Cross platform multiplayer ?

[Dayan]

Hi devs !
First of all I'd like to say that all your games are amazing, Nine Parchments' graphics are absolutely beautiful and I'm gonna buy this game for sure.

I only have one question : Will the online co-op be cross-platform ?
It would be like, reaaaaaally cool if we could play this game with console gamers.
If not, I'm gonna buy the game anyway, but it's cool to know ^^

Have a nice day ! Good luck for the game's development ! :D

[MarjutFB]

Thanks for your support! :)

Unfortunately I doubt we can bring cross-platform multiplayer to Nine Parchments, but thanks for the idea. I'll forward your wish ahead, but we indeed don't have plans for this at the moment. Enabling it wouldn't be easy, and the feature is not being asked very often.

I'm hoping that you have a nice day too!

[Banana Crayons[Sad Forever][RIP]]

Cross play is a wise move, even Worms W.M.D. is heading that way too & it will keep the game lasting longer than a long cast spell

[Zippy]

The day Banana stops stalking me, I'll be a lot happier.

[Leonard]

Originally posted by Zippy01:

The day Banana stops stalking me, I'll be a lot happier.

wait what

[Rafoca]

I'd love that. Sony wouldn't allow it, but I could see PC/XBOX/NINTENDO crossplay working, similar to Minecraft and Crazy Justice

[JLarja]

I'm not sure MS and Nintendo are allowing it any more than Sony, in practice. None of them seem interested in making cross-platform gaming a norm. We would need to use our own server and raw sockets instead of using the console's normal network and match making system. Technical side of that isn't that hard (hey, we could just use the same code on all platforms), but you can't do it without permission from platform's owner. My guess is that's a huge amount of red tape to cross, even if they don't just tell us to stop dreaming.

That said, Xbox One is a rather challenging platform, so I'm sure we don't want to do anything extra with it (well, we have 4k support for Scorpio, but that didn't require much).

-JLarja

[Kiradien]

Microsoft has been pressing for it a fair bit. They own both Windows and Xbox, and are the ones who own Minecraft as well; There was a fair bit of news of them pressuring Sony as well, though unsuccessfully. That's why we're seeing games like Minecraft and Rocket League move to be so heavily cross platform. Several games lately have gone Cross Platform between PC/XB/Switch, and I'd love to see this as one of em.

I know I am gonna pick up the Switch version regardless, but I'd love to play with my PC buddies while I'm out and about.

[JLarja]

If Microsoft is "pressing for it" as you said, they are doing it in secret. I have no trouble believing they want Minecraft to be cross platform. You are also right that they have been talking about Windows Universal platform (or whatever it is), so cross-platform for Xbox One and Windows is possible. However, if you do that, you can't have cross-platform with Windows and Linux and OS X at the same time.

Of course, everything is much easier if you have multi-million franchise and can throw more resources to the problem than Frozenbyte has for all it's projects. This isn't a technical problem. It's very much a problem of 1) being able to even talk to the necessary people, 2) those people bothering to listen and answer, 3) getting deals that allow you to proceed, 4) coming up with interface solution that everyone can agree on, and 5) doing the actual technical work.

So far, we haven't reached 1) .

-JLarja

[Hakuso]

Originally posted by MarjutFB:

Unfortunately I doubt we can bring cross-platform multiplayer to Nine Parchments, but thanks for the idea.

So, no console cross-play, but what about Steam/GOG multiplayer?

That's probably how I'll make my decision between Switch and GOG, if I can play my GOG copy with Steam friends, though with the way PC (both Steam and GOG) games go on sale much sooner than eShop games I may end up just buying the Switch copy at launch and throwing this on my GOG wishlist for the first sale where it goes for half off.

[BlackjackGT]

Arrowhead (Helldivers, Gauntlet, Magicka) explained a while back in an AMA that Steam/console cross platform play just isn't technically possible in this genre -- twin stick shooters -- because Steam and PS Network do not and can't "talk" to each other. Steam and Sony are not friends, it's not in their financial interest to burn money to try to assist with that.

Arrowhead said the only workaround would be for Arrowhead itself to create its own separate gaming network that enabled and supported such cross play -- getting around the limitations of Steam and PSN -- but the average developer isn't in financial condition to start a new online gaming network and support it 24/7.

About the only time such cross platform play can work is on mobile-type "asynchronous" games, not in actiony online co-op games with people playing at the same time. A current example is Sony Mobil's PC port Guns Up.

There's still some hope of cross-console play (PS4 and XBone), at least in some titles I've read about.

As far as Steam and GoG, I don't know how that would work either. I think from Steam, you'd have to invite or connect with your GoG pal via straight network IP address. There's no way for Steam to see your GoG friends list, nor vice versa, afik.

I don't mean to sound like a curmudgeon. Just being a realist.

[Hakuso]

Yeah, the Steam/GOG compatibility is kinda random, some work really smoothly and well while others use a developer account for multiplayer and others don't work at all.

There are some games that don't have multiplayer on GOG at all because they really too heavily on the Steam API, like Don't Starve Together is Steam only while Don't Starve Alone is available both (I own it on GOG, Android, and PSN) places.

[EllaFB]

Originally posted by Waldschatten:

So, no console cross-play, but what about Steam/GOG multiplayer?

We are planning to add cross-play between Steam, Gog and Humble (DRM free) versions to Nine Parchments. :)

[JLarja]

Originally posted by BlackjackGT:

Arrowhead (Helldivers, Gauntlet, Magicka) explained a while back in an AMA that Steam/console cross platform play just isn't technically possible in this genre -- twin stick shooters -- because Steam and PS Network do not and can't "talk" to each other. Steam and Sony are not friends, it's not in their financial interest to burn money to try to assist with that.

Arrowhead said the only workaround would be for Arrowhead itself to create its own separate gaming network that enabled and supported such cross play -- getting around the limitations of Steam and PSN -- but the average developer isn't in financial condition to start a new online gaming network and support it 24/7.

About the only time such cross platform play can work is on mobile-type "asynchronous" games, not in actiony online co-op games with people playing at the same time. A current example is Sony Mobil's PC port Guns Up.

There's still some hope of cross-console play (PS4 and XBone), at least in some titles I've read about.

As far as Steam and GoG, I don't know how that would work either. I think from Steam, you'd have to invite or connect with your GoG pal via straight network IP address. There's no way for Steam to see your GoG friends list, nor vice versa, afik.

I don't mean to sound like a curmudgeon. Just being a realist.

I think saying that cross-platform play between consoles isn't technically possible really depends on what you mean by technically. I would rather say that it isn't technically hard, but other issues (getting permissions and negotiating deals with all parties) make it practically impossible.

For example, all Frozenbyte games on PC platforms use our own matchmaking server. There's no need to depend on Steam or GoG. For actual game data peer-to-peer communication is used, so there's no need for huge server farms or such (also, it's not like there's millions of gamers online for our games anyway).

Technically speaking, it would be easy to use that same matchmaking server for console gamers and normal TCP/IP (or UDP/IP) for peer-to-peer communications, but console makers don't allow that. They also have rules like you have to support friends list, and present games and users in a certain way etc. etc.. On Steam or GoG or AppStore, no such rules exist.

Of course, with enough money you can either make most of the rules disappear or simply negotiate some compromise where everyone gets something close enough to what they want.

-JLarja / Frozenbyte

[Hakuso]

Originally posted by EllaFB:

Originally posted by Waldschatten:

So, no console cross-play, but what about Steam/GOG multiplayer?

We are planning to add cross-play between Steam, Gog and Humble (DRM free) versions to Nine Parchments. :)

Good to hear.

Now I just have to decide if I'm getting it on PC or Switch first,,,

Probably Switch, I have thousands of games on PC, I have nine on Switch :)

[Banana Crayons[Sad Forever][RIP]]

Humble is getting the DRM free version?
Wohoo!