Today is a very special day for us.
It's the first time we get to talk publicly about something we've been working on for a long time; Our Multiplayer API.
Everyday, lots of new flash games are made and released, fuelled by the fact that it doesn’t require much more than a computer with Flash and a good idea. However almost none of them are multiplayer, even though everyone knows they’re more fun. Multiplayer is a part of almost every new traditional computer or console gaming game released today, yet it’s curiously absent in flash games.
We started wondering why.
If you want to make a fun game, making it multiplayer should be much easier than spending all the time and effort required to make your singleplayer game interesting over a long time. Being able to play a game with your friends makes it inherently more fun and increases the replay value dramatically. Also, the format is perfect for it since it’s so easy to share web-based games with your friends.
When we tried developing our first multiplayer Flash game we quickly realized why there are so few of them: It’s really, really hard.
You have to either purchase server software, trust a piece of open source software, or build it yourself - preferably something that doesn't send huge messages back and forth encoded in three layers of xml. Then comes figuring out your protocol, management of multiple games, persistence of data, lobby creation, sockets, multithreading issues and so on. When you've finally got the thing running, pretty much your only option is renting your own server somewhere or running it from your basement. And even then, you've still got to play server administrator 24x7 to make sure the thing is always running.
That's pretty soul-crushing, when all you care about is gameplay. All the other stuff should be a commodity, an off the shelf service, like web hosting, email, or ads.
The Nonoba Multiplayer API is exactly that service. We've abstracted away all the difficult and boring parts of multiplayer games, so the Flash developer need only create the part that’s really important: the gameplay.
Any Flash game developer can download the API, develop the game locally, and upload it to Nonoba for hosting, and still be free to embed it and upload it everywhere else.
We could go on for ages describing how well it works for turn based as well as realtime games, how games are completely isolated and protected from one another, how the protocol is optimized to squeeze the bits, how it easily integrates with our other APIs, how much thought has gone into the development cycle, and so on. In the end though, what we're most excited about is to see what new innovative multiplayer games will be created.
We are so confident that we're on the right path with our Multiplayer API, that we will kick start the development and get the word out by announcing our first big game competition with $20,000 USD in prizes, and a first prize of $15,000 USD, for the best new game built on the Multiplayer API.
Can't wait to play your games.
monolith saidThis is simply awesome. The Multiplayer API has got incredibly much potential.. Opening up the possibility of multiplayer games to such a wide range of developers is brilliant. I expect to see really, REALLY (!) great games here on Nonoba (and of course everywhere else too, because the API still works if you upload your game to newgrounds, etc).
Giving the API out for free is really the best choice you guys could have ever made. Expect to become famous ;)
I, for one, can't wait to get it and play around.
dx0ne saidand they thought civil space travels will be big thing of 2008 ;]
really guys you're doing here unhealthy good things.
RipeX saidWhen are you accepting the next wave of applications?
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404 said
Posted a long time agoWords simply cannot describe how much I, as a developer, love you guys right now.