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25 | Using modified copyrighted music in non commercial games Background I'm making a retro style game for both fun, and an unofficial contest. I have bought a song, song X. However, I then found notation for song X, and all the instruments. So basically, it's a program recreating song X in a sense. I took the notation, and used another program to make it sound like a chiptune does (just for the fun of it, and it sounds good P). However, I would like to use this in my game. It's non commercial, but is this allowed? I would've said yes, because I'm not actually using the original, copyrighted song. I think the main point is can I Use the music with no reference to the author Use the music with a reference, since it's non profit. Not use the music at all since the melody and rhythm is copyright. |
25 | Legally possible to re create remake an old game? Recently I started remaking an old game on Unity. Basically I want to remake an old RPG that was released for Playstation 1. I'm not ripping anything from the old game, all the assets are being created by me. I'm creating everything from the scratch, music, 3D models, gameplay however I will keep the (copyrighted ?) names, I will try to create the characters and maps levels as they were in the original version of Playstation 1 but with better graphics. I'm not planning on selling it or adding in on a platform like Steam (for obvious reasons, copyrights etc), just giving it for free. But I wanna know when I will finish the development, can I share the game on public with other people so they can download it? Can the company that made the original game sue me fine me because of copyrights reasons even though I'm not planning on selling for money? tl dr Remake an non profit game of PS1 from the scratch, can the company that holds the copyrights of the game sue me fine me? |
25 | Showing "Please buy" screen to pirates I recently saw this and this, and that got me thinking When publishing a commercial game without DRM, would it be a good idea to upload a slightly modified copy of the game that shows a screen like this at startup to, say, The Pirate Bay Hello pirate! Looks like you downloaded this game from The Pirate Bay! That's okay, but Making a game costs time and money. If you like the game, please buy it so we can continue to update this game with new content! You buy it for only xx.xx at www.example.com! In the meantime Have fun! Press Enter to continue And then continues to the title screen and from there is identical to a legal copy. The point is that it will probably (very, very, VERY high chance that it will) be uploaded sooner or later anyway, so this may decrease the harm. Would that be a good idea? |
25 | Can I use fictional city country names from public domain fiction etc. in a potentially monetized browser game? I'm currently developing a browser game with a focus on economy, trading and industry. For that I'm building a fictional world with countries and cities. To avoid political drama within the games player interactions, I'd like to avoid using real countries that currently exist are recognized. I tried to come up with several fictional country names, but I'm reaching the limitations of my creativity where they are still OK sounding... My questions are now... Can I use fictional countries e.g. from movies comics etc (e.g. Sokovia from the Marvel universe)? Maybe with slight adjustments? Can I use older country or empire names (e.g. Babylonia)? Maybe also with slight adjustments. Can I use city names from the real world? I need a lot of them, so coming up with thousands brings me to my limit and there may probably be overlaps without me knowing. Based on the following question that should be fine, also since they have nothing to do with the real life equivalents. Do I need licensing to use real city names in my game? What about using planet or galaxy names which are public domain (or how are they protected, if at all)? I found some generators in the internet which are helpful to a certain degree, but I'd rather write my own to be honest. Since the game might be monetized, are there any licensing issues involved? I'm pretty new to this from a legal perspective. Another thing are the fictional company names the users can choose. I guess I can set certain restrictions there to exclude real world companies and provide a "report" button for real companies to request the removal change to be on the safe side. Thanks in advance PS Since I also needed flags, I already found a nice generator, in case someone is interested https www.reddit.com r vexillology comments 4ha19q flagmaker 20 ?st jb6e4qyk amp sh c1544079 |
25 | How or when to add a copyright notice in published games? I've seen lot of videogame title screens show a copyright notice together with the company name. I'm about to publish my game and I am looking for possibilities or requirements on how or when to add such a copyright notice (including date or year published). Does it apply to both indie game makers and larger companies? |
25 | Is It Okay To Use Real Designs In My 2D Game? Cars and Weapons I am making a 2D mobile game that includes cars and weapons (like GTA let's say). I am using real car and weapons designs to make 2D images, however, I use made up names for the both cars and the weapons. Is it still copyrighted? For example Traffic Racer and Traffic Rider. In the games, the car models are exactly the same as the real ones, but there is no logo nor name in Traffic Racer. In Traffic Rider, you can clearly see BMW in the game (both the design and the logo). Because of these examples, I think, my situation should be okay since the game is not even 3D. |
25 | Is it legal to imitate a game without publishing it If you're developing a game that's very similar to a game that's already published, both the game mechanics and the graphics but you're not publishing it, instead you're keeping it in your own computer. Is it legal to do so? |
25 | Is it legal to imitate a game without publishing it If you're developing a game that's very similar to a game that's already published, both the game mechanics and the graphics but you're not publishing it, instead you're keeping it in your own computer. Is it legal to do so? |
25 | Does a pong clone called "Ping" infringe on any copyrights or trademarks? Long story short, I made a retro Pong clone and submitted it to the App Store as my first app. It survived for a bit, but I eventually received a message from Atari tell me to remove it. There was nothing more than that, I just took it down, and they made no other demands. Since then, it has remained removed. I have become a much better programmer now and would now like to re create my original app and upload it again. However, I'm afraid that something of the sort would happen again. Is remaking the game itself against any laws? If not, would using the name "Super Ping" instead of "Super Pong" be legal? |
25 | Conundrum with quality and virus reports is our game releasable? I've just got done talking to the CEO of our independent game studio about one of our projects nearing completion. We're considering canning the whole project for a number of reasons There are partly, some quality issues. Combat can be fun and in depth but for the most part you can get by with mashing buttons. It leaves the feeling that the advanced combat was really tagged on just to add something. When in reality a lot of work went into it. The game didn't end up as envisioned. It's become really a mindless combat game when originally story was planned to be important. Now the story is rather nonexistent. And probably the biggest issue. Rather recently we've been getting reports from testers that the game is being reported as a virus(in a few cases). We looked into this and found it's the way the engine was made. We're using a 3rd party engine and while originally the maker was very approachable, he's become rather unreachable and apathetic to our problems. Me and him have talked a long time on this and we lean on it not being releasable. This would also though be a very big hit to the lead programmer who's put in a considerable amount of time on this, nearly a year. What ramifications would happen if this is released? I'm told it could get on steam, and I'm thinking it could be pulled and really hurt our image. Also I mentioned we could be backlisted by our publisher if they consider the virus issue to be deceiving them. Could we be sued? Would you consider it releasable? I think this is a very important decision every game studio might have to make one day and I'd really like as much input as I can get. Thank you edit Also it might matter that we have another version of the game already being made for html5 which is being developed in house with our own custom engine. We're thinking of just focusing on this and learning from our mistakes. |
25 | How do I protect my rights to my game on the web? My small games all have different gameplay. I want to showcase them through the internet. However, I'm worried about them and their concepts getting copied. How can I protect them? Also, if I have to openly display the code to the open source community, how can I make sure I get credit for my work. |
25 | I am creating a Tetris clone on Khanacademy, will I get into trouble? For those don't know, Khanacademy is an education site that also has lessons on simple computer programming and allows you to publish your own games that are made on the website. |
25 | Copyright notices on a web game portal I notice that for several games on Kongregate, the copyright notice either uses the author's handle name (login name), the name of the group that produce it or a domain name. Are all those valid copyright notices? |
25 | Purchasing a TV show adaptation rights, how does it work? Basically, I was thinking about a game based on a TV show, just for fun, and ended up thinking "well, it's not like it can be made anyway". Or can it? In the present situation, developing a game by myself ourselves on my our free time, and then using crowdfunding to purchase the rights is not that crazy, if the show is really popular... and the rights not too expensive. Purchasing the rights of the whole show is obiously a sh!tload of money, but what about adaptation rights? What is the range of price it can be? Is it a percentage of the full rights? Does it depend on the kind of adaptation (novel vs. toy vs. game)? ps if it can help answer, I was thinking about a MLPFIM retro RPG. Please don't laugh at me. |
25 | Could I get in to trouble for "rickrolling" users in my commercial game? Not sure if this question is too stupid but, theoretically speaking... Could you get into trouble for using something like Application.OpenURL in a commercial game to rickroll a player or would that be legally okay? (sorry this question is really stupid) |
25 | What is the proper, legal way to make a derivative video game? I want to make a game derived from an existing game. That game is owned by a live company. How do I go about contacting the rights owners correctly and negotiating for the rights to the content? |
25 | License for a casino game with virtual money (chips) Do I need a specific license for operating a casino game (lets say poker Hold'em or video slots) that players are supposed to play with virtual money (chips) only? I am speaking about games like Zynga poker, Poker Deluxe, Slotomania and the hundreds other similar games on iTunes or Google Play. Players start with a certain amount of chips and if they run out they can rebuy a bundle of coins to keep playing. The users may not exchange those collected virtual funds (chips) for products or services, or cash out for real money, but just keep on playing for a fun. Do I need any license for operating such a game? |
25 | Are there any good ways to know if a resource is patented trademark or illegal to use? This is something that I worried about for a long time. While making games, it is hard to tell for sure if any of the resources are copyrighted unless a person is clearly aware that they are to a like to an image that have known in certain work done. I wanted to make a 2D MMO, that in certain ways might be similar to "Pok mon". I did not want to make an illegal game, but it is just that there are certain elements that I want in the game which are similar to those in "Pok mon". I also wanted to possibly sell the features of it, if the project succeeds and works out all well. What exactly are some ways that I can find out for sure if images that I am using are illegal to use or not. The element which I am worried about in the game which I was planning to make was about creature battling and summoning. Thankfully, game concepts cannot be copyrighted, but I did not want to take or use images that were exactly like those in "Pok mon", and I wanted to make a game that is very different in many ways. I might have wanted to use creatures in a similar cartoon fashion that is used in "Pok mon". This has been somewhat of a concern, to me, though as about the legal issues possibly. |
25 | Is a warning about IAP in freemium games on iOS required? When I launch the successful iOS game "Clash of Clans", right in the beginning I get the following message in an iOS info pop up "Clash of Clans is free to play, but you can speed up your progress with in app purchases. If desired, purchases can be disabled in the general settings of your device." What's the reason the developer shows this message right in the beginning? Is there any legal obligation to do so? |
25 | Do you need special permission to personify companies as characters? in the Hyperdimension Neptunia series a number of human characters are personifications of games companies ie. Compa Compile Heart Red Red Entertainment Tekken Namco Falcom Nihon Falcom Cave CAVE Interactive IF (Iffy) Idea Factory Nippon Ichi chan Nisa Nippon Ichi Software Nippon Ichi Software America I am wondering if the creators of Hyperdimension Neptunia had to get special permission licences from companies to personify them in the game? (ie. a developer personifying Valve or Square in their own game) |
25 | Implementing an existing (but out of print) game electronically One of my favorite games is the old Avalon Hill class, PanzerBlitz. I would like to implement it electronically, and have a couple questions related to that Would I be in legal trouble if I do this? (note this is not for sale or distribution) How would I go about implementing the hex grid and piece database most effectively (each piece has a variety of 'factors' (movement, carryability, attack, defense, unit type)? The game play and mechanics are already well defined in the written rules so I'm not writing the game from scratch just programming it to follow the board game. |
25 | License for a casino game with virtual money (chips) Do I need a specific license for operating a casino game (lets say poker Hold'em or video slots) that players are supposed to play with virtual money (chips) only? I am speaking about games like Zynga poker, Poker Deluxe, Slotomania and the hundreds other similar games on iTunes or Google Play. Players start with a certain amount of chips and if they run out they can rebuy a bundle of coins to keep playing. The users may not exchange those collected virtual funds (chips) for products or services, or cash out for real money, but just keep on playing for a fun. Do I need any license for operating such a game? |
25 | To what extent it is legal to declare support of third party commercial products' assets? Is it legal to say that MyGame supports other (specific) games' textures, sounds and models? I'd like to get involved into an open source game project and implement support for Quake's weapon models (for example), but the owners of the project don't know about the legal aspect of it, so I'm asking here. |
25 | When I use a font in my game, do I have to include its license in the credits? For example, if I use this font from Google Fonts https fonts.google.com specimen Open Sans This font is licensed under Apache License 2.0 But regardless of the license, if it allows commercial use, do I have to include a notice or the license in the credits? (assuming that I didn't modify the font) |
25 | Can I use someone else's music midi? The music in question is not exactly owned by the other individual either, as it's simply an arrangement of a game's soundtrack as a midi or music sheet. Am I allowed to use these in my videogame? Should those persons be given credit or should it go to the original composers of the track in the original video game? Should I ask for permission for the authors of the rearrange? What if the file and site list no author? What if it lists an author but I have no means to reach and ask? |
25 | About to release a free game on Google Play Store, any legal considerations I should take into account? I will release in the next few weeks a small free game on the Google Play Store. I was wondering if there was any important legal aspects I should consider before release. Here's a few infos I'm doing this alone. There's no code graphic assets gameplay concepts I would like to protect in particular. I don't have any issues with people copying something from my game. I'm not sure right now, but maybe I'll add the possibility to make a small donation (so there will be IAP in a sense). I'm using a music track from http opengameart.org . The author has specified that it wasn't necessary to credit him, though I would like to. |
25 | Can I sample audio sources from others without asking? As the title says, would it be considered legal if I take a part of an audio source (any media like music, dialog, video, etc.) to use in a project, whether it is for commercial or non commercial purposes, without contacting the owner creator of the asset? As an example, Earthbound used this technique to create unique and memorable soundtracks. |
25 | When I use a font in my game, do I have to include its license in the credits? For example, if I use this font from Google Fonts https fonts.google.com specimen Open Sans This font is licensed under Apache License 2.0 But regardless of the license, if it allows commercial use, do I have to include a notice or the license in the credits? (assuming that I didn't modify the font) |
25 | Having Your Own Copyrighted App Automatically After Publishing I have a question regarding for the game app and in business. You see, I decided to publish an app to Google Play. When I published it, does this app automatically declared that this app is copyrighted or copyright protected by the publisher and creator like me itself or not? If not, does it have to seek something or required to register this app for copyright authentication via online or at office or not? |
25 | Legal issues around forming an international game dev team A friend and I have been wanting to collaborate on a mobile app game. It's a 'start small but dream big' kind of venture, where neither of us has much experience, but we're hoping that if we succeed, we could build on it and become a proper full time game dev studio in the future. The main issue here is that we're both from different countries, and neither of us wants to risk personal liability in releasing a game without having first formed a LLC. I know the odds of ACTUALLY being personally sued for damages are very low, but it's just not a risk that we want to take. There seem to be a lot of problems with forming a LLC when both people are in different countries, though. There are multiple laws against having a co founder, director, or even an employee being someone from a different country. How do game dev teams or studios consisting of people all around the world get around this problem? |
25 | Is it OK to use player supplied music in my game? Is it copyright infringement if I create a game based around music beats but allow the players to use their own mp3 files? |
25 | When I use a font in my game, do I have to include its license in the credits? For example, if I use this font from Google Fonts https fonts.google.com specimen Open Sans This font is licensed under Apache License 2.0 But regardless of the license, if it allows commercial use, do I have to include a notice or the license in the credits? (assuming that I didn't modify the font) |
25 | what is the legality behind "openMW" ( an open source implementation of morrowind) knowing bethesda those people probably sue hard....yet there is an open source implementation of morrowind which is actually quite good. but that question remains, what is the legality behind all of this? is it legal to distribute a free open source implementation adaptation of a videogame? |
25 | Using modified copyrighted music in non commercial games Background I'm making a retro style game for both fun, and an unofficial contest. I have bought a song, song X. However, I then found notation for song X, and all the instruments. So basically, it's a program recreating song X in a sense. I took the notation, and used another program to make it sound like a chiptune does (just for the fun of it, and it sounds good P). However, I would like to use this in my game. It's non commercial, but is this allowed? I would've said yes, because I'm not actually using the original, copyrighted song. I think the main point is can I Use the music with no reference to the author Use the music with a reference, since it's non profit. Not use the music at all since the melody and rhythm is copyright. |
25 | FOSS games using original assets, is it legal? Can I make a game that uses the assets of another game on the users' computer, without legal issues? For example, I make a game that requires the user have game X installed, and I use the assets of game X in my game. The assets of game X would not be distributed with my game. I realize it will be hard for companies to check, but can you use the assets for other purposes than originally intended (playing the original game)? As a more concrete example, is playing a game like OpenXcom really legal, when you own the original game? |
25 | Marching Cubes Legalities? I know this isn't a "Is this legal" website, but because Marching Cubes is definitely a large subject in game development, and isn't really about a specific graphic item, it would pass... To the point! Does anyone know whether Marching Cubes is allowed in a commercial game? If so is there anything i must do? Credit to someone company etc? Cheers. |
25 | Can I use models of real cars with logos removed to avoid copyright infringement? My friends and I have recently started making a video game. We were going to make it an open world simulator, but can't figure out if using real cars with the real logos is copyright infringement. How can we stay on the right side of the law here? |
25 | Copyright and patents on game design and names? We all know that each game has elements from another game but when does one cross the line of copyright? I have a view particular questions about this since this "line" is very vague. While looking for a name and Googling it usually return some kind of old or unknown game already with the exact same name. Can i use this name? And what about a name like Diablo, since Diablo is the commonly used name for the devil there cannot be a patent on this afaik. So would a different kind of game named Diablo be allowed? Let's say i want to make a game of mechs like in Mechwarrior. Obviously the mech designs have copyright, the name as well since i suppose. But am i crossing any rights if i make a top down tactical squad game that include mechs of different designs names and call it Clash of Steel? I understand there are not much lawyers here, but how could anyone create a game these days that does not cross the lines of copyright. Like the Mechwarrior example, there are plenty of games nowadays even movies that use this concept. For what it matters Mechwarrior could have ripped the idea from the Gundam anime series. With so many titles coming out each week including the indies it is next to impossible not to infringe into someone copyright. |
25 | How not to break licence laws? I have an idea for a game. Also I have almost everything worked out considering coding. What interests me the most is how can I know if that game can be published. As it would be for iOS and android, these markets are of the geratest interest for me. I found on apples store something similair to what I would make and it's published by some big game developer. How can I be sure I am not breaking any laws when publishing the game? Can I make a game like board game 'Risk'? I don't have any knowledge considering licencing. This game would be avaliable for free, with an option to donate, so money isn't my objective (but it won't hurt) |
25 | If I release code under GPLv3, can I specify what parts of users' code can be released under a new license? I have a few questions about what users of my engine could copyright in their own project. The way the engine would work would be that it would be a standalone program in Java that would load all of the scripts assets data from a folder that the game takes place in. The code could be written in Python or compiled to Java. Onto my questions, the code that they write would access some parts of my engine through Jython, and so I assume those would have to be released under the GPL. But what about the rest of the game other than the code? Like could they copyright their own art? I guess what I really want is that modifications of the code of the engine must be released under the GPL, but projects created using my engine can be released under any copyright, as long as they obey they distribute the engine itself under the GPL. |
25 | Issues using real names in a soccer player game Is illegal to use the real player and team names in a game? When I say game could be and desktop, mobile or fantasy game. If is illegal, is ok to change a little bit names? Instead of using Messi could I use Messsi (or something similar)? All gambling and statistics soccer websites have permissions to use those names? Thanks! |
25 | Implementing an existing (but out of print) game electronically One of my favorite games is the old Avalon Hill class, PanzerBlitz. I would like to implement it electronically, and have a couple questions related to that Would I be in legal trouble if I do this? (note this is not for sale or distribution) How would I go about implementing the hex grid and piece database most effectively (each piece has a variety of 'factors' (movement, carryability, attack, defense, unit type)? The game play and mechanics are already well defined in the written rules so I'm not writing the game from scratch just programming it to follow the board game. |
25 | Tetris Copyright Issues? I am making a Tetris clone with a new idea but I won't use the Tetris or Tetriminos name in the game I will refer to them as Tetrominos. Will there be copyright issues if I release this game? Does the Tetris company own the right to produce "Tetris" games? |
26 | Sever side physics simulation and client 'inputs' send rate in a fast multiplayer game I am building a very tiny first person multiplayer game. I'm just aiming to get the basic rights client side prediction and reconciliation entity interpolation. I have read many articles on these topics but I have a question that I can't find answer for. Consider the following problem There's a queue on the server where the client inputs are stored (movement keys camera vectors) Server runs the physics simulation 60 times per second. This means that each input from a client will be simulated for 16.6 ms. Now, consider that I have two clients one with a beefy computer able to run the game loop 100 times per second, and a slower one that is only able to run it 30 times per second. My game will send the 'client inputs' packet to the server on every iteration of the game loop. This means that the 100 fps client will send 100 packets, while the 30 fps client only 30. What this means is that the fast client will get more simulation time on the server, since each input is simulated for 16ms. So the fast client will move significantly more than the slower client. What is the appropriate way to design the 'client input' packet send rate? What is a solution that ensures that fast clients and slow clients receive an equal or roughly equal amount of simulation time? Thanks for your time! |
26 | Single player game into Multiplayer game I developed a Single player game in Flash (Tic Tac Toe) and in the Multiplayer mode i will be able to do both player playing on the same system with out network. I would like to extend it and make it enable to play the Multiplayer game for two player playing it online. How i can be made give me some ideas , How test the Multiplayer game playing along with different computers(I do not have internet connection in home). How I able to change the single player game into Multiplayer game , any minor changes required or I have to change the code base completely. In which way i can make it possible. |
26 | Why do console versions of multiplayer games support fewer players than PC versions? source http answers.yahoo.com question index?qid 20111205162848AAb1sl9 64 Players on P.C ( 32vs32) amp bigger maps with more vehicles amp buildings. 24 on Consoles ( 12vs12) ( It was planned to have a 32 player limit, but was later reduced to 24). Why does the console version have a maximum of 24 players? Is it hardware related? One of the reason was that players can host games themselves. If thats true its very sad that you cannot play 32x32, because one or two guys want to host games. |
26 | How do I maintain game balance while promoting interaction between dead and alive players? How do you motivate players to be content with randomly selected roles that are often complex to play and differ drastically in playstyle (AND to stick around till the end of game)? Some background Town of Salem is a more diversified and polished version of the popular "party games" such as Mafia and Werewolf. There are about 30 roles with offensive defensive supportive investigative specializations, assigned to players at random. Most of all, many roles have unconventional abilities that provide incentives for any player to stay engaged during each stage of a game session (i.e. early game initiative, mid game, and end game) For example Medium can chat with dead players. The catch is that the names of such dead players ("out of play") are anonymous to Medium. In this sense, it provides a greater flexibility in player contribution overall with a strong emphasis on mid and late game . Players are motivated to keep deducing and cooperating until the game is declared over (as opposed to sitting back once they are out of play) knowing that their intel can affect the outcome via Medium regardless of how early they were killed off. I am also interested to see examples from multiplayer games in the same genre. |
26 | In what kind of variable type is the player position stored on a MMORPG such as WoW? I even heard J. Carmack quickly talk about it... How a software can track a player's position so accurately, being on a such huge world, without loading between zones, and on a multiplayer scale ? How is the data formatted when it passes through the netcode ? I can understand how vertices are stored into the graphic card's memory, but when it comes to synchronize the multiplayer, I can't imagine what is best. |
26 | What freeware frameworks and tools to choose if I want to build a game like Farmville or Club Penguin? Say I like to experiment with multiplayer games and I do not want to reinvent the wheel and build yet another game server. I don t mind configuring and writing wrappers and adapters (both in c and java) for the server. What server does Farmville use? Is it Java or C based? What isometric flash engine do they use? What other examples can I look into to learn the subject? Thanks. |
26 | Can I use sdl net2.0 with cocos2d x? Can I use sdl net2.0 lib with cocos2d x? And how it cconects to each other. Or analog lib to use? |
26 | Randomly generated maps in Multiplayer I am currently trying to get randomly generated maps work in multiplayer but I have so many difficulties trying to figure out how. How do other games implement this(Minecraft, Terraria, Don't starve)? My current solutions are as follows. Generate the map client side and verify(Hash?) This is the least bandwidth intense but the algorithm needs to be EXACTLY the same as the server side and it is the easiest to exploit. Generate Server side and transfer to client This method will ensure that the players all have the EXACT same map, but it it very resource intensive for the server and requires a lot of bandwidth and increased loading times. |
26 | How is shot synchronization implemented in multiplayer FPS? I'm building a 2D multiplayer shooter game. I have singleplayer working and started working on multiplayer part (server code,...) and there is one thing I just can't get my head around. When player shoots someone, who is moving, and he has high latency ( 200ms or something like that) how to synchronize it with the other client? I thought that the shot vector could be sent relatively to targeted player (so when he would recieve the info about the shot, he could animate the shot hitting him). Problem is, shots can destroy enviroment or hit other players. So when I shoot a target and there aren't any obstacles, he gets hit and the packet about shot hitting him gets sent. 200ms ( other player latency) later, other player recieves the packet, but in that time, he moved behind an obstacle. Problem rises a) If the obstacle is destroyable by the shot, clients will have different map (shooting player will have map with obstacle, while the other player will have the obstacle destroyed) b) If the obstacle can't be destroyed, other player will either complain, because he got shot through impenetrable obstacle or the shot will be shot, so shooter will think that target got hit and target won't see any hit. I just can't find a better way to solve this. Any ideas or examples how other games did it? |
26 | How can I find an optimum set of colors for 10 players? I want to give each of 10 players a unique identifying color. Is there an optimum set of colors for this? How do I create one? Every set I've come up with contains colors that are too similar. Update I was asked below what this is for (fair question). Now I can tell you Windwardopolis and the colors worked great. |
26 | How to detect and prevent abuse (botting) of online game API? I have been ocassionally working on a game idea in my free time. The gameplay and content renders it to be implemented as a online multiplayer game built with well established web technologies. You should know that it falls into the strategy and simulation genre. That means No running around with characters or similar but only atomic actions (regarding client server communication) like "build thing A on location X". At one point I realized there is a huge problem having a browser based front end relying on a REST API back end makes it a more than excellent target for bots. While automation is desireable for business it is poison to a game which is about fun. I experienced it first hand in a browser game in the past were the most successful players were bots which subdued everybody. From my current point of view I do not see any possibility to protect against bots when building a multiplayer online game based on a REST API. Exception Making it open source so everybody can host his own instance for private groups or even just oneself (to not get annoyed by jerks with bots). Is there any way to differenciate between an honest player who just set an alarm for the next possible action and a bot automatically taking every chance on appearance of it? Besides such show stoppers like captchas. If not, I would think about another technology stack which makes it at least much harder to mess with client server communication (proprietary encrypted binary protocol in a native code client). Edit Thank you, your answers are inspiring but also made me realize that specific countermeasures cannot be made by going further into details of the game. However, that would be too much for a question on Stack Exchange. So I just want to point out the most important points Players are exploring, developing and managing whenever they want to. Their businesses still run fine when they are offline (it is a peaceful game, no weapons involved). Only expansion and progress need the players action. Those actions are limited by time is one of the key resources (like in EVE Online skill training). All processes in game require it. There is no point in being online 24 7. The average player should be successful already with spending not more than an hour every day in one or two sessions (roughly, the concept is still in development). |
26 | How can I make actions that effect the position of another player appear responsive when my game server is authoritative? You are playing as Lucio in Overwatch. You boop another player and they immediately get booped away. It feels really responsive. But the server hasn't actually registered the boop yet. By the time your command reaches the server, that player might be in a different location and the result of your boop might be completely different. If we needed to wait for a server confirmation, we wouldn't see our boop for, say, 200ms. (assuming 200ms RTT.) You are driving around in PUBG and see another player. You drive your car in to a player who is running around on foot. They appear to immediately die or at least get bumped away by the impact. You hit the player where you saw him but he is actually somewhere else on the server (you may have actually missed him!). If our game does not respond immediately, we would see the other player clip in to your car as they continue running, then, say, 200ms later they would die or get knocked around (again assuming a RTT of 200ms) How are situations like these resolved? It seems like the result is simulated locally (prediction) but the outcomes could be so drastic that an incorrect prediction could result in a lot of confusion. (Running over a player who isn't actually in your way, booping a player to your left off a cliff, but they are actually in front of you and won't fall down the cliff) |
26 | how should a server handle client actions? So I've just started trying to make a multiplayer pong game and I have read a lot of different ways to code the connections. However, I read somewhere that you should have the inputs sent to the server queue up and then the server just processes it at fixed intervals. However, if this is done, how does the server know, process, and send accurate data based on the time the action was sent? Because if the data is just queued up, if something happens like 100 ms after another but the server processes them at the same time, wouldn't that mess up the synchronization of the game? Should the server instead be coded to handle the client actions immediately even if it costs a lot of cpu etc in larger games? |
26 | SQLite Query from unknown table based on known column value single query I'm working on a database to back up my online TCG. It's currently SQLite, but I'm going to transition it to a MySQL database later. Currently, I have three distinct types of cards with their own unique fields. For example. However, all cards have a single uniqueid that I use to refer to them. TABLE cards CARD ID as INT CARD TYPE as INT TYPE ID as INT TABLE creature cards CARD ID as INT TYPE ID as INT NAME as TEXT FLAVOR as TEXT ATTACK as INT DEFENSE as INT ELEMENT as INT FLAGS as INT MANA COST as TEXT TABLE spell cards CARD ID as INT TYPE ID as INT NAME as TEXT FLAVOR as TEXT SPELL TYPE as INT ELEMENT as INT MANA COST as TEXT TABLE mana cards CARD ID as INT TYPE ID as INT NAME as TEXT FLAVOR as TEXT ELEMENT as INT I'm trying to figure out how to build a query that will allow me to get all fields from a specific table without knowing the table I need to pull from ahead of time. Basically, I want to be able to supply CARD ID, query the cards table, and use the CARD TYPE and TYPE ID to return the row from creature cards where CARD TYPE is 1, spell cards where CARD TYPE is 2, and mana cards where CARD TYPE is 3. I'm currently doing this through two separate queries and doing the logic on the backend, but I'm wondering if there's a way to get the data all in one query, because my queries can be quite time consuming. Would it just be better to jam all card fields into one table, rather than keeping them in three separate tables? |
26 | Sever side physics simulation and client 'inputs' send rate in a fast multiplayer game I am building a very tiny first person multiplayer game. I'm just aiming to get the basic rights client side prediction and reconciliation entity interpolation. I have read many articles on these topics but I have a question that I can't find answer for. Consider the following problem There's a queue on the server where the client inputs are stored (movement keys camera vectors) Server runs the physics simulation 60 times per second. This means that each input from a client will be simulated for 16.6 ms. Now, consider that I have two clients one with a beefy computer able to run the game loop 100 times per second, and a slower one that is only able to run it 30 times per second. My game will send the 'client inputs' packet to the server on every iteration of the game loop. This means that the 100 fps client will send 100 packets, while the 30 fps client only 30. What this means is that the fast client will get more simulation time on the server, since each input is simulated for 16ms. So the fast client will move significantly more than the slower client. What is the appropriate way to design the 'client input' packet send rate? What is a solution that ensures that fast clients and slow clients receive an equal or roughly equal amount of simulation time? Thanks for your time! |
26 | How can I make actions that effect the position of another player appear responsive when my game server is authoritative? You are playing as Lucio in Overwatch. You boop another player and they immediately get booped away. It feels really responsive. But the server hasn't actually registered the boop yet. By the time your command reaches the server, that player might be in a different location and the result of your boop might be completely different. If we needed to wait for a server confirmation, we wouldn't see our boop for, say, 200ms. (assuming 200ms RTT.) You are driving around in PUBG and see another player. You drive your car in to a player who is running around on foot. They appear to immediately die or at least get bumped away by the impact. You hit the player where you saw him but he is actually somewhere else on the server (you may have actually missed him!). If our game does not respond immediately, we would see the other player clip in to your car as they continue running, then, say, 200ms later they would die or get knocked around (again assuming a RTT of 200ms) How are situations like these resolved? It seems like the result is simulated locally (prediction) but the outcomes could be so drastic that an incorrect prediction could result in a lot of confusion. (Running over a player who isn't actually in your way, booping a player to your left off a cliff, but they are actually in front of you and won't fall down the cliff) |
26 | How can I keep a consistent number of players per match in a continuous multiplayer game? Fortnite Battle Royale is an example of a non continuous multiplayer game. 100 players join a game which has fixed start and end times. When there's only one player remaining, the game ends. Agar.io is an example of what I like to call a continuous multiplayer game. Players join in and die out, but the game goes on forever. How would a game developer design a system to split players into different groups when there're too many online to fit in a single game? Let's say a game has a limit of 10 players, and 50 players are trying to join. The server will split them up into 5 separate groups. New players will be sorted evenly into these groups to replace players who died. When the player count increases past the global limit, new games will be created to fit them. The problem arises when the player count decreases. The system needs some way to seamlessly delete extra groups of players that are no longer needed. How can that be done without A) interrupting games to merge players together or B) block new players from joining into the group(s) that require deletion and waiting for everyone in it to die (which will be a bad experience for the last few players). Agar.io obviously has a player population management system that works, so how do they do it? |
26 | Race condition implementing World Boss System in Web Browser MMO using PHP I am trying to create a world boss system using PHP. But I am having a problem with how to account for all the damage while updating the health of the boss in real time. The current damage process is as follows Get boss' current HP from database. Reduce the HP based on the calculated damage. Update the boss' HP to database. Example Player 1 (P1) attacks the boss. Calculated damage is 10. The boss' current HP is saved to variable boss hp which is 100. It will now be boss hp 10. Which is 90. The boss' HP in database is then updated. Now, imagine two player attack the boss simultaneously... P1 attacks the boss. Calculated damage is 10. The boss' current HP is saved to variable boss hp which is 100. It will now be boss hp 10. Which is 90. Before P1 updates the boss hp in database, P2 also damages the boss. P2 saved the boss' current HP to his her own boss hp variable which is 100 at the moment. P2 also performs step 2. boss hp 10. Which is also 90. P1 now updates the boss hp in database ( 90). P2 also updates the boss hp in database ( 90). The boss hp should be 80 but the damage of P1 has been neglected since P2 updates the boss hp last. How to avoid this problem? |
26 | How do you get a multiplayer only game to reach critical mass? Say you have a multiplayer only game in which players are randomly paired head to head against a random online player... How do get such a beast off the ground? You need enough players online at all times such that any random player game request will be paired with someone else's request. Chicken and egg ... You need players to play but without players to play no players will play! How do I reformulate the problem to make this work? This happened to me a while back and I haven't come up with anything useful since. https github.com fictorial Rock Paper Scissors World Masters iOS |
26 | SQLite Query from unknown table based on known column value single query I'm working on a database to back up my online TCG. It's currently SQLite, but I'm going to transition it to a MySQL database later. Currently, I have three distinct types of cards with their own unique fields. For example. However, all cards have a single uniqueid that I use to refer to them. TABLE cards CARD ID as INT CARD TYPE as INT TYPE ID as INT TABLE creature cards CARD ID as INT TYPE ID as INT NAME as TEXT FLAVOR as TEXT ATTACK as INT DEFENSE as INT ELEMENT as INT FLAGS as INT MANA COST as TEXT TABLE spell cards CARD ID as INT TYPE ID as INT NAME as TEXT FLAVOR as TEXT SPELL TYPE as INT ELEMENT as INT MANA COST as TEXT TABLE mana cards CARD ID as INT TYPE ID as INT NAME as TEXT FLAVOR as TEXT ELEMENT as INT I'm trying to figure out how to build a query that will allow me to get all fields from a specific table without knowing the table I need to pull from ahead of time. Basically, I want to be able to supply CARD ID, query the cards table, and use the CARD TYPE and TYPE ID to return the row from creature cards where CARD TYPE is 1, spell cards where CARD TYPE is 2, and mana cards where CARD TYPE is 3. I'm currently doing this through two separate queries and doing the logic on the backend, but I'm wondering if there's a way to get the data all in one query, because my queries can be quite time consuming. Would it just be better to jam all card fields into one table, rather than keeping them in three separate tables? |
26 | Client side prediction for movement? How would client side prediction for movement work? From how I understand it, the player inputs "Move Forward" and the character on the player's computer instantly starts to move forward. It also sends the input to the server along with a framestamp, say frame 100. The input arrives at the server on frame 110. The server knows that the player started movement on frame 100 so the character would've moved forward for 10 frames. On the server, the character moves forward 10 frame's worth then the result is sent. The official state is received and since it nearly matches up with the player's gamestate, the transition is smooth. My concern is about how this would look on other people's computers who don't have knowledge of the input only gamestate. How is 10 frame's worth of movement smoothed out when the other computer hasn't started moving the character forward 10 frames earlier? |
26 | Synchronizing "token" between players(multiplayer) I am implementing the multiplayer(client server architecture) of a game, and I came to doubt about entities common to players. I understand how to share information such as the position of the players among themselves. However I am caught up in the logic of how to do for the common entities between them. Imagine Two players and a chicken, how would you share the position of the chicken between them? because it needs to move, and can not move in different places in the two clients, the two clients should see the chicken in the local place, but if I send the position of the chicken of one client, and also the other, there may be conflicts. What should I do. Choose one of the clients to be the "master" who will send the chicken position to the other players? How do they handle this in online games? I am thinking of doing the following I can not imagine the calculations being done on the server working properly, I will use the example of the hens, my hens would have an AI maybe too complex to stay on the server. I thought the following, one of the clients of the update area, as it is a big map, the clients are receiving updates being in chunks of the map, then one of the clients would be the master (the first one that entered the channel) , the others would just listen to it, the "master" client would then send to the server the chicken positions states and the server would send to all the clients enrolled in the channel the chicken position status. It works similar to a "token" who is at the top of the channel users list is going to deal with the chicken's calculations. advantages Less work for the server to handle. Disadvantages Poorly trained players could change the position of the hen and make the game experience unpleasant. What could you do to avoid this disadvantage? |
26 | How to detect and prevent abuse (botting) of online game API? I have been ocassionally working on a game idea in my free time. The gameplay and content renders it to be implemented as a online multiplayer game built with well established web technologies. You should know that it falls into the strategy and simulation genre. That means No running around with characters or similar but only atomic actions (regarding client server communication) like "build thing A on location X". At one point I realized there is a huge problem having a browser based front end relying on a REST API back end makes it a more than excellent target for bots. While automation is desireable for business it is poison to a game which is about fun. I experienced it first hand in a browser game in the past were the most successful players were bots which subdued everybody. From my current point of view I do not see any possibility to protect against bots when building a multiplayer online game based on a REST API. Exception Making it open source so everybody can host his own instance for private groups or even just oneself (to not get annoyed by jerks with bots). Is there any way to differenciate between an honest player who just set an alarm for the next possible action and a bot automatically taking every chance on appearance of it? Besides such show stoppers like captchas. If not, I would think about another technology stack which makes it at least much harder to mess with client server communication (proprietary encrypted binary protocol in a native code client). Edit Thank you, your answers are inspiring but also made me realize that specific countermeasures cannot be made by going further into details of the game. However, that would be too much for a question on Stack Exchange. So I just want to point out the most important points Players are exploring, developing and managing whenever they want to. Their businesses still run fine when they are offline (it is a peaceful game, no weapons involved). Only expansion and progress need the players action. Those actions are limited by time is one of the key resources (like in EVE Online skill training). All processes in game require it. There is no point in being online 24 7. The average player should be successful already with spending not more than an hour every day in one or two sessions (roughly, the concept is still in development). |
26 | (web game) text based combat system shows progress to client instead of give a report at the end I am developing a text based multiplayer RPG using React and dotNet core. The fight logic is handled on server side. Basically what fight() does is a while loop that iterate 100 times in each iteration the characters attack each other actions are stored in a string list a winner is determined either at the end of the while loop or one's hp is below 0 write the fight result and rewards into database send response back to client with the combat log (that string list) This is what the fight() basically does. Players clicks fight and get the result and the report instantly. I would like to make the fight more engaging to the players by showing the fight's progress in each round (and add time interval between rounds). I don't know how to achieve this. I would appreciate any ideas you share. I could let the client side see a quot replay quot of the fight using the response from the server, but that's not what I want. Maybe this is something other idle games are doing. I don't know since I don't have much experience of game developing. |
26 | Testing Multiplayer Browser Game on Single Computer I am writing a multiplay browser based game and am running into an issue with playtesting simple interactions. When a browser window loses focus is stops running requestAnimationFrame calls. This effectively pauses the state all visuals when focus is lost. I would like to have two instances of the game running at the same time. I could playtest in one window and observe how a thirdparty would see those actions in another window. Right now I am only able to toggle between the two windows and see teleportation like behavior as the client state catches up to the new server state. I am not sure how, without setting up a second computer, I might test this. Anyone have any experience with this or any advice? |
26 | PHP Browser Game Private Messages? First off, I'm asking this question here because gaming and messaging are intimately connected. Why win if you can't gloat? Nevertheless, I won't be offended if this needs to be moved to overflow. I need a PM system for my browser game, which already has a user and authentication system (To clarify the game already has a user system). Specifically, I'm wondering if a PHP library already exists that I can use to save some time. Better yet, if anyone knows of a nice Codeigniter library for messaging, that would be perfect. I already have a good idea on how I would approach this if I have to write my own, but it seems like something that would already exist in a robust form (despite my failed Google searches). Requirements Messages can be sent to individuals, multiple users, and guild mates (which is essentially just multiple users with server side selecting who to target). Users can reply to individual or all recipients Messages appear in sender's outbox and receiver's inbox. Utilizes some 2 table design to handle marking read deleting messages on a user by user basis Messages are semi threaded. I.e. I won't necessarily have them appear in the GUI as threaded, but previous messages should be included at the bottom of a reply. Maybe better to say, previous messages are identifiable and accessible. (This, I'm not yet 100 sure how I would design if I write my own. I.E. whether to include the text of the previous message into the new message or somehow remember the previous message's database ID to link later) Technology in Use PHP, Codeigniter, Javascript, JQuery, Ajax, Sqlite Note I have seen that there are some similar questions on overflow, but they were very little help in the answer department. Otherwise, people were looking for either chat boxes or more umm.. like social media site threads, which I find a bit different than something you would find in a game. |
26 | What freeware frameworks and tools to choose if I want to build a game like Farmville or Club Penguin? Say I like to experiment with multiplayer games and I do not want to reinvent the wheel and build yet another game server. I don t mind configuring and writing wrappers and adapters (both in c and java) for the server. What server does Farmville use? Is it Java or C based? What isometric flash engine do they use? What other examples can I look into to learn the subject? Thanks. |
26 | Anti cheat How secure is the client? Let's say, theoretically, that I'm developing a first person shooter with, of course, a map with things like walls. In the client code, the player is obviously halted upon collision with these wall objects. The server, however, only receives the player's location coordinates. Without some sort of data encoding in the client, the player could easily read the network communication to the server and send false coordinates to the server, allowing them to go wherever they wanted. My question is, is there a way to encode this location message to the server before it exits the client binary such that it would be extremely difficult for someone to read? Even by someone who disassembles the code to try and break the encoding? Or do all player collisions have to be detected by the server? |
26 | Handling increasing numbers of users (server) For this post, we'll assume my game is multiplayer chess as it essentially requires the same functions. User logs in to the server and requests a game the server provides a simple matching service and once done, they start the game. They get 30 seconds timed by the server per turn with 6 players in each game and however many spectators (probably very limited). I would like to know how you would scale this. I've considered two options Option 1 1) Main server to handle login match making (which regardless of user numbers should be a fairly easy task) 2) Start new Node servers for each game that close when the game ends. I'm not entirely sure how this could be implemented yet. (i.e. would the user connect to the main server still and the requests just be passed to the new server or would the user change connection to the new server and then back again when done? changing connection would reduce the load even further and as the two servers won't require communication between them, should be fairly simple) Option 2 Have 1 Node server and somehow scale it. Suggestions input? I'm planning on hosting on Amazon AWS and am well aware that the chances of my game even warranting this level of detail are probably nil but I'm taking this as a learning opportunity. Thanks. |
26 | How can I prevent cheating in a distributed multiplayer game? A problem I've been thinking about recently is how it might be possible to create a multiplayer game without a centralised game server. Is it possible to distribute "server" responsibilities across players? I feel like it would be too easy for modified hacked clients to change the multiplayer experience, are there any ways around this? |
26 | Why do console versions of multiplayer games support fewer players than PC versions? source http answers.yahoo.com question index?qid 20111205162848AAb1sl9 64 Players on P.C ( 32vs32) amp bigger maps with more vehicles amp buildings. 24 on Consoles ( 12vs12) ( It was planned to have a 32 player limit, but was later reduced to 24). Why does the console version have a maximum of 24 players? Is it hardware related? One of the reason was that players can host games themselves. If thats true its very sad that you cannot play 32x32, because one or two guys want to host games. |
26 | How are multiplayer mods created? How do you make a single player game into a multiplayer one? For example SA MP San Andreas Multiplayer and the new Just Cause 2 Multiplayer. Before making the mod, did they need permission? How did they even know what to code without having the games source code? I have some ideas but I have no idea where to really start. |
26 | PHP Browser Game Private Messages? First off, I'm asking this question here because gaming and messaging are intimately connected. Why win if you can't gloat? Nevertheless, I won't be offended if this needs to be moved to overflow. I need a PM system for my browser game, which already has a user and authentication system (To clarify the game already has a user system). Specifically, I'm wondering if a PHP library already exists that I can use to save some time. Better yet, if anyone knows of a nice Codeigniter library for messaging, that would be perfect. I already have a good idea on how I would approach this if I have to write my own, but it seems like something that would already exist in a robust form (despite my failed Google searches). Requirements Messages can be sent to individuals, multiple users, and guild mates (which is essentially just multiple users with server side selecting who to target). Users can reply to individual or all recipients Messages appear in sender's outbox and receiver's inbox. Utilizes some 2 table design to handle marking read deleting messages on a user by user basis Messages are semi threaded. I.e. I won't necessarily have them appear in the GUI as threaded, but previous messages should be included at the bottom of a reply. Maybe better to say, previous messages are identifiable and accessible. (This, I'm not yet 100 sure how I would design if I write my own. I.E. whether to include the text of the previous message into the new message or somehow remember the previous message's database ID to link later) Technology in Use PHP, Codeigniter, Javascript, JQuery, Ajax, Sqlite Note I have seen that there are some similar questions on overflow, but they were very little help in the answer department. Otherwise, people were looking for either chat boxes or more umm.. like social media site threads, which I find a bit different than something you would find in a game. |
26 | UE4 Blueprint Multiplayer Spawning Issue I'm attempting to copy modify the MultiplayerShootout project's multiplayer functionality for my own project. I'm running into issues when Player 2 joins a running session though. Finding it very hard to debug multiplayer stuff because you have to run it in standalone and toggling breakpoints doesn't seem to be illustrating any issues. Here's the issue https youtu.be 270p4YS36Pw The first player to search for a game hosts a game, then the OnPostLogin in the GameMode fires and calls the ClientPostLogin event in the PlayerController, then the PlayerController calls the RespawnPlayer event inside the GameMode which spawns and possesses the character. The second player finds a session and joins it, but the server is not spawning a character for them on the other PlayerStart. The logic is very much similar to the MultiplayerShootout, but I have modified it in the following ways The 1v1 button searches for sessions, and if it can't find any it will automatically host a session. The ClientPostLogin event on the PlayerController and the RespawnPlayer event on the GameMode accepts a Selected Character (Actor class) variable. This is so I can get the player to select their character before they matchmake and pass it through to the PlayerController and then GameMode for spawning purposes. Would really appreciate some help on this, been stuck on it for a while. Here's some of the blueprint scripting to make sense of it OnPostLogin event in the GameMode ClientPostLogin in the PlayerController RespawnPlayer event in the GameMode 1v1 button released event in the PlayScreen Widget HostGame event in the GameInstance JoinGame event in the GameInstance Edit I'm using UEngine version 4.24.3 |
26 | Can't connect to Steam using Blueprints in UE4.25 I'm following this tutorial by Unreal Engine itself, but I don't have a Steam overlay popup like I'm supposed to, (according to the tutorial.) And actually a lot of people have a similar issues like this. What I have done tried is Enabling Steam overlay (in Steam settings, but it was already enabled) I've already edited the DefaultEngine config file I'm playing my game (in Unreal Engine) from the Standalone Game option Searching this up, re watching tutorial, looking at tutorial's comments Enabled the Online Subsystem Steam plugin And I still don't know what the issue is. I've also looked at this thread by the Unreal Engine community, but it didn't help that much. |
26 | How to solve "server lag" problems that break the game How do real time multiplayer games deal with latency problems (or server lag )? Imagine an online fighting game where 2 players battle head to head in real time. When a player performs an action, there'll be a short delay until that player's action appears on the opponent's computer screen. This delay causes many game breaking problems. Let's say 2 hypothetical players, Player A and Player B, are fighting against each other right now in the game, and the latency is 1 second. Player A is moving toward Player B, but then Player B places a wall (or something of the like) that stops Player A from moving toward Player B. Player A doesn t see the wall appear on his her computer screen until 1 second later, but by then Player A has already moved past where the wall was placed. In a more game breaking situation, Player B is just about to kill Player A. Right before that happens, Player A uses a special attack that instantly kills Player B. But on Player B s computer, Player B kills Player A, because it takes 1 second before Player A s special attack happens on Player B s computer. This makes it so both players die even though only Player B was supposed to die. One solution to deal with the latency issue is to implement an artificial delay so that when there s a discrepancy, one player s game is momentarily paused to wait for the other player s game state to catch up. This is not a good solution because it makes the game feel extremely laggy and unresponsive, and it also renders some reactive actions useless (like dodging) because of the artificial delay. What can be done to fix these latency problems? |
26 | Testing Multiplayer Browser Game on Single Computer I am writing a multiplay browser based game and am running into an issue with playtesting simple interactions. When a browser window loses focus is stops running requestAnimationFrame calls. This effectively pauses the state all visuals when focus is lost. I would like to have two instances of the game running at the same time. I could playtest in one window and observe how a thirdparty would see those actions in another window. Right now I am only able to toggle between the two windows and see teleportation like behavior as the client state catches up to the new server state. I am not sure how, without setting up a second computer, I might test this. Anyone have any experience with this or any advice? |
26 | Handling actions in component based multiplayer game Please stay with me as I explain my question. I'm creating a multiplayer game. My design pattern follows broadly thoughts described in the post here. The idea is that each actor whether be it a (local) player or a npc does what a GameAction attached to this actor tells it to do. These GameActions are obtained by reacting to a received GameEvent. This enables only sending GameEvents through network and each client logic will obtain own GameActions for e.g. moving local copies of remote players themselves and also getting sanity checks from time to time. How should these actions be composed then? Who takes responsibility stopping actions? My problem right now is that if a LocalInputHandler produces on keyDown() a CHARACTER INPUT event it will be delivered to and consumed by a parent node the local player is living in. The parent node obtains a CHARACTER MOVE GameAction and attaches it to the specific local player. On update() the player character excecutes the GameAction. It moves, by itself. Like a small script interpreter. Isn't that awesome? No it isn't because if I didn't release the button (aka holding it) no new CHARACTER INPUT will be emitted and the player excecuted it's action and nothing happens. To solve this problem I came up with 6 classifications or types of GameActions Unstoppable loops forever, can only be stopped by itself OneTimeLooper loops until getting stopped, always finishes task before getting interrupted Looper loops until getting stopped, can be interrupted any time OneTimer performs action only once and can't be interrupted while doing it WeakWorker Performs action once but can always be interrupted Stopper AntiAction interrupts all types except unstoppables. Is a OneTimer This would lead having a CHARACTER MOVE action be a OneTimeLooper. It moves the attached actor until a CHARACTER MOVE STOP action tells it to do, being created because of an event originating from a keyUp() call. But this solution smells bad to me, because then each Character Actor Player has to have more than one GameAction it can hold to. A Stopper must have access to it's counterpart to know if it is allowed to stop. Also shouldn't higher order classes like parent nodes have the power to stop an GameAction since they also created them? Why not give LocalInputHandler power? How to change input style if you have a menu opened on top of the screen representing everything that happens in your world? Clarifications and optional text LocalInputHandler and localPlayer are coupled by handing over LocalInputHandler the ID (represented by UUIDs, which I'm still not sure using because they are so big for networking applications) of localPlayer in construction. Each InputHandler whether be it a remote or ai InputHandler will only now by ID which actor they are handling and will refer to this ID when creating a CHARACTER INPUT event by writing recepient actorID into the event. The message of this event is a int keymap which holds information about which key is held down. keymap is a member variable of a InputHandler It could be a boolean but for now it's an int array. Parentnode of an actor takes these informations (recepientID and keymap) and packs a CHARACTER MOVE GameAction into the event passing it down to the actor for consumption. In this process the keymap is being copied by calling .copy()on keymap because this will prevent opening a channel of direct communication from the InputHandler to the GameAction by not letting it just copy a reference but the array as a whole. |
26 | Building a simple bomberman game with Node.js and Socket.io I'm building this game mostly because I want to experiment with Node.js and Socket.io, and the game is more like a proof of concept. To start with, I have a 2D grid system as the game map. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Each position with values 0 empty 1 wall can not be destroyed by explosion 2 obstacles can be destroyed by explosion 3 bomb 4 9 some powerups 10 gt the id of player CLIENT SIDE I'm not planning to have any game logic happen on the client side, so the client simply send left, right, up, down and plant a bomb command to my server. There is however, some simple check that happen on the client side 1. check that there's no wall at the direction the client is moving to 2. the client didn't plant a bomb in the last 3 seconds. The client also receives the state of the map as a 2d array and knows how to draw everything using that info. SERVER SIDE Main game logic happen on the server side, which includes updating the position of player, calculating the damage of bomb explosion destroy stuff in the range, except walls and space behind walls Questions When the player is moving, he won't see himself moved until he gets the data back from server that updates his position. So I worry this delay may affect user experience, is it better that I move his position on his browser right away, and only update other players' position using info received from server, that means his own movement is rendered away, while his position info is sent to server. When rendering everything, it's simple to implement that whenever anything on the map move or change, redraw everything with the new data. Is that a waste? Can I only update things that change, for example, a player move right 1 position, nothing else changed on the game map, do I still have to redraw everything? I think I'm going to use Canvas to render. Please feel free to comment or answer if you think there are places I can improve or I simply thought wrong, thanks! |
26 | How to display image in second layer in Cocos2d I am very new at Cocos2d and is testing to displaying an image over the "Hello World" text on a second layer and need help to get it work. I guess it is some basic stuff here and appreciate any tips etc. with this. I know that if i put the display code (myLayer1) in the "init" it work or do the call self goHere from the "init" in myLayer1 it works but i want to call the "goHere" directly. I have the following code HelloWorld.m import "HelloWorldLayer.h" import "myLayer1.h" HelloWorldLayer implementation implementation HelloWorldLayer (CCScene ) scene 'scene' is an autorelease object. CCScene scene CCScene node 'layer' is an autorelease object. HelloWorldLayer layer HelloWorldLayer node myLayer1 layer1 myLayer1 node add layer as a child to scene scene addChild layer scene addChild layer1 return the scene return scene on "init" you need to initialize your instance (id) init always call "super" init Apple recommends to re assign "self" with the "super" return value if( (self super init )) create and initialize a Label CCLabelTTF label CCLabelTTF labelWithString "Hello World" fontName "Marker Felt" fontSize 64 ask director the the window size CGSize size CCDirector sharedDirector winSize position the label on the center of the screen label.position ccp( size.width 2 , size.height 2 ) add the label as a child to this Layer self addChild label myLayer1 a1 myLayer1 new a1 goHere myLayer1 release return self myLayer1.m import "myLayer1.h" implementation myLayer1 (void)goHere NSLog( " gt gt gt gt goHere lt lt lt lt ") CGSize size CCDirector sharedDirector winSize CCSprite vv CCSprite spriteWithFile "hand.png" vv.position ccp( size.width 2 , size.height 2 ) self addChild vv z 3 (id) init always call "super" init Apple recommends to re assign "self" with the "super" return value if( (self super init )) return self end |
26 | Authenticating users without a username or password I'm curious about what the process is for anonymously authenticating users when it comes to mobile games. There are quite a few examples out there, but the ones that immediately come to mind are Lords Mobile, Family Guy Quest for Stuff, and Clash of Clans. When you first open the game, you're assigned an account id and that id is tied to your device until you choose to register an account with a password or sign in through some SSO service. In that initial step where you're not creating a password or using SSO, how are these games making sure the requests are from both the user device that they come from? Or is it that they actually don't? I can imagine a simple setup where you're providing a key that needs to be refreshed every now and then just like you would with something like OAuth, but other than that you don't care that the user is who they say they are. After all, you're dealing with a request that already has to be validated for legality within the game rules. |
26 | Do "write once run anywhere" engines require platform specific code for multiplayer? I've been investigating the myriad selection of mobile game dev engines that allow compilation of your code onto multiple target platforms, but, something I can't seem to figure out is if multi platform "write it once" development is possible when you bring multiplayer into the equation. I've looked at Unity and Monkey mostly, so far, but aside from seeing threads on the Monkey forum such as "I've developed such and such networking library for Monkey"... I can't find a definitive answer. That example is one of many that causes me concern. Is it the case that if you used a cross platform engine, you'd have to write platform specific code for the networking portion of your game app? (Even if the rest of the game did work on your target platforms with no minimal platform specific "jiggery". I'm not talking about cross platform multiplayer, but I do presume that'd be a happy by product of a write once deploy anywhere (within reason) networking solution. |
26 | client server Silverlight turn based game domain model question I am making multiplayer (2 players) Minesweeper like the one that's available on MS Live Messenger. Client side is going to be silverlight, server side will be MVC Application. Client (the one who is waiting for his turn) will poll server every X seconds to get current state, the other client (who's turn it is will post his click to server and than roles will reverse) Now my question is should domain model classes be the same for client and server side? I mean you need Minefield class on both sides, but while server side class will have rules and logic, client side will be more or less a data holder. |
26 | How can I keep a consistent number of players per match in a continuous multiplayer game? Fortnite Battle Royale is an example of a non continuous multiplayer game. 100 players join a game which has fixed start and end times. When there's only one player remaining, the game ends. Agar.io is an example of what I like to call a continuous multiplayer game. Players join in and die out, but the game goes on forever. How would a game developer design a system to split players into different groups when there're too many online to fit in a single game? Let's say a game has a limit of 10 players, and 50 players are trying to join. The server will split them up into 5 separate groups. New players will be sorted evenly into these groups to replace players who died. When the player count increases past the global limit, new games will be created to fit them. The problem arises when the player count decreases. The system needs some way to seamlessly delete extra groups of players that are no longer needed. How can that be done without A) interrupting games to merge players together or B) block new players from joining into the group(s) that require deletion and waiting for everyone in it to die (which will be a bad experience for the last few players). Agar.io obviously has a player population management system that works, so how do they do it? |
26 | Is it possible to develop multiplayer games with HTML5? I know HTML5 is great for web games, but I don't really know if it's possible to develop online games with multiple users, keeping everybody synchronized and handling logins, et cetera. Is it possible to do this? |
26 | Networking to make a single player RPG into multiplayer I ve written a few games in Xcode before and would like to turn one into the simplest possible 2D top down RPG multiplayer game. Essentially just needing movements around a big tiled map (I love drawing), and chat. Keen to just host my own server on the iMac I use, with python and twisted framework (new to this but happy to take the time to learn). I m thinking TCP for chat and UDP for tracking movements but do they need to be on separate servers? Also for games like this I know there isn t much on the client side. All my map drawing and game logic is set up in Xcode, which I would prefer to keep working in because I m familiar with the language and love the sprite kits and tile maps. Do I have to redo it all in python on the server side for scaling in the future? Or for cross platform? I've done lots of research and found plenty of tutorials, just want to know I m on the right track. I m not looking to make a WoW killer just something simple I can gradually build on for fun |
26 | Is there a way to do local multiplayer on a combination of Windows Ubuntu computers? So far I've tried Bluetooth but it doesn't appear to work on either windows or Ubuntu (for this use case it can connect to printers fine). I've also looked up USB bridge cables, but from what I ve read so far, they can't be used for this, either. Since the game is a hobby project, the solution can neither be expensive, nor require months of work. It's a turn based game. Otherwise I wouldn't be asking but finding a different project after finding out neither Unity nor Unreal Engine can do this currently, I'm using neither. Is there a way to do local multiplayer on a combination of Windows Ubuntu computers? |
26 | how should a server handle client actions? So I've just started trying to make a multiplayer pong game and I have read a lot of different ways to code the connections. However, I read somewhere that you should have the inputs sent to the server queue up and then the server just processes it at fixed intervals. However, if this is done, how does the server know, process, and send accurate data based on the time the action was sent? Because if the data is just queued up, if something happens like 100 ms after another but the server processes them at the same time, wouldn't that mess up the synchronization of the game? Should the server instead be coded to handle the client actions immediately even if it costs a lot of cpu etc in larger games? |
26 | Cocos2D v3 and Physics simulation on server I'm trying to develop a real time multiplayer game using Cococs2d v3. The game is basically a side scrolling racing game. I wanted to develop the client using Cococs2d for iPhone, and the server side using Java. I've read about real time networking and the difficulties I can encounter, but also how can I overcome it. The most helpful articles I read was Valve's, Glenn Fiedler's game networking article and Gabriel Gambetta's article on fast paced multiplayer games. I can attach links to those articles if anyone is interested ) I have come to the conclusion that the physics should be implemented both on the client side and the server side. Using cocos2d v3 this could be done without any problems on the client side, but how can I use the same physics simulation in my server written in Java? For example how could the server know if there's a hill the client player is climbing, or if there's an obstacle it need to collide with? The physics engine the client use is written in Objective C.. Am I missing something over here? If my question is not clear enough, please tell me and I will explain it in more details. Thanks in advance ) |
26 | Handling different screen sizes in multiplayer games sorry if this has been asked already. I did some checking around and couldn't find any helpful advice. I'm developing my first multiplayer game, and it'll be fullscreen when run. My issue is, how do I balance for screen sizes? It seems to me that it might be considered unfair if some players can see more of the playing field than others, and it's not an issue I'd ever considered before since all my previous projects have been single player and usually fixed resolution. Some options I'd thought of is a zoomable map, so players can handle how much of the screen they see to give them the choice between clarity and view distance. Another was a fixed internal resolution and black bars or sidebars if it's out of the aspect ratio. Thanks in advance for any help. |
26 | How to sync a LineRenderer in a multiplayer game? After a lot of searching online, I have come here as a last resort for my problem. The question says it all. How to sync a LineRenderer? One answer I found was to use a ClientRpc. I tried it with no effect. Below is the snippet of my code, IEnumerator laserBeam() This is called through another method on the click of a button Beam GetComponent lt LineRenderer gt () Beam.SetVertexCount (2) Beam.material BeamMaterial Beam.SetWidth (0.07f, 0.07f) Beam.enabled true Beam.SetPosition (0, gameObject.transform.position) Beam.SetPosition (1, target.position) RpcDrawLines (gameObject, target.position, true) yield return new WaitForSeconds (1.0f) Beam.enabled false RpcDrawLines (gameObject, target.position, false) ClientRpc public void RpcDrawLines(GameObject start, Vector3 end, bool isOn) LineRenderer beam start.GetComponent lt LineRenderer gt () if (isOn) beam.SetVertexCount (2) beam.material BeamMaterial beam.SetWidth (0.07f, 0.07f) beam.enabled true beam.SetPosition (0, start.transform.position) beam.SetPosition (1, end) else beam.enabled false So, this is the code. Works fine on the Server but no effect in the client. I know I am doing something wrong in the client rpc. But I have no idea what it is. Any way of help would be appreciated. Thanks Note I am using UNET |
26 | What sort of data should be sent for mouse based movement in a multiplayer game? I'm new to the Multiplayer Rodeo here so please bear with me... I am just getting started and I'm trying to figure out how to deal with movement. I've looked at the question Best way to implement mouse based movement in MMOG which gives me a pretty good idea, but I'm still struggling with what kind of data should be sent to the server. If a player is on position x 0, y 0 and I click with the mouse on x 40, y 40 to start movement, what information should I send to the server? Should I calculate the position based on velocity on client side and just send the expected location? Or should I send current location and velocity and direction? When the server is updating the clients on the players' whereabouts, should the position be sent only, and the clients expected to interpolate predict movement, or can the direction sent from the client (instead of just coordinates) be used. My concern(or confusion) is regarding the ping lag frequency of data update and use of a predictive algorithm, as I'd like the movement to be smooth even with a high latency, and prevent ability to cheat(though that's not the top priority). |
26 | how did coordinate handling in old flightsimulators work? Im currently working on a combat flight simulator pure for own fun. Using a floating origin i thought the float inprecision was history, however this was the case untill i tried adding multiplayer to the game. The server is authorative and i'm banging my head around positioning the players on the server and handling the gun hits and collisions. Using sectors i reset the origin of the clients but the server keeps the original position. This will lead into float inprecisions on the server, thus physic and collision checking are terrible. Now i'm just wondering how games like Airwarrior, Warbirds and aceshigh overcame these problems. What approach did they use? I'm assuming something else. If only i was able to use double precision, or even fixed point, but i'm tied to a physics model working with floats. I don't feel like changing that around, unless i have no other option. Thanks for any pointers. stephan |
26 | Hobbyist game dev, want to create async multiplayer game. Are server costs manageable? I want to make the game I want to play, and that game happens to be an asynchronous multiplayer game. Think Hero Academy or Hearthstone, where there are 2 players and each submits moves to a central server. Alternatively (and not ideally), clients connect to each other and play is limited to a fixed window of connection, but still there needs to be a central server to acquire new opponents. That said, this is very much going to be a hobby type endeavor I'm just one guy after all. This is not going to commercially support itself. If I have 100 players ever, that would be fantastic. Given that I'm going to have to eat server costs myself, what are my options for getting a server? I don't need much bandwidth or CPU, due to the nature of async games only the sending of the gamestate current move, and perhaps some checking of legal moves. Going to Amazon or getting dedicated hosting seems drastically overkill for what I want. If it makes a difference, I'm intending to learn and use Unity for this. |
26 | Basic Connections Through Socket Server I'm designing a simple 2 player RTS with Stencyl, a program that uses blocks for coding. The current code updates lists whenever an actor moves (new X and Y), and I'd want the server to update the game state with each change to the list. However, to start off I don't even know how to set up a socket server. Stencyl has taught me the basics of logic, but I've yet to learn any programming languages. I've downloaded a Smartfox 2X socket server that I'm intending to use. Right now I'm only looking to make baby steps I want to do something to this effect "When someone connects to the server, open insert file here". How can I do this? My intention is to have this file be the game client. Is this "open file when connected" method the best way to go about this? When answering assume that I know nothing, because really, though I have done research (I know that UDP TCP for real time), implementation wise I know nothing. |
26 | Before multiplayer match setup I am implementing a before match setup in following way Users request a multiplayer match (click "New Game" button or similar) After enough users request the match connection is established Users are then moved into Select level view On that view, there is "Become Master" button, which an user can use to become Master The Master has ability to select level to play After clicking "Become Master" the users vote simple popup appears "Accept User X becoming Master?" If 50 agrees, user X becomes master. Master then selects level he wants. After 10 seconds, game starts all users are moved to In game view, to play selected level. Question I am wondering if I am not doing this too complicated? Shouldn't I randomly choose the master, or somehow make selection mechanism simpler? |
26 | How can I implement slow motion for one player in multiplayer? Special attacks in Mortal Kombat Mobile require slow motion i.e. delay in game play. On multiplayer mode, when the opponent uses special attacks, I don't observe any lag delay. When I use special attack, the game goes in slow motion mode for me, however I guess my opponent doesn't experience any delay. How is this possible? How can I implement something like this? Can my multiplayer mode still be real time when using a feature like this? |
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