WWWest-Online Development Blog

I know I promised to write a bit about cross-domain issues, but before I do that, I think we first need to understand some of today’s web technologies and methods. These days almost all web applications are Ajax-powered, and we are no different. In fact, since our main game page has quite a long loading time, we try to avoid having to reload our game pages for anything which is not completely necessary; Ajax technology enables us to give you the feeling you never leave the page. However, like any good thing, it also comes with its share of problems.

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Whenever you join a new community, be it game, professional network or social platform, one of the first things you are required to do is to pick a picture or avatar to represent yourself. Obviously, you first pick a name, but let’s leave that bit for another post.

As with more or less everything on earth, people have varied takes on choosing an avatar. Heck, some people have no take on it, and just choose whichever one is provided by default. Other people just take a moment or two to browse the options and pick one that tickles their fancy. And last but not least are the ones who show a genuine interest and upload their own picture, whether it’s a picture of themselves, a picture of their choice or an avatar of their own creation. Some of them even use an online avatar service to create a custom avatar which they then use in all the boards which they frequent. Read the rest of this entry »

If you follow this blog you might have noticed that we talk a lot about the history of the Old West; the history of it all is very important to us, since our game lore is based on it. Having said that, we also care a great deal about today and tomorrow: since we are developing a browser-based MMO with a lot of modern technologies, we are bound to face technological issues. So I thought it’s time to start sharing these issues with you.

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No, I’m not planning to lay more lyrics on you. Owlist’s post just left me in a musical mood and the Beach Boys simply provided a title that kinda fits the topic of the day. What topic is that, you ask? Why, “maps!” I answer. That’s right; maps. Be it full map, minimap, scrolling or static, hex-based or square-based; almost  every game has got one. Some games don’t, since a map would have no meaning in their context; what good would a map do you in Bejeweled, or Mafia Wars? Some games have maps that are merely a place to write things down; there are no distances in these games, but maps provide a convenient means of separating locations. On the opposite end of the spectrum we have games in which the maps have as much bearing as almost anything else, like most RTS games (e.g., the Command and Conquer series or the pre-WoW Warcraft games), strategy games like Civilization (or Travian, if you’re into browser-based games), and most client-based MMOs. Read the rest of this entry »

With games, different people have different goals. I don’t only mean multiplayer games, but rather computer games in general. Even thinking back on the adventure games of old, I remember how my friends and I tackled them differently. Most of my friends, when faced with a game, usually tackled it in a rather straightforward manner, with the sole goal of finishing it. I, however, was usually the odd man out, and wanted to explore the game as much as possible (I’d give examples, but that would probably take about 3 more paragraphs…). Read the rest of this entry »