How can I make simple online multi-player games?

Question

I want to make a little online game (ie.Tic-Tac-Toe).

What technology can/should i use ? Where are the pitfalls?

The Game should be playable on the browser.

How can i find the opponent ?

Answer 1

If you want to make it online in a browser you should use Flash, Silverlight, or Java. The most popular (and easiest) is Flash.

If you want to make it a desktop application (an .exe), then you might want to look into learning C++ or C#.

No matter what your route though, the best resource online for building games is at gamedev.net. There is a more specific community there (as opposed to Stack Overflow, even though we are awesome!), and it has many tutorials and articles to get you started.

Good luck!

Answer 2

You could use any of these:

• Ajax/Javascript
• Flash/Flex
• Java Applet
• Silverlight

I would use Ajax personally because it's simplest and has least dependency on third-party software and for such a simple game it's more than enough. For a simple game like Tic-Tac-Toe, I don't really see a lot of pitfalls.

Answer 3

I would start by creating the game in the platform you are used to use, then pick a web platform that you want to try out, and try to recreate the game.

Answer 4

Open Laszlo is a good flash creation platform.

http://www.laszlosystems.com/

Back it up with PHP, ruby on rails, or some other system and you'll be all set.

Now break your question into smaller tasks and ask questions for each task instead of trying to cram it all into one question.

• How do I create a simple tic-tac-toe program for the web?
• How do I do it in javascript or flash so it doesn't reload the page each time?
• How do I put the logic of the tic-tac-toe on the server?
• How do I connect two players on remote tic tac toe clients?
• What are your suggestions for 'connecting' players, ie game lobby or automatic?

etc.