MondoCloud

For the past little while I've been helping to build the just announced service called MondoCloud. In a nutshell, it allows developers to do easy server-side game logic as well as real-time messaging services.

This is a great solution for features such as in-game chat, lobby systems, and most multiplayer needs. The only multiplayer requirements it really wouldn't be suitable for are tracking positions in real-time. For example a multiplayer FPS game would not work well. But an RTS game could work if the mouse-click actions are sent to the other players.

The best part about this service is that MondoCloud provides libraries for Flash and Unity so you can easily integrate it into your game. You can see an example of a chat system on the MondoCloud website. It demonstrates the MondoCloud messaging service in Flash, Unity, and HTML5.

Combined with dimeRocker, you really have most of your online web game needs covered. And it's extremely cheap compared to hiring an entire web team and running your own servers.

New Development Blog

For the past few months I've been slowly transforming this site into a development blog. Articles can be linked to individually, the main feed is now paginated, and most recently I added an RSS Feed. From now on I'll be posting about my game design and programming experiences and opinions. My current job has put me through a lot of challenges with Unity3D, Flash, and other technologies like PHP, JavaScript, databases, and Unix based operations. All of which have been in some shape or form tied into making social games for Facebook and other social networks.

I have a unique experience at my job because I'm not actually making a game, but rather creating libraries for game engines and web APIs to help countless game developers make games. I talk to many developers and get to witness first hand what does and doesn't work on the social web when it comes to deploying your awesome game. So it's my goal to use this blog to share the benefits of what I learn and experience in regards to these technologies, game designs, and practices. On the side I'm always working on a project or two, I'll be sure to mention and demo those projects here as well.

dimeRocker @GDC San Francisco

Last week I was in San Francisco with OMI to help man the dimeRocker booth at GDC. I met hundreds of developers and gave hands-on lessons about the dimeRocker platform, as well as two presentations in the Unity booth.

If you'd like to check out the two games we demoed, here are links for BATTLE BEARS and Air Traffic Commander. Both utilize features such as leaderboards, profile info, friend info, storing data, wall posts, and micro-transactions. At GDC we showed both these games running on MySpace and Facebook without the need to make different versions of the games.