Flash/C++ Game Project

[zourtney]

Alfred is pretty sweet. I saw him in action yesterday. He totally didn't walk through a pond and he talked to that ? guy. It was cool.

Brad and I were batting around ideas for client implementations. I think I might try to make a web-based (non-flash) client at some point, just for the heck of it. Just don't let this project fizzle; it's so the shizzle...my brizzle.

[Nick]

That would be cool. Ajax/Javascript client? Thats a good idea (though less pretty then with flash) but almost any modern browser could play using that. Even on an iphone!  I could totally do some work on that with you, if you wanted help.

[Brad]

The more ports the better I say. I'll be making a fairly simple network interface for communicating with the game server so the client software isn't going to be very complicated. You'll also have my C++ one to go off of if you want to create a port.

It'd be awesome to have one that can be played from any cell phone (even if it is text-based). Of course, using PHP, Javascript and Ajax it's possible to draw a slightly better non-text based map. All the input would still have to be text based, but the map could be drawn using actual lines and whatnot.

I'm currently working on the inventory system and after that buying, selling, using and equipping items. When that is done, I'll need to work on enemies, the battle system and the quest system. When all of those are finished the game engine will basically be complete. I'll still have all of the network functionality to do of course.

I'm thinking I may need to start working on some of the network stuff, just so I don't accidentally program anything which will make it hard to network.

[Nick]

I want to learn some network stuff. I might just have a look "over your shoulder" while you are doing that and perhaps bother you with a few questions about how things work.

[zourtney]

Sounds good to me. What are you going to use for the socket programming? Because winsock is obviously a Windows-based library...and I'm assuming the target server is Nick's Bedroom Linux, no?

And yep, I was thinking a JavaScript, Ajax, PHP mash for a web client. It sounds like a good little project. And Alfred, his gang, and a few UI controls would probably fit nicely on the iPhone in landscape mode.

@nick, you still have your phone running Windows Mobile, right? We could test on that too.

[Brad]

I'm developing for Windows because I don't have any easy way to develop for Linux. I don't have any extra computer to turn into a Linux box, Cygwin is no good for developing on and I like using Visual C++ Express. If could overcome all of these I'd switch to developing the server for Linux.

I do however plan to create a Socket class to hide all of the socket programming functionality. Using some compiler directives it is possible to check which operating system you are compiling on. Then you could compile the same source code an have it work on both operating systems.

I'm sure I can rig up a Windows server somewhere until I can get it ported to Linux.

[Nick]

Linux development is just a duel boot away. Or VNC into by little box-o-nix's. Its fun! I think gparted will even resize ntfs partitions now. Or put fedora/ubuntu on a flash drive and enjoy!

I do still have the phonny time windows mobile (V6 yo!) Its even gots its GPS ears on now! Plus there is a burning fox lurking inside... with an opera and an interwebs exploder too!. .. .

[Brad]

Are there any decent development environments for Linux? No, Eclipse does not count.

It needs to be at least as good with C++ as FlashDevelop is for Actionscript.

[zourtney]

I'm developing for Windows because I don't have any easy way to develop for Linux...

I haven't tried it with C++, but I have done a little web dev with Apache running on a VirtualBox installation. You can [fairly] easily mount a host filesystem on the virtual machine, thus being editable in your nice Windows-based GUI (Visual Studio or whatever).

Case in point: I have my www directory physically stored on my host computer's NTFS filesystem but mounted on the client machine (Ubuntu under VirtualBox). I can edit the PHP, HTML, and JavaScript in Windows. I can view the page in my favorite browser in Windows. I leave the virtual machine minimized. It works pretty well¹.

You could do something similar, though obviously you'd have to employ the virtual machine to do the compiling for you. Still, you could have the niceties of Visual Studio's polished GUI.

¹ Recently, I ran in to so many CSS caching issues while developing a WordPress theme that I finally told WordPress the site URL was localhost, embedded the CSS in the index.php template file, and viewed the webpage on the client machine (Apache server). Just an aside.

[Nick]

What are you making word press themes for? Just out of curiosity.

But thats cool. I never knew you could do that with VMs.

[zourtney]

To keep the thread hi-jacking to a minimum, I responded here -- a place to talk about possible client ports for this project. Or any other vaguely related ramblings, such as how to set up VirtualBox.

[Brad]

I've completed work on the inventory system and added in merchant NPCs from whom you can purchase things. Still haven't finished selling though, that'll be done tommorow. The item systems is now pretty much done, minus the "effects" on things (such as +10 fire damage on your weapon). Once I finish up with the merchants I'm going to switch gears and start figuring out network stuff.

I want to have the basics of the network stuff figured out before I start writing the battle code. I don't want to write the battle code in such a way as it makes networking difficult.

The game currently has no name, and while I do have a setting and storyline mostly figured out, I don't want to talk too much about it until I work out more of the plot and some of the characters.

Of course, the game is setup so that you can easily change the setting, plot and everything just by changing the XML files. So you could go from a traditional fantasy setting to a science fiction one without changing one line of code, or recompiling the server. You'll have to change the client of course as all graphics will be wrong. Unless you want elves in space or something?

[Nick]

The new adventures of Elves IN SPACE! That's what you should call your game

[zourtney]

Elvis in Space?

[Brad]

So Zourtney convinced me to install virtual box and Fedora on my laptop. Once I get that setup I'll start developing the server for Linux as well. Preferably I'll develop for both windows and linux but I'm gonna have to write my own socket code.

There are several open-source socket libraries but they are all GPL. Since I don't want my entire project to have to be GPL (even though it will be open-source) I can't use them.