I’ve been working with my son on a game using XMLSockets — it’s getting there and I’m looking forward in the next month posting a copy for folks to check out. It’s been 5 years since I had an interest in Sockets — they just never seemed to have the performance that I was looking for.
The key is not overdoing the server side — I’m front loading the client software to build out the logic (I’m not concerned with securing the client from attack, since these guys are 10 years old and if they know how to use ArtMoney to hack memory and give them extra scores then I’m sending them to college. ArtMoney if you haven’t heard is one of those programs that drives Flash game developers crazy — it’s often how folks hack the memory for a flash game and change their scores to create those nasty 1000000 point scores in a game where you can only get a max score of 10000.
I settled with a Perl based server after testing with PHP for a while — php just brought the server to a crawl and I didn’t want the ISP to boot me. Best solution would be a Java or C++/.Net socket in most probability, but the Perl module is really good for what I needed — the ability to connect 10 kids together and allow them to challenge each other in real time.
I always thought that Unity would be a cool product to use for this, but I don’t have access to the server to install a Java based solution and don’t have an enterprise solution waiting to be solved really, so I went real simple and used Perl.
Just this week I saw a great implementation of a socket game over at BigSpaceShip, and it was earily similar in server functionality (if not gameplay). I’m impressed with their effort there and respect the way they’ve created a usable online game.
