Multiplayer Questions (Yet again!)

Hi! I was wondering, is it possible to make your C2 game multiplayer, BUT the players have to set up their own server (with a maximum capacity of 4), kind of like Minecraft multiplayer, and at the end adds all the scores. And if so, what would I need to know, what would I need to have, and all that stuff, to accomplish this. Also, If I wanted to have a communication system, what way would be ideal? ALSO, how would I let the computer know how many players there are, and when all have died? Thank you for your time, and if you can answer, I would be grateful.

Multiplayer games are very hard to accomplish. No one can answer your question, because the whole multiplayer thing is too complicated to create a complete tutorial for beginners. You will probably spend years of time until you can accomplish a good, stable and efficient multiplayer game (provided that you really want to understand it and don't want to just copy & paste).

(I have to admit that 3D game development is my home. Maybe networking is easier on 2d games)

The good thing about Construct 2 is that it is so simple and you do not need any programming to create games. But this is the bad thing about Construct 2 if it comes down to things like multiplayer.

You do not have the opportunity to program multiplayer in construct 2. You need to use external network framework like node.js or something like that. The problem is that this conflicts with your plan. To be able to host a server of your game the player would have to install the external network framework and set it up by himself.

In my opinion and to my knowledge you can't build a simple 1 click setup multiplayer mode for your game with construct 2.

This is my sight on the whole multiplayer things. Maybe someone will come up with a surprise.

I see. I heard there are some really good multiplayer plugins floating around the forums though. Either way, I won't give up on this multiplayer thing!

RexRainbow got one going properly with Heroku. There are some other guys around the place who have also got stuff going with node.js. I also saw a few months a go a working example by juanatar (sp?), which I was able to get going on my own LAN. It was still a bit buggy but it worked for the most part.

1 year ago , I couldn't answer to your question ... But now I can !

In Theory , the multiplayer is just 1 server where people , clients , can connect ... the two of them send themselves messages each tick , that's all ! Practically , To make a server , you just need to host it on a Pc ( Open the Server App on that PC )

You can use Zack0Wack0 websocket server ( My Bad , I meant plugin ) for the client , and a Node.Js as a server !

Cheers !

Thanks for the info! But i've tried Zack0Wack0 websocket plugin and a Node.Js server , and for some reason that didn't work for me. Weird also, If I use that can I have MULTIPLE servers or something? It's 4 player per game/match/thingy, so will I need multiple servers?

Where can I find this Heroku? I can't find it on the forums?

You'll also need to portforward , you can't simply run 20 servers on 1 pc , I think the server will take 1 port , so you'll need to open more , portforwarding , they call it

Where can I find this Heroku?

http://www.heroku.com/

If you want the players to host their own servers, which is a smart idea (keeping the high server costs in mind), then you can not use something like node.js. At least I don't think you can.

And you can not host a server on your personal computer. If you are planning to build a popular game with, let's say about 2000 players, you need a very very expensive server to handle the big amount of traffic, which you will get with a complex game. If you would host the server on your personal computer, you wouldn't be able to run the server 24/7.

I see... If I can't use node.js, then what do I go with?

Thanks!

I searched for you and found something very interesting.

scirra.com/forum/yetanother-multiplayer-demo_topic51622.html

It basically is exactly what you wanted. See if you can get it to work. I can not get it to work. If you have success please contact me, a multiplayer game is my childhood dream <img src="smileys/smiley4.gif" border="0" align="middle" />

If I were you I would first try to build a working server on your own PC. Then when you got something working, and are ready to move onto alpha testing start small and rent a VPS (virtual private server). If you shop around you can usually find one for under $40 per month. Then as your game gets big, you can upgrade as needed.

If node.js isn't working out you could always try to build a PHP, and MySQL server. These have been around for many years now, and Ashley has made Construct 2 very capable of using php, and MySQL as a back-end.

I can't wait until I'm smart enough to understand servers. That's going to be an awesome day.

Thanks for the info guys, I'll keep checking back.