Php/Javascript to make a browser game?

Question

I've been on and off intrested in making a text based browser game. I have been turned off by the idea because of the daunting amount of things to learn.

PHP (or another sever side scripting language) Javascript HTML MySql

And the fact of severs and apache..

Can I just pay for web hosting and by-pass having to set-up apache?

Also how long will it take me to learn all thoose things well enough to start work on my game?

Should I just stick with Flash and then C# for XNA?

Answer 1

Just install XAMPP, which is basically the lazy man's Apache/PHP/MySQL setup in 1 click. You just install it and it does all the work, nothing for you to setup nor config.

Don't let the complexity of PHP/HTML/Javascript set you off, we all hard to start somewhere. Just start with the parts you know how to make, then look around for each individual problem. Being motivated is key to learning anything, and if you have something you enjoy working on, you won't have a problem learning what you need to pull this off.

Answer 2

I believe sticking with flash would make things easier, as syncing multiplayer with javascript and PHP isnt going to be easy.

Answer 3

It depends how complex the game you want to make is. You can easily learn some basic PHP and javascript inside of a month (like pretty much any other language), but it'll take a lifetime to master (like any other language).

I would recommend you start out small - plan to implement just a subset of your features, and take them on one at a time.

I would plan to use libraries / frameworks. For Javascript I would currently recommend JQuery because I find it easy to use, it has a large community and it's well documented. Using a library like JQuery allows you to easily ignore a lot of the browser specific details, since they deal with all that nonsense for you.

For PHP I personally use Zend Framework - this is a massive beast that isn't always the best documented, but if you start with the "Quick Start" tutorial and then only look at features as you need them, you shouldn't get overwhelmed too easily. One of the great things about Zend is that you can pick and choose what features you want to use without hassle.

With regards to servers, yes you can use a web host and bypass setting up a full server yourself very easily and cheaply. You can find local installations (eg. XAMPP) that will allow you to quickly set up a local install of Apache, PHP and MySQL to get started with.

Answer 4

• Do you have a specific game in mind?
• Does it need to be multiplayer?
• In the initial stages, does it require server interaction at all?

Conversely,

• Are you interested in the possibility of building a working game first, and adding in features like saving high scores, multiplayer, or other server-interactions later?
• Is a self-contained game like nethack or Hitchhikers a good starting place for you?

If your initial game does not require server interaction, you can build quite complex games using only HTML and JavaScript. This will reduce the number of concepts and languages you need to learn up front.

Once you have had some practice building non-trivial games in HTML and JavaScript, you can then add in features like server-integration, and learn a server-side language like PHP, Python, Perl, ASP.NET, or Ruby...

You can definitely pay for hosting, and eliminate the effort of setting up and maintaining a server yourself. A quick search will find you a number of web hosting sites to choose from.