Is Online Multi-Player a possibility?

[TorCoolguy]

I'm sorry if this has been asked before, but will there be an option eventually for Online multiplayer? I'm not sure what kind of server space it would take but I have friends from other games that wanted to also play Co-Op. I didn't know if this was a feature that was being looked at for the future.

[Wafflesaurus Supreme]

No, not for this game. It's been asked and answered this week.

[Harichi]

Originally posted by Tired_David:

No, not for this game. It's been asked and answered this week.

Not even for some kind of competitive thing where you have you're in a permanent rush hour, playing till the other person loses or wins and the amount of people you served is your score? That would be awesome. My fingers would break off, though.

[Wafflesaurus Supreme]

Well, there are leaderboards. But no, this game wasn't built for online multiplayer. That's the sort of thing that requires a lot of planning early in the development cycle as well as heavy integration with Steam's network code. It also can be a pain in the butt to troubleshoot and support when you're a really small company when players run into the inevitable connectivity and performance issues that come with online multiplayer.

[chubigans]

Yeah I'd love for it to happen, but basically I'm the sole programmer, and I have an artist and a composer, and that's it. Plus I'm taking on two projects this month. So its something I'm aiming for in the future but right now it's just not feasible considering how badly the code is mangled after two years (the things I know now helps me to make future games, but the code in this one is a bit tangled).

There are third party solutions for online, but the problem with those is relying on those third parties to keep up their servers and code. For instance, I'm using Game Maker Server to host the avatars people use in the game. If the GMS server goes down forever tomorrow, the most I'll lose are the avatars on the leaderboard- not a big deal but a bummer nonetheless. If I had online play via GMS and it went down, I would have lost an entire feature of the game with no way of bringing it back online. So that's why I'd prefer my own code/server solution rather than third parties.

Whew, that was a big explanation, sorry about that! But I feel it's always nice to be completely transparent about things like this.

[Harichi]

Originally posted by chubigans:

Yeah I'd love for it to happen, but basically I'm the sole programmer, and I have an artist and a composer, and that's it. Plus I'm taking on two projects this month. So its something I'm aiming for in the future but right now it's just not feasible considering how badly the code is mangled after two years (the things I know now helps me to make future games, but the code in this one is a bit tangled).

There are third party solutions for online, but the problem with those is relying on those third parties to keep up their servers and code. For instance, I'm using Game Maker Server to host the avatars people use in the game. If the GMS server goes down forever tomorrow, the most I'll lose are the avatars on the leaderboard- not a big deal but a bummer nonetheless. If I had online play via GMS and it went down, I would have lost an entire feature of the game with no way of bringing it back online. So that's why I'd prefer my own code/server solution rather than third parties.

Whew, that was a big explanation, sorry about that! But I feel it's always nice to be completely transparent about things like this.

TL;DR Would need to rewrite the code for most of the game, and if servers go down then we lose a feature.

Also, the code can't be as mangled as the wires in my living room are. It's a nightmare with the wires down there.

[Amber]

Originally posted by chubigans:

Whew, that was a big explanation, sorry about that! But I feel it's always nice to be completely transparent about things like this.

Transparency is one of the best things I love about you as a developer (besides creating a great game lol). Its really appreciated after having fun with the communication in games such as Broken Age...

[Colonel.EXE]

Ey dev, why not a peer-to-peer IP connection multiplayer? I imagine most people are only interested in playing with a freind they already know. (Example: me with my wife, we are split by the atlantic ocean due to my military service). We love playing this game together and I feel like a low-profile game like this should work fine with a peer-to-peer connection.

[NEU-NEU]

The only workaround i can think of would be a third-party program (..if it ever exists) that connects two users together, allowing one to send key strokes or gamepad commands to the other, making it a hot-seat emulation program somehow.

Coupling that to a streaming program such as Skype, Google Hangout, Steam's streaming functions or anything with the less possible latency ... and you have it ... in theory.