Re-Spawn Dev Blogs

  Re-Spawn Tournament is a competitive, arena-style multi-player first person shooter game with fast-paced, high energy combat that requires both reflexive skill and tactical thinking.  

[ggrespawn]

We are Back

Wow ... it has been a journey but it is safe to say ... we are back.

As you can see, new logo, new engine, but same game (sort of). We are getting ready to release on Steam Early Access and things are progressing nicely. Over the last few weeks, we have been testing, tweaking, testing some more and shooting a lot of 3d rendered bullets at other virtual players (just in case this gets search indexed).

The Steam Page is almost ready, just need to record some more footage for the required trailer. The Windows and Linux builds have been tested, Steam support is enabled and the game sessions are accessible through the search screen and Steam front end.

The game currently has the following features implemented:

4 maps (Proving Grounds, Acrophobia, Sector D, and Industrial Action).

6 game modes (Free for All, Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, Conquest, Rush, and Kill Confirmed).

3 character classes (Attacker, Defender, and Healer).

4 character perks (Extra Lethal, Extra Ammo, Extra Speed, and Extra Health).

2 Sidearms (Duke and Duchess)

5 Primaries (Ryder, Lurker, Ender, Disposition, and Mamba)

... not too mention a whole lot of fun and entertainment worthy of an Early Access Title.

More features will be added after Early Access launch which will include but are not limited to:

Extra maps

Extra weapons

More classes

More perks

VOIP Chat

More player skins

More weapon skins

Extra player models

Handicap system

Tournament mode

The aim is to get the game ready for full release by first or second quarter 2023. So stay tuned and I will finish off with a screenshot or two.

[ggrespawn]

Where the hell have I been?

Well I have no excuse for the delay in updates for Re-Spawn Tournament, except for one. Torque 3D. Initially I chose Torque 3D because I used Torque Game Engine (TGE) and Torque Game Engine Advanced (TGEA), so it felt like a natural progression from the earlier engine. Unfortunately this turned out to be far from the truth ... T3D proved to be more problematic than I ever initially anticipated.

Since the engine went MIT license, the developers have lost focus and the engine is bugged with old technology and difficulties in actually making the frequent releases worth while. Don’t get me wrong, the engine is good, but it lacks in a lot of areas where other engine like Unity and Unreal excel.

So I started looking at other engines and started focusing heavily on Unreal Engine. At this stage Unreal Engine offered me source code access with a 5% royalty for only $19 per month, I jumped at the opportunity and started learning a whole new engine.

While learning the engine, Epic Games released the engine free (https://www.unrealengine.com/blog/ue4-is-free) and things just exploded from there. Before I knew it I was helping other users on the forums with tricks that I had learnt and even managed to become a moderator on the official forums.

Unfortunately this pushed Re-Spawn to the back burner and while learning the engine I focused on a smaller game called Kaboom Arena (which is currently in Alpha). This taught me a lot and although the game is not released yet, I have decided to come back to Re-Spawn and finally make the game all that it should be and could not be using Torque 3D.

So here we are, I have a nice shiny game engine that is flipping awesome, I have all the game mechanics from the original game, I have all the art and assets for the original game ... and so the process of porting Re-Spawn from Torque 3D to Unreal Engine has begun.

Progress is moving along nicely and I aim to have a few screenshots and video footage ready for the next blog. So stay tuned ... things are going to move quickly.

[ggrespawn]

Oh the Humanity...

It has been a while since my last blog post but this in no way means that I have been idle, the change log for release v1.0.0.7 speaks for itself. But don't believe me, read the full changelog here and judge for yourself.

I have been diligently working my way through my "To Do" list and making some solid progress, I did get side-tracked a few times but quickly managed to get my focus back on the jobs at hand. During this period I bought copies of Forester Pro and Medusa Pro and started using them to get some more scenery added to the current set of maps. These tools are well worth the price and although I feel the prices of the packs are a little too steep individually and a bundled price should be offered, I purchased a couple of add on packs that had the content I was looking for.

The decision was also made to offer a similar map to Proving Grounds for different biomes, so armed with trusty old LT3D, I set off creating the various biomes. The next step is to do a merge of the Sahara code (that Konrad Kiss from BitGap Games has given me permission to tackle) and try to port it from the older versions to the new T3D 3.5.1. If you don't know what Sahara does, then go here and check it out for yourself. This will allow me to add some semblance of realism to the maps, as can been seen in some of my test shots below.

Please read the original forum thread and released resource regarding Sahara for more information. Feel free to use the publically available GitHub repository to fork your code until the updated code becomes a part of the master branch.

The team has also finalised the list of game modes that we are going to support and I am in the process of posting this list up on the wiki. Speaking of the wiki, things are starting to take shape nicely and I have added the first couple of achievements to the wiki as well. Almost all the instructions are complete and there is even some background and game mechanics information on there now.

The basic achievement page.

The detailed achievement page.

Karl Muller from Karl Muller Music and Sound Design has done an outstanding job on the sounds for the game and we now have new sounds for almost all aspects of the game. This was one of the items brought up during testing and I am hoping that in the next release players will be happy with the quality and the result. Speaking of quality, I realised that I was exporting all my sounds to low quality and had to spend a day re-exporting all the sounds, now that was fun.

Version 1.0.0.7 sees the introduction of PhysX 3 support. We now have PhysX objects scattered all over the maps to provide cover, but they are destructible, you have been warned. During the introduction of PhysX, I also merged in the latest update from Torque 3D MIT 3.5.1 as well as rolled back Awesomium to 1.7.2.2. These have now given me a solid base on both Windows and Linux and thus I am now even closer to finally get a workable build on Linux for my servers and Game Changer system. See this post for more information regarding my frustrations with PhysX 3 Windows Client and Linux Server interoperability.

The next release will see the introduction of some basic achievements, more servers in the following regions (US East - New York, US West - San Francisco, Europe - Amsterdam, and Asia - Singapore) as well as the ability to start renting your own servers and managing them through Game Changer.

After the next release, things will quieten down for a little while as we start working on the next phase of Game Flow. This will see the introduction of regional servers, the separation of core Game Flow functionality from the game engine in to a separate DLL, and a more optimized master server and messaging system. We are also investigating the inclusion of a Jabber server for the lobby and help system. By using a Jabber server, our support team don't have to be logged in to the game and can stay logged in to the Game Flow control panel and provide assistance from there.

We are also going to start work on the next phase of the Distributed UI system and will start introducing language support for the various regions. The system is also going to be updated to support a more dynamic GUI that will update more efficiently with changing resolutions and will finally get push notification support.

Overall, things are progressing nicely, albeit somewhat more slowly then I initially anticipated but some very valuable lessons have been learnt. These lessons have allowed us to identify potential bottle necks and address these before we go ahead with our Steam Greenlight push. I need to make sure all my services are in place and that they can potentially grow with the user base before I can even think of doing large scale marketing pushes.

So please stay tuned, we are moving forward and we are getting ever closer to providing you with an awesome gaming experience.

[ggrespawn]

Oh Foundation my Foundation

Yesterday saw the completion of the last few bugs on the list for Re-Spawn and except for a few very minor issues, I am happy to announce that v1.0.0.7 is now a foundation release. It is off this foundation release that we will now start to develop Re-Spawn more and start adding the features and content that have been lacking from the previous releases.

What does the game currently have? The foundation releases was always focussed on getting a solid base to build off and so I resisted the urge (that cropped up more often than you think) to add fancy shiny features in lieu of game play or functionality.

As of the v1.0.0.7 we have the following base features in place:

Web Based GUI System

Game Update System

Player Registration, Activation, and Authentication System

Stats Tracking and Leaderboard System (Game Flow)

Server Tracking and Licensing System (Game Changer)

Bots using Navmesh and Coverpoints

Player and Weapon Skins

Wide Assortment of Weapons

Now this may not seem like a lot for the time it has taken me to develop, but I have had to rewrite the entire backend system and replace it with the new Game Flow and Game Changer system. This ultimately introduced new bugs and challenges that had to be addressed, which have now been resolved.

So where to from here? Well now that I have the foundation the next step is to start adding all the bells and whistles and making the game more polished. We will also start adding all the game modes that we have planned, some of these game modes are the old favourites like Capture the Flag and Team Deathmatch, but we also have a few new ones or changes on existing ones that we are keen to add.

The Player Profile system will now also be implemented and with this comes the inevitable Player Achievements and Player Customisation system.

With the Player Profile system we will start adding in the Clone Bank, which is the amount of clones you have available to you as well as the Game Winnings and Game Betting Systems. These systems will allow you to top up your Clone Bank or buy Visual Upgrades for your Clones and their Weapons.

The list goes on and on ... but to summarise, these are the features that we will be implementing ... of course there are a lot more of implied features but I will save that for another blog.

Weapons - Re-Spawn has a wide array of weapons that will allow you to dominate your opponents. Each weapon has been designed and balanced for different scenarios so you will have to use them tactically to gain the advantage.

eSports - The primary focus of Re-Spawn is to provide an eSports centric environment where players and spectators can place bets and earn in-game credits in order to purchase visual upgrades and extra clones.

Clones - Clones are the player's lifeblood and if you don't have enough clones you won't be able to compete in events. Gain clones by betting on or winning matches to earn credits, spend these credits on new clones. If you run out of clones, your match ends.

Autonomous Clones - Re-Spawn has been built to primarily be a multi-player shooter. However servers can be configured to allow players to fight autonomous bots. This has been designed to help players through a gradual learning curve that will ease players into the faster paced game play.

Competitive Play - Re-Spawn has been designed as an arena FPS, with head-to-head multi-player deathmatches being the primary focus of the game. For team matches, bots are used to fill the roles of the player's team mates. Even on dedicated multi-player servers, bots are sometimes used to pad out teams that are short on players.

Game Modes - Re-Spawn supports many game modes and we are planning new game modes through updates and continuous development of the title. Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, King of the Hill, Domination, Assault, White Rabbit, Duel and many more ...

Handicap System - Re-Spawn features a unique handicap system that will allow players to compete against higher ranked players without being completely dominated. The handicap system revolves around the number of clones a player is allowed in a match.

Clans - In Re-Spawn clans have a very big role in the game, a portion of your match winnings in individual matches goes towards your clan and all winnings from clan matches goes to the clan. Clans can challenge other clans to ranked matches and can even run ranked tournaments. You don't have to join a clan however, you can remain a free agent and still take part in clan matches and team matches, once again the choice is yours.

So how long? How long is a piece of string? I really don't have an answer to this question, some features might seem to complicated to implement and take less time to put in place while others might be the other way around ... ultimately it will take as long as it has to.

What I will say is that I am committed to doing a 2 week release cycle or a 4 week release cycle if there are no major updates available to be done in those 2 weeks. This should allow us to get new features in place and tested as quickly as possible and keep the current (somewhat small) player base interested and playing Re-Spawn.

How can I get involved? Although I have never made a call for assistance before, I have always been willing to take on new team members as and when they felt inspired to get involved. The offer is an open-ended one and I am open to negotiations, feel free to contact me on [email protected] if you wish to get involved.

Or join our growing community by registering on the forums (WIP) and joining in on the discussions. Stay in touch and up to date by following us on Twitter.

Visit us on Facebook and Google+ or even get involved on the wiki. Finally you can help us get to the top 100 games on IndieDB.

Enough blabbering, I just want to play! Re-Spawn is currently still under development and is now currently in Alpha, so please download the game to get involved with testing. The game is Free, free as in beer. If you want to contribute to the development of the game then please make a donation using this donation link. Ultimately the game is Free-to-Play and only Pay-to-look-Cool, it will never be Pay-to-Win.

Your Honour, I rest my case. Re-Spawn is far from finished and I still have a far ways to go, but with this milestone I am just that one step closer to ultimately releasing the game.

The marketing I have done is merely the groundwork and is not active marketing at all, all I have been doing is keeping the small player base informed and ensuring that the systems work before I release them to my marketing guru ... this will be done when we get closer to the Beta stage and not before.

And that is it, this is the start of the next chapter of Re-Spawn and the blogs that follow will be more focussed on new features and showcasing them where I am able to. I will also start doing more tutorial based videos that will be tied in to the wiki, this will become the online manual.

Thank you for your time and I look forward to all comments, questions, and suggestions.

[ggrespawn]

Alpha v1.0.0.5 Released

Release Notes: [FIXED] Defect #4 - Heartbeat Sounds Continues After Death [FIXED] Defect #5 - Proving Grounds Spawn Points [FIXED] Defect #6 - Bots Just Run Around [FIXED] Defect #7 - Updater Disable Buttons [FIXED] Defect #8 - Spawner Telefragging Not Working [FIXED] Defect #9 - Proving Grounds Map Name [FIXED] Defect #10 - Rank for Leaderboard Calculation [FIXED] Defect #11 - Server Ping Incorrect [FIXED] Defect #21 - Bots Seem to Randomly Crouch [FIXED] Defect #22 - Can't Get out of Credit Screen [FIXED] Defect #23 - KD Ratio Calculations Incorrect [FIXED] Defect #27 - Bots just stand around in Proving Grounds [FIXED] Defect #29 - Rocket Launcher blast [FIXED] Defect #30 - Mouse cursor disappears if chatting during death

[ADDED] Player Statistics Display [ADDED] Top 100 Leaderboard on Home Page [ADDED] Client Version Check before joining a server [ADDED] 5 minutes left audio and visual alert [ADDED] 1 minute left audio and visual alert [ADDED] 30 seconds left audio and visual alert [ADDED] Server config file that allows various aspects of the server to be configured and controlled. [ADDED] Fail safe check if the servers are undergoing maintenance. [ADDED] Version number to the main menu screen for easier reference.

[CHANGED] Player registration process to include Country, Birthday, Terms Acceptance, and Marketing Opt In values

[FIXED] Bug where the game couldn't be run at a higher resolution. [FIXED] Bug where collision mesh material of the Turret was being rendered.

Testers and Server Hosters The player uptake of the game hasn't been what I expected and I suspect this is due to the lack of servers in other areas (currently only have a South African server). So if any of you out there are willing to host a server for us, please get in touch and I will send you an Official Server License and Key. You will also get full credits in the game and a new server hoster page will be created on the website with your details.

The server is extremely stable and requires no support or maintenance, we merely need locations and willing volunteers.

We are also looking for more testers, so please download the game from here, or spread the word if the game is not your type of game and get fragging. :)

Please join us on the official forums or on Indie DB and help us promote the game.

Next Release The next release of Re-Spawn (v1.0.0.6) is currently underway and will include 2 new maps and a host of new features that didn't make it in to v1.0.0.5. We plan on releasing new versions every 2 to 3 weeks and are optimistic that we can hit these deadlines now that the base game is complete.

[ggrespawn]

Game Flow: Stats Tracking

Game Flow is a technology stack that provides game developers with functions and features that include but are not limited to the ones listed below:

Scalable, Robust, and Lightweight Master Server

Scalable, Robust, and Lightweight Game Update Server

Scalable, Robust, and Lightweight Achievements and Statistics Server

Secure Encrypted Communication between the Interconnected Services

Secure Server License for Official Servers

Secure Player Profile Storage on Client Machines

Secure Player Storage and Allocation of Achievements and Statistics

Web Based Server Control Panel (Game Changer)

Web Based Game GUI that is Theme-able and Supports Internationalisation (Ditributed UI)

and many more...

In my previous Game Flow blog (Game Flow: Distributed UI), I talked about the Distributed UI aspect of the system. In this blog I am going to discuss the stats tracking and how this is allowing me to draw metrics on my maps to help with the game play and combat flow.

How did the concept come about? One of the primary goals for Re-Spawn has always been to make the game a competitive FPS and overlay that with tournaments, achievements, and leaderboards. I don't like using the term e-Sports, but ultimately I want Re-Spawn to be focussed on e-Sports and hopefully when the player base gets strong enough, Gobbo Games (or other sponsors) will be able to host international tournaments.

Obviously I am under no illusions that this game will be an overnight success or will gain the player traction that I hope it will ... but regardless, implementing these features ensures that I am ready if it does happen and allows me to test the Game Flow technology stack more thoroughly.

First came the Leaderboard The first step in this process was to get the leaderboard working. This didn't prove too difficult and after some tweaking and a minimalistic database design, I had a working leaderboard.

The leaderboard concept is quite simple, use Kill/Death ratios to dictate who is ranked higher. We use two different Kill/Death ratios to decide on the rank of the leaderboard, this are listed below in higher priority:

Player Kills vs Player Deaths (i.e. you killing other players or being killed by other players)

Bot Kills vs Bot Deaths (i.e. you killing bots or being killed by bots)

Then we added Stats So after we had the leaderboard system and it was working, we made some modifications to the database and tweaked the stats tracking system to include more details.

This allowed me to create the stats pages, currently they just give an indication of weapon used and the standard kills versus deaths for both players and bots, but these will eventually be expanded to include favourite weapon, favourite map, favourite victim, and most killed by player, weapon, and map.

The stats system will be expanded on and features will be added as we identify more metrics that players would like to see tracked and displayed.

All this information ... now what? While I was writing the stats system and going through the data that I wanted to or needed to have tracked, I realised that there was huge potential here to help me with my map design.

I am already tracking when a player or bot gets killed, why not add the position of the kill as well. I then wrote a process to draw this out of the database and plot this on the map, below are some screenshots. Yellow spheres are Player Kills. Red spheres are Bot Kills. Green spheres are Player Suicides.

[image]https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/t1.0-9/10246753_789240814420117_1738392523481681884_n.jpg[/image]

[image]https://scontent-b-lhr.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn2/t1.0-9/1496654_789240797753452_1822383177344617190_n.png[/image]

[image]https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/t1.0-9/10290647_789240824420116_796179333053007532_n.jpg[/image]

[image]https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn2/t1.0-9/1911702_789242194419979_5685149238243603894_n.jpg[/image]

[image]https://scontent-b-lhr.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-frc1/t1.0-9/10247429_789243154419883_4334086526186331198_n.jpg[/image]

[image]https://scontent-b-lhr.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-frc3/t1.0-9/10151930_789243081086557_6303316024390423403_n.png[/image]

I will add the images for the Factory map in due course.

So how do the above images actually help me, well by studying the placement of spheres, I can immediately see some trends.

In image 1 above, these is a large concentration of Yellow spheres (Player Kills) and an unusual amount of Green spheres (Player Suicides). This coupled with the information that this is the spawn point for the Ender (Rocket Launcher), I can surmise that players will run to this location and camp it. Players will also typically do long range rocket shots towards the large platform in the middle.

Armed with this information, I need to make it not so advantageous to camp here ... maybe put some obstacles to the line of site down to the centre platform ... or move the spawn entirely.

It is armed with these metrics that I will be able to better balance my maps and hopefully enhance the player experience and game play.

What other metrics? At the moment I am storing and processing the following stats:

Hit Locations - Kills and Deaths for Head and Torso

Maps - Kills, Deaths, KD Ratios for Bots and Players grouped by Map and Player

Weapons - Kills, Deaths, KD Ratios for Bots and Players grouped by Weapon and Player

As we identify more stats and metrics that need to be tracked, we will add them and then make them available to the players.

How does it work? Quite simply, when a player or bot is killed, we fire off a message to the stats server with the relevant data. This is stored as a unprocessed base stat.

Every 15 minutes, we have a procedure that processes the first next 100 unprocessed stats and generates the various metrics that we need.

Every 60 minutes, we have a procedure that updates the leaderboard based on any new metrics as may be required.

We are pretty scalable on this process and if we see we are getting excessive load we will move the whole process across to a Message Queuing System like ActiveMQ instead ... but for now we will continue to use once off messages without a queue.

Where to from here? Re-Spawn was recently released on v1.0.0.5 and although there have been a few hiccups, the release has gone pretty well. I am not getting the player traction that I was hoping for, but I am forging ahead with our awareness and player attraction plans that we have come up with.

We are listed on Indie DB now and I am closely monitoring the process:

We have done a new website for the game and will be adding more information to it: http://respawn.gobbogames.co/

The wiki is up and running and we are adding more information to it: http://respawn.gobbogames.co/wiki/

We are now getting the 1.0.0.6 release prepared for release and this will include two new maps and a few extra features to the base game. We are aiming for a 2 to 3 week release cycle per release and are confident that we can hit this milestone effectively.

In the next update, I will talk about the Master Server.

[ggrespawn]

[ggrespawn]

Re-Spawn: Alpha Ready

Re-Spawn v1.0.0.4 is now ready for testing. You have a few options for downloading the game as explained below:

Online Installer - The online installer is a 6.7 MB file (checksum: 4d66adc0561176a12574f1838019d864) and can be downloaded from here.

The online installer will install the core components of the game and you will have to use the new Re-Spawn Updater to download the rest of the game files from the server. Do not attempt to run the game until you have run the Re-Spawn Updater, the game will not run.

Offline Installer - The offline installer is a 376.3 MB file (checksum: 5f28d3dac45be51c0ebd4bb9f45d8e70) and can be downloaded from here.

The offline installer contains the entire game and the Re-Spawn Updater. It is still recommended to run the Re-Spawn Updater after installing the game to make sure you have the latest version of the game.

Re-Spawn Updater - In order to use the Re-Spawn Updater, you need to have .NET 4.0 Framework installed. You can download the correct version of .NET from the links listed below:

http://www.microsoft.com/en-za/download/details.aspx?id=17851

http://www.microsoft.com/en-za/download/details.aspx?id=24872

Please make sure you install .NET and reboot your PC before attempting to run the Re-Spawn Updater.

Official Server - Currently we have a limited amount of official servers operational and would appreciate any assistance in getting more official servers out there. If you can help us with that then please send use the following information so that we can send you a server license and further instructions on setting up your server.

Region - Your 2 letter country code (ZA = South Africa, US = United States, etc.) If you are unsure just tell us what country you are in.

Max Players - 16, 32, 48, 64.

Description - This is a brief description of the server and should be no more than 128 characters.

You will be sent an encrypted license file and server certificate file as well as further instructions on how to set up your server. We really appreciate any assistance that you will be able to provide in this regard. Our plan is to bring more official servers online when possible.

Bugs/Issues - If you are experiencing any bugs or issues, please register and account on the official forums and send us an email with your account name to [email protected]. We will then give you access to the official alpha tester section of the forums and you will be able to log your bugs in there.

Alternatively you can log your bugs by sending an e-mail to this e-mail address: [email protected] ... please include the name of the game in the subject and provide as much information regarding the bug as possible.

[ggrespawn]

Game Flow: Distributed UI

Game Flow is a technology stack that provides game developers with functions and features that include but are not limited to the ones listed below:

Scalable, Robust, and Lightweight Master Server

Scalable, Robust, and Lightweight Game Update Server

Scalable, Robust, and Lightweight Achievements and Statistics Server

Secure Encrypted Communication between the Interconnected Services

Secure Server License for Official Servers

Secure Player Profile Storage on Client Machines

Secure Player Storage and Allocation of Achievements and Statistics

Web Based Server Control Panel (Game Changer)

Web Based Game GUI that is Theme-able and Supports Internationalisation (Ditributed UI)

[li]and many more...

I will cover all these topics in due course but for today I want to focus on the Distributed UI system and how it works.

How did the concept come about? In all the prototypes I have developed and all the iterations of Re-Spawn that I have done, I have also wondered how would you go about creating a GUI System that allowed you to internationalise it if you had to. I took various different approaches and they all the same fundamental problem, the logic sate with the game client and required extensive scripting and/or modifications to the game engine and so I abandoned these ideas.

While taking a break from game development one day and playing some Guild Wars 2, I noticed that the game GUI for the game seemed to be remotely accessed from the game client or was being streamed some how and that is when the idea hit me ... why not take the game GUI out of the game and make it work off a separate remotely accessed server. Armed with this idea I started researching various technologies and tried a few different things, which didn't work out as expected and I started getting a little bit demotivated.

It was around about this time that Stefan Lundmark released an update to the T3D Awesomium Integration Pack and I decided to buy it, for an entirely different purpose. Basically I wanted the players in Re-Spawn to be able to go to a Computer Screen in the game and be able to pull up their statistics from a website and that is when it dawned on me, Stefan had come up with the solution to my problem: How do you integrate the website with Torque 3D?

I integrated Stefan's pack in to Re-Spawn, created a test web-application in Java and JSP and linked the two and I was completely blown away by the result. The screen shots below show my two initial screen shots, the first one is the login screen running on the web server and the second screen shot is the same login screen running in the game. This is how the Distributed UI System came about.

What technology was used? I have been developing in Java since late 1997 and over the last 8 years or so I have been developing Web Based Application using JEE and JSP, so it was a natural choice to choose the language that I was the most familiar with and that I had a good track record with. I personally developed an application that handles over 30 000 page-views a day, 100 concurrent users, and serves these pages in less than 500 milliseconds ... using 1 server.

The next choice I mad was to use Linux as the main server, this is primarily due to my experience with and continue use of Linux since early 1996, and add to that the FREE cost of licensing fees and low resource usage for server, it was an obvious choice.

Next I chose PostgreSQL as the initial database but after a few initial tests I switched over to MySQL for the initial development. I have however implemented Hibernate and I am using an Entity Framework in conjunction with HQL (Hibernate Query Language) which means I can rapidly switch to any Hibernate supported database should the need arise.

The final choice that I made was to use Apache Tomcat as the JEE application server, it is more lightweight than Glassfish but provides me with the extra features that I need in order to handle high loads that might be encountered. It also integrates quite easily with HAProxy and the Apache Web Server to ensure that I have a decent load balancer in front of the systems.

There were also extra technologies that were chosen that included things like Redis (Caching Server), Spring Framework (JEE MVC Platform), Apache Velocity, Apache Tiles, and a few more that were essential to creating a robust, scalable, and stable system. The last thing you want is the server to fail while you have players connecting to it, the diagram below shows how the architecture fits together and where the various services reside.

How long was the development? From start to finish, the development took approximately 6 weeks of after hours and weekend work to complete. During the entire time I focussed on the fundamental features that I needed to support in order to make the service work, these were mainly:

Internationalisation

Secure Sessions

Fast Response Times

Slick User Interface

Consistent User Interface

Easy-to-use Interface

The User Interface requirements were met by using jQuery and Bootstrap 3, that were customised and modified to match the look and feel of the game in question. Overall I am very happy with the results achieved and the screen-shots show what I achieved with the Distributed UI system.

How scalable are you? Currently the Game Flow system is running off 1x Linux server in Denmark using a cloud hosting company called Digital Ocean. With my current Game Flow Master Control Panel, I am able to bring up extra services in the various supported regions with a click of a button. The game client is designed to connect to the nearest regional service during start-up using the HAProxy system and some other features that I wrote.

These extra regional servers provide an added bonus of the Distributed UI system automatically being displayed in the regional language if applicable, this can be overridden by the user and the Game Flow Master Control Panel if the need arises.

Add the MySQL Clustering technology, HAProxy Load Balancing and the relative low cost and ease of bringing up extra servers within a matter of minutes ... automatically ... I feel that Game Flow is extremely robust and scalable, but as with anything only time and volume of traffic will tell. I am however silently confident that it will stand up to the load requirements.

How secure is the service? This is always a tricky question and you want to answer it as carefully as possible without giving too much away but I will state the following:

Passwords are stored using a one way encryption and there is no way to extract a decrypted version of the password from the database

Passwords are encrypted with a salt value

Communication between the game client and the Distributed UI systems uses SSL (i.e. HTTPS) to prevent middle-man attacks and spoofing

User sessions are controlled by the Spring Framework using their Spring Security features

Critical information between the game client and server are encrypted using RSA Public Private Key encryption

The game client only has access to its public key and the server keeps the private key

Wherever it is required, magic tokens are used to prevent data corruption

Finally we use SQL Injection Prevention Techniques to handle any surprises that we may not have thought about

Ultimately the system is as secure as we can get it and we are continually monitoring for suspicious activity. All actions are logged in a log file and we can draw activity reports from this to spot any potential issues that may arise. All the systems are backed up regularly and we do not store any critical information in the database that could be compromised (like personal information or financial information), we prefer to use third party providers for this information as this is what there core business is.

Where to from here? Well the next Alpha Release of Re-Spawn is due for the 1st of April 2014 and it will be launched using the Game Flow technology, with some minor features disabled at first. This will be a nice "live" test of the Game Flow system and will give us some valuable information while the testing is going on. Once we are happy with the results and are confident that the service works as expected we will start rolling out the service to our other projects that are currently in Prototype or Alpha state.

Initially we wrote the software and services to address requirements that we had for Re-Spawn but we may start looking at the possibility of selling licenses for this technology to other interested parties, please don't quote me on this as I do not have a definitive answer on this yet and will not be able to give a definitive answer for a while yet.

In the next update, I will talk about the Stats Server.

[ggrespawn]

Re-Spawn: He Had Blue Eyes

It was around this time that Torque 3D 3.5 was released and I thought ... hey why not upgrade to the newer engine at the same time. Simple hey ... well it is also during this period that I discovered Awesomium and then came across the T3D Awesomium Integration Pack by Stefan Lundmark and an idea came to me ... why don't I do the entire game gui using a web based server ... I was playing Guild Wars 2 at the time ... and I suspect I was heavily influenced by that.

So I set out on my mammoth rewrite and I am happy to say that I have some results ... some very nice results ... even if I may say so myself.

So what does this Distributed UI System (as I call it) bring me? Well because it is web-based, I am able to rapidly change it and get new versions and prototypes out quite quickly.

I also am able to use the session for the Distributed UI System to control user access to the game, this allows me a whole lot of flexibility when it comes to testing, server administration, and other role based functionality (i.e. developers have access to debug screens, etc.).

Internationalisation is an absolute breeze, as we stand write now I only need to get translators for a messages file and make it available on the Distributed UI system and a player will be able to play the game in their own language.

Fancy schmancy effects and UI elements are easy, the current system is based off a heavily modified Bootstrap system using Font Awesome Icons and other web based gems that I am highly familiar with. With the new HTML5 and CSS3 features, I am able to do fairly decent UI visual effects without having to implement a tweening system or some other type of animation system.

So what am I using? As I am a Java developer by profession and Spring MVC is my main forte ... it was an obvious choice to go that route. So I am using Apache Tomcat Web Application Servers behind an HAProxy server running JavaEE 7 off a Ubuntu 13.10 64bit Linux Server.

With this setup, I am able to bring localised versions of the Distributed UI system up and running quite quickly and I am able to load balance the service as and when it is needed.

Why Java and Linux? I recently completed a system using the same type of architecture that handles 500+ concurrent connections, doing 30 000 page views in less than 500ms ... did I mention that Java is my forte.

But in all honesty ... it was easier for me to use Java and iron out the kinks in the system than trying to do the same in PHP or raw HTML.

Where can I see more? I have put an album up on Facebook of the new GUI, and you can see it here.

You can also find more information on the social links listed at the end of this post.

Where to from here? Well I have a few more screens to finalise and then I have to build a few new maps, I have earmarked the next 2 weeks for those jobs and so I am looking at a new release by the first week of April.

This will mark the next round of Alpha and based on the feedback will dictate whether there is another Alpha or whether I move on with the next set of tasks in preparation for a closed Beta.

Social:

Official Forums: http://respawn.gobbogames.co.za

Official Website: http://respawn.gobbogamessa.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ggrespawn

Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/111655141078939611311/posts

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ggrespawn

Skype: ggrespawn

G-Talk: [email protected]

E-mail: [email protected]

Stay tuned for more updates and hope to see you all in game real soon.

[ggrespawn]

Re-Spawn: A Call to Arms...

Official Forums: respawn.gobbogames.co.za

Facebook: www.facebook.com/ggrespawn

Google+: plus.google.com/u/0/111655141078939611311/posts

Twitter: twitter.com/ggrespawn

Skype: ggrespawn

G-Talk: [email protected]

E-mail: [email protected]

Stay tuned for more updates and hope to see you all in game real soon.

[ggrespawn]

Re-Spawn: Texas Chainsaw Massacre — The accompanying video for the last blog.

[ggrespawn]

Re-Spawn: Texas Chainsaw Massacre

WATCH NEW VIDEO

Stock Assets: Well yeah, I am no artist and I therefore purchased all the assets (except for the modified Quake II maps) and I decided to use these assets. They work well for the game and although they are not what I would like in the final product, I have decided to focus on the things that I am good at and hopefully in the long run I might be able to attract (or contract) and artist in to do some of the art for me. I have a male and female model that I would like to use, but I need to have the model applied to the soldier skeleton as I really like those animations and I really want to keep the current weapons. I am hoping that after some more exposure I will be able to attract an artist (as previously mentioned) or maybe raise some crowdfunding to contract an artist in. Alpha Release: I am still on target for doing a Closed Alpha release next week (the week of the 21st to 25th October) and I have managed to get about 20 Alpha Testers signed up and registered. The two test servers are in place and are ready to handle the tests. The authentication servers are in place and have been as thoroughly tested as I was able to ... so now it is just down to the last 10 or so items on my list that I need to complete before the Alpha. The plan is to test the game engine, test the game play, and test all the servers and services before I start working on new game modes and maps. I am hoping that this will identify any potential problems early on so that they can be addressed as quickly as possible. During the Alpha Release, I will work on the other 7 internal maps and will release them as they are complete and ready. Technology and Extras: So besides the game using Universal AI Starter Kit and Walkabout Navigation Toolkit, I have also implemented MAP (Multiplayer Assembly Package) with a lot of the extras which include but are not limited to the Stats System, Server Side Ranking System and the Master Server implementation. On the extras side I have implemented Lifelike Effects Pack and the GarageGames Decal Art Pack. The other packs used are: GarageGames Soldier Weapons Art Pack, GarageGames Soldier Death Animation Art Pack, and GarageGames Soldier Art Pack. I paid for them, so I am going to use them. Most of these can be considered placeholder art, but if I am not able to get an artist (Hint, Hint -- Nudge, Nudge -- Wink, Wink) then I am quite happy to push ahead with these packs as is. Social:

Official Forums: respawn.gobbogames.co.za

Facebook: www.facebook.com/ggrespawn

Google+: plus.google.com/u/0/111655141078939611311/posts

Twitter: twitter.com/ggrespawn

Skype: ggrespawn

G-Talk: [email protected]

E-mail: [email protected]

Stay tuned for more updates and hope to see you all in game real soon.

[ggrespawn]

Re-Spawn: Urgh ... They Got Me

WATCH VIDEO

Marketing: I have gotten all the social media and other pages ready, so please feel free to join us:

Official Forums: respawn.gobbogames.co.za

Facebook: www.facebook.com/ggrespawn

Google+: plus.google.com/u/0/111655141078939611311/posts

Twitter: twitter.com/ggrespawn

Skype: ggrespawn

G-Talk: [email protected]

E-mail: [email protected]

Plan: We have scheduled the Closed Alpha to launch within the next 2 to 3 weeks (21st to 25th October 2013). Invites have been sent out to all those who were involved in one of the very early Pre-Alpha tests as well as those who have expressed interest in joining the Alpha. If you think we have missed you or you would like to gain access to the alpha, please send me a PM or email with your preferred email address. We have limited the number of keys available but should there be one available, we will send you an email with your key as well as further instructions. Please note that this will be handled on a first-come-first-serve basis and it is imperative that you give us a valid email address as the key is tied to that email address. Hope to see you in game. :D