Hello Atif, I'm developing my own server for a multi-player game, so I think I can weight in with a degree of 'expertise.' To start off, I've never heard of any of the servers you mentioned, so I'm not going by first hand experience, but rather from the information they have on their website. So, please don't take anything I say to be 100% true.
Red5 - Seems overly complex for such a simple project. Do you need streaming? It seems that's one of its main features. It has java examples and bindings so that'll make coding the client and server a bit easier since your brain doesn't have to switch between Java and something else. I don't see anything that would actually help in creating a multi-player game, beside mapping data. (That is, being able to send data from the android client and the server being able to interpret it and something useful with the data.) I really can't recommend this for any game development. Not to mention that there are no specifications as to how efficient it is, or how low its latency can be. ElectroServer 4 - Seems to be primarily an ActionScript/Flash server. According to the site: "The ElectroServer API acts as a liaison between the game developer and ElectroServer – formatting and initializing all transactions that occur between the client and the socket-server." As you can see, this can add a significant amount of overhead/latency if this formatting isn't done fast. "Flash clients written using ActionScript 3 gain even higher performance and reduce message size further by using the binary protocol." So, for ES4, it seems using the binary protocol is the best way to go. It actually looks fairly simply and complete and just might do the job. SmartFox - Looks pretty stunning. Not to mention they had mobile devices in mind when they made it. So that probably means the protocol is efficient. They seem to APIs in a lot of languages. (Say you want to port your game to iPhone later.) This one seems to be the most recommend-able off-the-shelf server. However, to me, java and high-performance/low latency don't go together. But for your kind of game, it should be more than enough. There's also nothing like having professional support for a server/platform. Now, I'm not sure if you even need all those features, or if you have/are willing to spend the money on them. I, like a few posters, recommend that you make your own server. It really is a lot simpler than you think. You can do it in php, perl, etc. It doesn't have to be a new-age language. You simply encode your data in JSON, send it to the server. The server performs some basic database operations and returns back data encoded in JSON. That's it, doesn't get much simpler than that. However, you'll have to code a lot of the logic and be dealing with databases. (Which is not a bad skill to have.) Android has excellent support for JSON. I say this because sometimes, it's a real headache dealing with commercial products, specially if it's just a simple card game. Also, you'll be keeping most/all the profits. (Depending on the server's pricing scheme.) Scalability, yes it's an issue. But a lot of the time it's just an issue of knowing how to break down your game rooms. For example, you don't expect to have 200,000 users in the same room at the same time, do you? 200,000 players overall should be feasible using simple JSON. It's sort of hard to recommend something without knowing more about your game, but I hope that helps you in some way. Miguel. On Mon, Jan 18, 2010 at 9:52 PM, Atif Gulzar <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi All, > > I am developing a multiplayer card game. And currently looking for best > server. I have R&D on three servers RED5, SmartFox and Elctro Server. > > RED5 is open source but you have to right midle tier for android to > communicate with server. > SmartFox has inherent Android support. > > Would you please share your expert thoughts or point me some other servers. > Thanks > > > > -- > Best Regards, > Atif Gulzar > > I ◘◘◘◘ Unicode, ɹɐzlnƃ ɟıʇɐ > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google > Groups "Android Developers" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected] > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected] > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/android-developers?hl=en > -- http://diastrofunk.com, http://developingthedream.blogspot.com/, http://www.youtube.com/user/revoltingx, ~Isaiah 55:8-9
-- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Android Developers" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/android-developers?hl=en
