[casual_games] Platform for multi-player Flash games

[Juan Gril]

It is a clever idea. Congrats.

Just curious: how are you handling security?

Cheers,

Juan
 

-----Original Message-----
From: casual_games-bounces at igda.org [mailto:casual_games-bounces at igda.org]
On Behalf Of Rajat Paharia
Sent: Tuesday, October 18, 2005 1:04 AM
To: casual_games at igda.org
Subject: Re: [casual_games] Platform for multi-player Flash games

Jonas, everyone -

> > http://www.bunchball.com
> The page doesn't open in Opera - the tab closes itself at the moment 
> it starts loading. I've never seen this behavior before, you've got to 
> be using some very unorthodox code in that page?

Thanks for the Opera pointer - I hadn't tried it before. I think it was a
script that was testing to see if the user had a popup blocker.
I disabled the script, and things appear to mostly work. It hasn't been
thoroughly tested on Opera though - I've noticed some window placement
glitches.

> How are you planning to get developers to publish on your site in the 
> initial stages, before you have a large user base? The concept sounds 
> good, but starting up is always difficult - especially when you 
> require people to learn and use a new API.
> What do you offer developers today that would make them put the time 
> into adjusting their product for your site, instead of just selling it 
> to existing portals with a large user base?

It's the chicken and egg problem, alright. There's no way around it.
Here's some of the ways we hope to address it (long, sorry):

1. We're providing all the multi-user infrastructure for free. If other
developers are anything like me, then the thought of writing all the server
code to manage users, groups, invitations, presence, chat, data storage,
databases, turns, etc, is more than I want to deal with, especially if it's
just to create a simple 2-4 player card game. Now they (and I) don't have
to. Your development time for a multi-user game should drop dramatically. I
was able to create a group photo-sharing application (not a game, I know,
but still complex), from scratch, in half a day. Then I was able to spend
the rest of the week concentrating on creating a great user experience.

2. We tried to make the API really simple. The simple version: every player
has an open copy of your Flash SWF. Whenever a player makes a move, they
send an ActionScript object, with whatever state data you want, to the
server, which saves it and distributes it to all the players in the game.
Their SWF files receive the object, update the game to reflect the new
state, and the process repeats. All this can be accomplished with a couple
of API calls. Then we've added extra functionality to support file uploads,
asynchronous playing, timeouts, etc.

3. Although you can easily deploy single-player games on our platform, our
focus is on multi-player games, and on playing with people you already know.
This combination, we think, is inherently viral. You'll get invited to play
something, like it, and then invite others to play it with you. If you have
a good game and just a few people like it, it should be able to grow very
quickly. The number of users already registered at our site shouldn't
matter, as people will pull in their friends and family from outside.

4. We're also working on making the games "embeddable" in web pages, RSS
feeds, etc. outside of Bunchball.com, so that the games aren't tethered to
the portal, but can be played anywhere - giving them much more visibility.

5. We'll develop some of the "staple" games (chess, checkers, etc.)
ourselves or with partners just to fill out the library and offer users more
options. Right now, unfortunately, this is taking a backseat to platform
development.


To your other point, I think Yahoo Games (or any other existing
portal) is great if you've got a single player game, or you've built all
your own infrastructure, and you think your game is good enough and you're
ready to work with a publisher to get some space on their site.

Bunchball is great if you want to develop a multi-player game quickly, not
worry about infrastructure, not deal with any gatekeepers telling you what
you can and can't deploy, and want to iterate with real-world user feedback.
And hey, if your game gets really popular, there's nothing stopping you from
shopping it to a portal then, with proof that gamers like it.


I'd be curious to hear if people think any of this sounds reasonable, or if
y'all think I'm smokin' dope.

> Anyway, I hope it works out nicely for you!

Thanks! For the comments and for the pointer to the Opera problem.

best, - rajat
--
Rajat Paharia
rajat at bunchball.com
http://www.bunchball.com
http://www.rootburn.com
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