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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Yeah, I’ve been itching to say that since the first post on this blog.

Anyway boys and girls, today we’ll be talking about the thing that Westerns all through the ages are famous for. That’s right, it’s time to talk about combat. Be it a showdown, a bar brawl or a shootout between a Sheriff’s posse and an outlaw gang, I can’t recall a single Western that didn’t feature at least one fight. In addition to that, a major factor of practically every MMO I’ve ever played is combat. Even if it isn’t the main point of the game, it always plays some important part (with the exception of A Tale in the Desert). And somehow, we’ve managed to write two dozen posts without properly touching on the subject. Well, ladies and gents, allow me to correct that oversight.

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Back in the day, when a company (or an individual) wanted to make a game, they’d usually choose a platform and make it. When a game console company (Nintendo, Sega, etc.) made a game (or payed for one to be made), it was for their systems. You didn’t see “Super Mario Brothers” on any system that didn’t have “Nintendo” written on it.

Nowadays, that isn’t the case. Many games are made by  third parties, and though politics and various deals can still result in a game being released for only a single platform, most games are released for at least two. Actually, since the PC is now as good a “console” as others (well, maybe not as good), even games released by Microsoft for their XBox, are released on another “platform” as well . Anyway, I digress.

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