What multiplayer for my game (card game)?

Games
#1

Hey guys,

i developed a small card game and i want to make a multiplayer for this.

The card game is like a regular solitare game and what i want is simple to share the solving fields of both players. Every player has 4 solving felds where he first puts the ace, then the king, then queen and so on and i want that both players see the own solving fields and the solving feelds from the enemy. So i just need to send a single card to the server when one player double tap on a possible card.

Now i want to make this multiplayer but i dont have that much know-how.

I just know a little bit about these options:

  1. Peer-To-Peer

  2. NoobHub

  3. AppWarp

  4. AutoLan

But what is the best for my game? I just want to develop this game for android, maybe this information is important for the options. And it should work with mobile internet, not only Wifi.

As i said, i dont have much know-how so maybe you guys can help me with this.

Thank you

#2

Personally, I wouldn’t bother in your case unless you have a very large active user base otherwise you won’t have enough other active players to make a match.  You could however simulate other players with some basic AI and when you have a large install base then allow proper player v player.= matches.

#3

Im making a Single and a Multiplayer but the most important thing for my game is multiplayer. Is is okay if the user base is small and dont find games. Anyway i want to make this Multiplayer and need your help to say me what is the best option for my game.

#4

My suggestion is AI your online players… when you have enough players GameSpark is your best bet…

No one wants an online game with no players to play against = tones of bad reviews.  It may be a bit challenging for you to write some AI but it is better than players not being able to play online!

Some meaningful stats for you… my game has 2 mil downloads.  I have around 400 players active at any given second.  So by extrapolation - 200,000 downloads gives you 40 actives. 20,000 downloads gives you 4 actives, 2,000 downloads gives you 0.4 actives on any given second.

So unless you have decent downloads you won’t be able to match active players

#5

Okay that makes sense. But anyway, if sooner or later, i want to build in a multiplayer and i want to know what the best option is :slight_smile:

#6

No other suggestions? :slight_smile:

#7

Let me share my experiences here.

First your list is mix of concepts and providers.

Lets talk concepts first. There are two main models for multi-player:

  1. peer-to-peer means that two (or more) players talk directly to each other. Usually this is a two-player setup because peering between more than that increases network traffic and connections quite a bit. All players are equals and the software running on their computer manages the game.

  2. client-server means that there is a central communications hub that all players connect to and the server manages what information flows between clients. In this mode, one player could be the master/server and the rest of the player’s are connected to the server.  The other way is that there is a dedicated server that is the master, enforces game rules, etc. and the players connect to that server.

NoobHub is a client server model. You would own a Unix based computer (potentially hosted somewhere), run a server process on it. But this is just a message passer. Your local game would have to be able to act as the master player for the game or function in a peer-to-peer fashion where everyone is equals.

I didn’t know much about AppWarp until I looked them up. They are also a message passing system, but it has more organizational tools with lobby and room support (grouping of players).  You would still need one of the player’s acting as the master.

Autolan is for players on the same WiFi to play together. This would work in peer-to-peer or client-server but it’s all local network, no Internet.

You have other options too. Both Google Play Games Services and Apple’s GameCenter support multi-player. Both support Turn Based, GPGS supports real time, and there may be a couple of GameCenter based plugins that might support more.

We also have plugins for PlayFab, GameSparks and Photon Cloud which support multi-player at varying levels that could probably manage a multi-player card game.e

Rob

#8

Have you done a simple Google search?   Google auto-completed “how to develop multipla” … “yer games on android” and pulled up what appeared to be be several relevant articles.   

#9

Petite Warriors is my favorite ios game app, and do you want to play it!

#10

Hey a.jaks,

At GameSparks we have a 1v1 corona tutorial which, while not for a card game, may be some help for you - https://docs.gamesparks.com/tutorials/game-engine-integrations/corona-1v1-asynchronous-match.html

 

We also have a card game example based on the Hearthstone multiplayer which may also help you set up multiplayer how you want - https://docs.gamesparks.com/tutorials/multiplayer/hearthstone-example/

 

GameSparks is easy to setup - https://docs.gamesparks.com/getting-started/creating-a-game/corona-setup.html

You can also find a whole host of more tutorials on our GameSparks Learn+ site - https://docs.gamesparks.com/

 

GameSparks is completely free to evaluate and prototype and if you qualify for our indie and student programme you can get 100,000 MAUs for free (2c per user there after).

 

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to get in touch with our support team via - https://support.gamesparks.net/support/home

 

Thanks,
Clare

#11

Personally, I wouldn’t bother in your case unless you have a very large active user base otherwise you won’t have enough other active players to make a match.  You could however simulate other players with some basic AI and when you have a large install base then allow proper player v player.= matches.

#12

Im making a Single and a Multiplayer but the most important thing for my game is multiplayer. Is is okay if the user base is small and dont find games. Anyway i want to make this Multiplayer and need your help to say me what is the best option for my game.

#13

My suggestion is AI your online players… when you have enough players GameSpark is your best bet…

No one wants an online game with no players to play against = tones of bad reviews.  It may be a bit challenging for you to write some AI but it is better than players not being able to play online!

Some meaningful stats for you… my game has 2 mil downloads.  I have around 400 players active at any given second.  So by extrapolation - 200,000 downloads gives you 40 actives. 20,000 downloads gives you 4 actives, 2,000 downloads gives you 0.4 actives on any given second.

So unless you have decent downloads you won’t be able to match active players

#14

Okay that makes sense. But anyway, if sooner or later, i want to build in a multiplayer and i want to know what the best option is :slight_smile:

#15

No other suggestions? :slight_smile:

#16

Let me share my experiences here.

First your list is mix of concepts and providers.

Lets talk concepts first. There are two main models for multi-player:

  1. peer-to-peer means that two (or more) players talk directly to each other. Usually this is a two-player setup because peering between more than that increases network traffic and connections quite a bit. All players are equals and the software running on their computer manages the game.

  2. client-server means that there is a central communications hub that all players connect to and the server manages what information flows between clients. In this mode, one player could be the master/server and the rest of the player’s are connected to the server.  The other way is that there is a dedicated server that is the master, enforces game rules, etc. and the players connect to that server.

NoobHub is a client server model. You would own a Unix based computer (potentially hosted somewhere), run a server process on it. But this is just a message passer. Your local game would have to be able to act as the master player for the game or function in a peer-to-peer fashion where everyone is equals.

I didn’t know much about AppWarp until I looked them up. They are also a message passing system, but it has more organizational tools with lobby and room support (grouping of players).  You would still need one of the player’s acting as the master.

Autolan is for players on the same WiFi to play together. This would work in peer-to-peer or client-server but it’s all local network, no Internet.

You have other options too. Both Google Play Games Services and Apple’s GameCenter support multi-player. Both support Turn Based, GPGS supports real time, and there may be a couple of GameCenter based plugins that might support more.

We also have plugins for PlayFab, GameSparks and Photon Cloud which support multi-player at varying levels that could probably manage a multi-player card game.e

Rob

#17

Have you done a simple Google search?   Google auto-completed “how to develop multipla” … “yer games on android” and pulled up what appeared to be be several relevant articles.   

#18

Petite Warriors is my favorite ios game app, and do you want to play it!

#19

Hey a.jaks,

At GameSparks we have a 1v1 corona tutorial which, while not for a card game, may be some help for you - https://docs.gamesparks.com/tutorials/game-engine-integrations/corona-1v1-asynchronous-match.html

 

We also have a card game example based on the Hearthstone multiplayer which may also help you set up multiplayer how you want - https://docs.gamesparks.com/tutorials/multiplayer/hearthstone-example/

 

GameSparks is easy to setup - https://docs.gamesparks.com/getting-started/creating-a-game/corona-setup.html

You can also find a whole host of more tutorials on our GameSparks Learn+ site - https://docs.gamesparks.com/

 

GameSparks is completely free to evaluate and prototype and if you qualify for our indie and student programme you can get 100,000 MAUs for free (2c per user there after).

 

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to get in touch with our support team via - https://support.gamesparks.net/support/home

 

Thanks,
Clare