Just had an idea for a game, tell me if this shit is stupid or not.
Players start by getting… I'm not sure yet. Heroes? Monster pets? Something. Anyway, whatever the 'thing' is, they start at a low level with randomly rolled stats. You have a player level, too.Anyway, you can 'export' your team of monsters or whatever to a small file and share it with others. Other players can import your team and battle against it. If they win, they gain experience or coins or something they can spend on new skills/cosmetic items for their team.Each export is given a unique 10 digit serial number, to make sure you can only import each team once. (To prevent boosting.) I'd make a website where people could have profiles with links to their current team, with images and statistics and shit.Beat a team that's a higher level than yours, gain a lot of experience. Beat one that's lower than yours, gain less experience.I think this is a cool way to have a sort of pseudo-offline (or is it pseudo-online?) multiplayer experience.So, once more: get a team of heroes or pets or something. Export your team, import other teams to fight. Gain experience and levels and coins to buy shit for your team to show off when you export your team. Website to integrate it all and make it easy.Yes? No? Ideas?
I've never tried an online game, honestly. 39dll scares me. Is it a huge pain in the ass?
Just downloaded some examples. It doesn't seem too difficult, but this port forwarding shit is confusing. Guess I'll test it tomorrow.
It'll definitely be a wasted project if it requires you to share files. It'll probably also get old fast if you can only battle a team once, if there aren't very many players at first.
Might I recommend Alert Games' API.Thanks a bunch for that link, firestormx. I remember using Alert's system for a game long ago and it kicks ass. I'll definitely be using this.
Though I have to ask - with online play, what remains? Reminds of http://pokemon-online.eu/ I know some people really hooked on that. Not to say it isn't worth making.
Anywho, with the original idea, what will happen is people will cheat, and then it won't be as cool to show off really-awesome-item-X. Also, you'll eventually want to change the game in such a way that it breaks the file format and renders old teams unplayable, though there are ways to mitigate this if you're careful.Good brainstorming though, I think I may write an idea blog too…