Synchronizing online game state via AJAX or RPC

Question

I'm trying to find a way to synchronize game state in a browser based game. I've been using Google Web Toolkit, but I think my question pertains to any AJAX or RPC framework.

As for my "game": think chess, but where you need to move the chess pieces in real time; if player 1 moves (drags and drops) a piece to a new location and player 2 moves a different piece to a different location at the same time, both player's game states will update with the other's changes.

My initial implementations have all been clunky and complicated, since game state collisions are never fun. So I am wondering, what are some good, established ways to accomplish this?

Answer 1

You need to push state to the client, as well as pull state. If you're using GWT, then you might want to look at Ice Faces, which does have built in server push.