In fact, such apps are now a dime a dozen and one could imagine Apple changing their popular catchphrase “There’s an app for that!” into “There are a thousand different apps for that, all of which have the same basic features, but subtle useless differences.”
The problem isn’t that we are approaching the boundaries of utility as far as mobile apps are concerned, it’s just that once an app or social service gets popular, developers start crowding around its concept and make thousands of clone apps, with little in terms of differentiation. We need more unique and original apps that stretch the boundaries of what we can accomplish with our phones and tablets and make you think “Wow! Who would have thought I could do that with this little thing I carry around with me?!” What we’re getting are the same basic concepts, re-hashed to such an insane degree that app stores get crowded with half-baked clone apps and the really amazing ones are drowned out in a sea of filth.
In my opinion, developers should ask themselves three basic questions before designing an app or a social service:
“Has this been done before?”
“If it has, can I do it in a way that is better/more pleasant to use?”
“If no, would I be able to introduce any sort of useful feature except a wacky name?”
And if the answers to all three questions are unfavourable, then the developer should think twice about coding such an app. It would only add redundancy to the app store and contribute to the rising app discovery epidemic.
I shudder to think about all the high quality apps made by independent developers all over the world that haven’t been popularized simply because of an overly saturated market. The amount of lost potential in app markets today is simply staggering.
Apart from market saturation, redundant apps also tend to cause mental saturation. In this day and age, who among us has the capacity to remember a billion app names? If we can’t even remember such a numerous volume of apps, how can we aspire to use them?
In my opinion, authorities like Apple and Google should monitor the apps in their stores not just for quality, but for identity of vision as well. Apps that feel like cheap copies of pre-existing apps need to be banned! I, for one have had enough of my normal friends playing ruddy Fruit Ninja clones and asking me why it doesn’t look as good as it does on my phone!
There are shining examples of how stupendously done apps with a clear and fresh vision can go viral within days of conception. They are the intellectual property of individuals that have worked hard to develop not just the code for their apps, but the core concept as well. And we owe it to those striving developers to make sure that the integrity of that core concept remains preserved.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah kind of like the lack of remotely interesting original posts on this forum, verses the viral like increase in nonsense that seems intended to do nothing but allow some forum users to boost their post count ....
I think the main problem with this fragmentation is that it is in the nature of Social Discovery apps that there is some uniformity in use. To be able to actually find people through it requires that a lot of people are using the same one.
Only people use them for different reasons and therefor there is an app for any of those reasons. Like some want to use them just to stay in touch with their friends and family, others to meet new people (like me when I am going to a new place) and than there is a group that uses them for flirting or organizing sexual encounters (I am not judging)
I think the best innovation for companies would be to invent an app that combines these functions. I haven't been able to find one.
If you know one, please let me know.
Thank you, I enjoyed reading your view. I do share all your points other than the 'vision policing' part.
"In my opinion, authorities like Apple and Google should monitor the apps in their stores not just for quality, but for identity of vision as well."
If the vision could have been identified by the platform's creator then there wasn't a need for the App Store. The platform creator would have created every possibly visioned apps for its platform and not bother about the participation of thousands of developers on its ecosystem. Basically, to identify the visions one would restrict 'ideas' in which it does not go well with the creativity nature of mankind.
I found something on which you can have several profiles. So you can create one for every function you can have for a Social Discovery app. I think its sort of a good idea, because you don't need like ten thousants of profiles spread around over the net. Just use it however you want. I like that idea.
For me it's perfect because I always have a hard time remembering my passwords
It's called Evry'U. I found it through their facebook page that a friend linked me.
Did anybody heard of it?
Hey all!
A bunch of us have been putting together a web-based drawing app with mobile support. In a nutshell, users connect in real-time to draw or chat on a sort of interactive whiteboard. Plenty of these are made in Flash, but we are determined to build it in HTML5 (and JavaScript); a site that immediately works on mobile (because it's not Flash), tailors to everybody from drawing tablet users to people who want to screw around, chat and play games — and with an awesome, modern look that other apps lack. The thing that works so well is these kinds of programs give you a lot of freedom of expression that I think by making more accessible we can popularize, and truly get a future-proof, lasting community going.
Current drawing apps aren't too popular as they're not accessible to the host of many devices people use, chatting's not versatile or user-friendly enough to compete with chat sites, and their designs look god-awful like it's still the 90's. So with what we're after, there's insane potential in this project.
i.imgur.com/ZBz9gQi.png
This is the interface. I hope it gives you some sense of what we're aspiring for. It's predominantly HTML, CSS, and JS with server-client communication in HTML5's WebSockets, some points in PHP, and mobile development. If you're good with any of these, message me here, Skype drawplanet or email [email protected]. I'll be more than happy to answer any questions. And if you're critical of anything, nothing's set in stone. It's very much a by the community, for the community type of project.
Also on the hunt for people good with P2P networking, node.js, SQL, or server management.
At the moment we're hellbent on completing the first build with full-duplex drawing and mobile touch inputs.
A lot of JS goes into developing the tools. PHP's mainly account integration and forum features.
In design of course there's a separate UI for mobile, and in fact for anybody good with Photoshop or vector graphics there's some cool stuff we're keen to create.
Drop a message, or do Skype or email, if it's a project you want to get behind.
Still on the hunt. Fun project, hasn't been done before.
There's 7 devs on board at the moment, though we're looking for a little more expertise in some JavaScript frameworks, particularly Meteor. And while data's handled with WebSockets, we're also looking to do WebRTC and for incompatibility switch to WebSockets. Data management otherwise in SQL, and MongoDB or Redis.
Hit me up a message.
So, I'm in an interface design class and one of the more appealing options for an assignment was to make an application for mobile (we've been given 7 weeks to complete it but need to do at least 500 words of development discussion a week even if I somehow finish before then). I'm both glad this was one of the options as I've wanted to make something for a while now (though I seem to have misplaced my idea list) and a little nervous.
Right now I'm thinking something simple, does anyone have any ideas? This week will primarily be research for the professors journal requirements I think.
I will be happy to answer you
However there is no limit of app ideas, but in a simplest way if you are at the learning stage then I would like to recommend you to create an app with simple functionality with simple UI. Some of the examples I want to suggest here is chat application, book reviews, music app, photo sharing etc
Have you ever done one of these murder mystery dinners? They are pretty great, but usually limited to the one box / set of cards you buy. Maybe there is some benefit in bringing this game to the phone / tablet where you have GPS, camera, etc.?
What would I need in order to make a music or video player, or a chat application?
Sharing data sounds tricky.
Murder Mystery sounds interesting, however as it's a game sounds like I'd have to make a ton more assets to make it worthwhile.
One of the other ideas I had was to make a heartrate monitor with in-built journal. I know several of the monitors on the app store charge for the journaling feature. Alas I know not much about how they function other than they use the camera to measure the pulse in your finger.
PHONE-A-TAXI is an exclusive app that may be used in the event of being stranded. With GPS technology, it would detect the nearest taxi rank for whoever has subscribed to the service. To operate this app, one must telephone the taxi company in order to charter a taxi from the person’s exact location, and send it straight to the passenger.
How you would make money?
The app would be free for consumers but, in order to absorb the marketing costs, the developer could charge taxi firms a monthly subscription fee. They could also utilize the existence of social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, etc. to promote the app to potential consumers. The bigger the client base, the more you can charge the taxi firm annually, which would also be beneficial to the taxi company.
Hello,
I know that there are lots of posts like this, I had read lots of them already but I'm still stuck and don't know where to go.
I'm interested in developing (or learning) multiplayer games, but I don't know which libs/APIs should I use (that allows multiplatform). I keep asking myself, how is networking made in modern games.
What I want to create? For now, mobile game (2d, mainly android), with realtime client-server networking. I want to be able to connect to database (eg. SQL) for login system, but that's not a problem I guess. Server should be standalone (unlike what unity offers for free), with logic on server. I saw solutions where client and server was coded in different languages, I don't mind that. C++, C# and Java I know the most. At the moment I'm working in Unity, but still thinking if Cocos2dx wouldn't be good for doing it.
Any suggestions, how to learn networking for modern games? I'm more interested in learning it, than actually making a game.