PHP question

[Guest]

Hey folks, I want you to share your opinion about making games through www sites. I mean - the game would be available as a website, not as an executive file. Of course, all data is stored in the database, so users are still free to save and load anytime.

I could add new scenes, locations, dialogs or characters anytime I want, and it would be available to all newly started games without making new release. The same goes with fixing bugs.

Also, I would know statistics of using of specified possibilities, so I have better understanding of what the players are expecting, looking for and find out during the game - I could make new hints or optional ways for them. Of course that doesn't mean spying the single player's current game.

The point is - would you play something like that, and what do you think if people would accept this form of gaming.

So - if you see anything against it, or have some hints for me, please tell me before I start the project .

[szarebure]

Oh, this one is mine. I didn't check if I'm logged in.

[Blue Lemma]

I'd certainly give it a try. A PHP game would increase accessibility since anyone with a (decent) web browser could play, so that's good However, there would be some drawbacks:

* lots of bandwidth needed depending on the image quality and cacheability
* players don't want to wait for a new page to load every time they make a decision
* fewer graphical and sound effects allowed compared to a downloadable game
* if the game uses javascript with the PHP, that introduces some compatibility issues
* if complex graphic manipulation is done on the fly, it could be a big server load (webhost might not be happy)

If I'm not mistaken, didn't the LadyStar series try some web based game stuff?

If you can do the story, art, and programming, why not give it a try? Ooh! A related idea: How about PHP/ASP/whatever else as a way to provide demos of ren'ai games? That way potential players can get a feel of the story and atmosphere without having to commit to a program download or installation.

[monele]

I like the analysis idea of this . Would be an interesting try ^^

[rioka]

I wouldn't mind playing an online ren'ai game. I've considered making one myself one day. ^_^

[shaja]

An implementation of this idea can be found on the Tsunami Channel Script Site, including an online script creation tool.[/url]

[szarebure]

late, but very warm THANK YOU for all the answers!

[absinthe]

I've seen something like this in QML. It's sort of like an interactive fiction/choose-your-own-adventure style deal. I played with it a bit and it adheres to a lot of the basics of IF rather than Ren'ai (and the resulting pages are sort of oogly at the default)... but it might give you some ideas.

[[fixed wrong link name]]

[Kevadu]

If I were to do something like that today I would probably do it in AJAX. The Tsunami Channel thing is a nice example of some of some of what you can do with simple Javascript, but it has the disadvantage (much like flash games) of being entirely front-loaded. AJAX has the advantage of letting you asynchronously load the data for the next scene in the background, as well as loading on demand only what is needed.

Bandwidth usage shouldn't actually be that bad with some intelligent app design and by taking advantage of any modern browser's tendency to cache images. Using AJAX should significantly reduce required bandwidth compared to a more conventional approach.

Server-side CPU usage should be fairly minimal as well. The server should mainly be responsible for fetching and delivering the data that is requested, with some fairly simple branching logic thrown in. Any sort of manipulation of images should be done client-side in Javascript. Javascript really is necessary here since anything else would be awkward and slow.

Browser compatability shouldn't be too much of a problem. AJAX stuff should work in any modern browser.

I've actually had some interest in working on the programming for a project like this for a while now, but haven't gotten around to doing much. I've never actually made an AJAX app before (part of the reason I'm interested, I've been reading a lot about it lately) but I've done a fair amount of conventional web application programming (some professionally but mostly in my spare time). Is anyone else interested in working on a project like this? I'm mainly interested in writing the engine, and don't have that many ideas for a game.

[ShiraiJunichi]

I think an offline version available for download is a must for online games like that. Then you can check it out on the web really quickly, and then download for offline play if you like it

[PyTom]

I kinda dislike the idea of an online version that needs special server software or setup. The reason for this is that it's good if a game gets mirrored, both to renai.us and to people's hard drives.

Why? I call it the "run over by a bus" scenario. What happens to your game if you get run over by a bus one day? While that's not likely, what is possible is that people will change interests to something else. By having the game mirrored widely, it makes it easy for the game to outlive you, or at least your interest in this sort of game.