Wake : The lobby system

For Wake, it was very important to us that players can create and join games easily. I spent some time this month laying the foundation of our lobby system. At the moment, the game only supports local play, but I'll be making an effort to get online play working this month.

Creating a game right now is simple. All the user needs to do is select "Create Game", name the server if they wish, and select start game. When they do this, the game runs a what is called a listen server. Basically, the user that created the game is running as a server and client at the same time and uses the network to transmit data the same as other clients will. The user also has the option of running a dedicated server, which will not allow them to play the game, but simply run the server so that other clients can join the game and play.

Soon, I'll be finishing up the master server. The master server is a simple program that keeps a list of all the servers running games, so clients can get access to their address and attempt to join the game is there is space available. It's a bit trickier than that as many computers are usually behind a NAT device that gives the computer a different IP than the one that is seen globally. This will require some researching into NAT traversal to figure out how to connect users. When this is up and running, when a server starts, it will attempt to register with the master server so that other clients can join it.

When a player chooses to "Join Game", they will be brought to a simple server list. The client will broadcast for servers on its local network and display any local games. The client will also attempt to connect to the master server a retrieve the server list. The player can than choose from any games with space available to join and start playing. So far, I'm pleased with how easy it is to set up and start playing a local game. Creating and joining games on separate networks is the next challenge I look to face and I can't wait to get that working. Check back soon for more updates on Wake and some in-depth discussion about the facets of the game I'm working on.

Wake : Alpha Gameplay Video

We've completed the alpha month of final game project at Full Sail University and here's a look at the progress we've made over the past few weeks. We now have the three weapons we planned on having from the original design in the game a functioning properly and they're using some spiffy weapon models. We now have a lobby system that allows clients to pick the game they want to join. We also have a new level that was built with our level editor, as player models and animations. Check out the video!