I forgot to mention this in the post, but the games themselves run on the server. This gives every game multiplayer for free out of the box, and clients just read the server state and send back input.
The idea is that you could use a browser or custom client or whatever to connect to a game server
One thing I forgot to mention is all of these games run server side and thin clients just render and send input back to the server. So a game session needs to exist for the back and forth communication to work.
Theoretically you could do this all client side too, but that would remove the magic of every game getting multiplayer for free
If you architect your protocol cleanly, you should be able to run the simulation client side too without much effort (certainly the web platform has everything you'd need). This is how modern game engines do it, it goes back to the Quake VM and probably beyond.
You'd still get multiplayer "for free", but it could be turned on and off. You could do it with zero code change for the actual games, they don't have to know.
It seems some of the games could do with a singleplayer mode that doesn't depend on the backend having free slots.
Nice idea. I found a couple of interesting games on this.
Thanks for sharing! Cool that you haven't stopped working on this project after that long time. It gives me inspiration to work on my projects which I can't find time to finish.
Thanks! I'm planning on making a lot more. I made most of this stuff before AI tools were available. But now Claude can one shot really impressive stuff, it's amazing
I worked on a similar concept (padgames.io now defunct) that offered a state sync networking system with rollback netcode style stuff. It could handle exposing only certain information or fake info to certain clients (to prevent cheating). It integrated super nicely with vuex or react stores as it was all observable and all game actions just turned into state mutations.
I made the game I wanted, enjoyed it with family and friends, and then let COVID sweep it away. Congrats on continuing to work on it.
Isn't it strange, how some incredibly crude game written in the 80's will probably live forever in an archive somewhere, while the sophisticated things we create today are amazing but too numerous to be preserved or remembered. Working on a rollback netcode system as well currently.
Could not play any of the games - too many requests errors. Why do they need "sessions", are they not running client-side?
I forgot to mention this in the post, but the games themselves run on the server. This gives every game multiplayer for free out of the box, and clients just read the server state and send back input.
The idea is that you could use a browser or custom client or whatever to connect to a game server
Does everything need a "session"? Is it possible to have fully static games/exports?
One thing I forgot to mention is all of these games run server side and thin clients just render and send input back to the server. So a game session needs to exist for the back and forth communication to work.
Theoretically you could do this all client side too, but that would remove the magic of every game getting multiplayer for free
If you architect your protocol cleanly, you should be able to run the simulation client side too without much effort (certainly the web platform has everything you'd need). This is how modern game engines do it, it goes back to the Quake VM and probably beyond.
You'd still get multiplayer "for free", but it could be turned on and off. You could do it with zero code change for the actual games, they don't have to know.
It seems some of the games could do with a singleplayer mode that doesn't depend on the backend having free slots.
Just an idea from a fellow web games person!
This is something I’ve done with my web game, I run the entire simulation client side so as to never worry about scaling issues.
Why reach for a server unless you truly need one! My multiplayer mode is p2p planned
Thanks for the feedback! Local games weren't something I really considered until recently, but it would definitely be cool
as a matter of ux, users probably don't need to know that a session is being instantiated, and probably expect a simple play button
fun
Thanks for the feedback! Need a good way to clean up the UI to distinguish between joining someone's multiplayer session or creating your own
I like the concept and tried to play some games by starting or joining sessions, either nothing happened or I got disconnected straight away?
Anyway nice concept. I’m also making web games (see my post history) so if anyone wanted to connect and discuss, send me an email (in profile too)
Sorry about that, looks like the traffic spike from HN overwhelmed my session management stuff. It will only get better!
No need to be sorry! Good job on launching and working on it for years. It’s awesome. These launch hiccups happen.
Just keep pushing, I know how hard it is
Does anyone remember "Shoot 'Em Up Construction Kit" on the Amiga?
And for the Commodore 64.
I was obsessed with the Arcade Game Construction Kit on the C64.
And Amos and blitz basic
Fun, seems to be working. Do you have levels? All the games I played seemed to have a static level.
Nice! Some fun making big chains explodey things :)
Nice idea. I found a couple of interesting games on this.
Thanks for sharing! Cool that you haven't stopped working on this project after that long time. It gives me inspiration to work on my projects which I can't find time to finish.
Thanks! I'm planning on making a lot more. I made most of this stuff before AI tools were available. But now Claude can one shot really impressive stuff, it's amazing
I worked on a similar concept (padgames.io now defunct) that offered a state sync networking system with rollback netcode style stuff. It could handle exposing only certain information or fake info to certain clients (to prevent cheating). It integrated super nicely with vuex or react stores as it was all observable and all game actions just turned into state mutations.
I made the game I wanted, enjoyed it with family and friends, and then let COVID sweep it away. Congrats on continuing to work on it.
Isn't it strange, how some incredibly crude game written in the 80's will probably live forever in an archive somewhere, while the sophisticated things we create today are amazing but too numerous to be preserved or remembered. Working on a rollback netcode system as well currently.
I was just closelined by a beam in one of the games. Badass
Nice! I actually didn’t know the rendering stuff could support anything pseudo-3D like that until yesterday.
Very cool! Love seeing more browser games
Thank you! Obviously still some gaps to close but would love for this to carry on the spirit of newgrounds and stuff like that.
Wow nice.