Where can I get started with basic online functionality for a game in VB.NET?

Question

I am creating a Boggle clone game and it works very well so far.

Right now it is only single player. I would like to make it so that other players can connect, and show up in a listbox, and then I can select that person and play a 3 min round with them.

What would be the best way to accomplish this?

I know a lot about VB.NET, but I have little experience with networking. In terms of a server, what would I need? I want it to be as simple as possible. All I want to send to the other person is the array of 16 letters, and I want to receive the player's score every time the timer ticks.

Answer 1

Participants in networked games most commonly connect indirectly to each other via a server, but that is certainly not required. If you want to start simple, I'd suggest using TCP sockets to connect the two players. Send simple game messages over the sockets.

Test two instances of your process on the same machine first. Then, once working, test across different networks. That's when you'll come across firewall and routing issues. From there, you can configure your router to let through the traffic, or try to tunnel through SSH, or use a server.

In short: start simple with TCP sockets on the same machine. Go from there.

HTH, Kent