Earlier this morning, I ran across the Heroes of might and magic online mini-game (via digg). The game is written in PHP and uses the prototype and scriptaculous java script libraries. The interface is very drag and drop oriented and it uses Ajax to update game status. The graphics are very good. No flash as far as I can tell.
Their server is getting crushed right now, intermittently not responding and running out of MySQL connections. The javascript crashed my browser a couple times. Still, I was intrigued by the combination of Ajax and PHP and I liked the interface. Definitely one to bookmark for later. (I’d like to track down that crasher when I get more time.)
What is the state of Ajax games? of PHP games? Are there other PHP/Ajax games that I should bookmark?
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I have a friend who is doing something like UrbanDead in PHP5. He’s using AJAX for the “fights” and some of the other functionality that would benefit from that.
Not quite AJAX per se, but I was very impressed by this game when it came out:
http://www.smokymonkeys.com/triglav/
The only downside is that it requires IE to work, but it has some pretty amazing HTML / Javascript game flow.
PHP games are quite active these days. I work on Blacknova Traders, a PHP-driven web based game similar in style to Tradewars 2002. There is also Legend of the Green Dragon (A clone of Legend of the Red Dragon). Not to mention Alien Assault Traders, Promisance, Quantum Star (SE), PHPRPG, Phaos, and dozens of forks of all of the above.
Now AJAX is a little different. Its starting to creep into the various PHP games, but slowly. It takes us a little time, since we are generally all working with seriously legacy code that doesn’t take kindly to new technology.
There are quite a few of us, and many of us blog. Check my blog, or better yet, Maugrim’s blog for links to other PHP game developers.
It’ll be interesting how far this project goes.. http://www.shankun.com/AtlasPhp.aspx
using PHP and .NET’s ATLAS client AJAX library. Haven’t looking into what ATLAS can do yet.. but seems a hefty chunk of js code (238k for the core .js) so hopefully does some neat things.
Ajax adoption is going to take time to penetrate the PHP Games genre. We have a tendency (esp. in open source) for common denominator development. It’s not that Ajax is bad, it’s just something new and finding a valid use for it in what is in some cases legacy code is difficult. The newer the game project, the more likely someone will build in Ajax elements…
I’ve worked with Ajax in another project and I look forward to implementing it in Quantum Star SE’s interface (the Evolved branch is a rewrite of the legacy code). I’ve been playing around with PEAR’s HTML_AJAX along with the Prototype and Scriptaculous js libraries getting a feel for the possibilities. I bet a few others like me are just playing around with AJAX until we get a handle on how we can effectively use it (and not just dump it in at random as UI candy).
[...] And what else? Last week Dynamic Web Pages discoverd 17 new php tutorials – topped by lots of slides from the php quebeck conference (conference on cd available!), MySQL Replication and synchronisation as like tutorials about the Zend Framework and AJAX (Btw., HTML_AJAX 0.4.0 was released by Joshua Eichorn and there are the first AJAX-based PHP Games around, too). The last two seem to be of some interest to the php community. This picture seems to be confirmed by articles from i.e. blogs that went around the world last week. Lukas Smith has initiated a discussion about the proposal process of the eclipse php ide and open source and continued [1 | 2] with that this week. Zend Framework showed up some times, too [1 | 2]. Some other news concerned 3D-image capabilities of php with PEAR Image_3D by Kore Nordmann and the Solar Framework Releases that happend this week by Paul M. Jones – who just left Zend. Forgot something? Ah, yes, Omni IT is offering a job as Junior Web Developer. Chris says: “If you like web development technologies (mod_perl, PHP, etc.) and working with some of the best in the industry (Laura, Wez, George, Theo, Amy, etc.), this might be an opportunity you don’t want to miss”. Probably i forgot the one or other important news, so just drop me a comment. And what do you think: should i really use trackback on those summaries? seems a little like spam to me, but actually this is what they are for, aren’t they? This time no trackbacks here, i wait for your opinion …. l8er! [...]
The current state of browser-base games is something that concerns me greatly – it seems a lot of the “greats” are starting to get abandoned by their users and developers. The tutorial, article, and news sites have been gone for ages. This is something I hope to rectify here shortly.
I have been deployed to Kuwait since January, I get to come home in May. The whole time I have been here I have been working on a website that I will launch within weeks of my return to the states. I currently have a number of tutorials, articles, interviews, postmortems, etc – all centered around the browser-based game world.
My goal, my hope, is to once again garner a true community around these games and get the younger crowd of people interested in these games once more. As both players and future developers.
Nice Ajax single and multiplayer games can be found here (together with Ajax chat, tournaments, and much more..)
http://www.pitstreet.com
Very promising is the new http://wwww.32cards.com (soccer card) game for Windows. It’s coded in PHP in combination with the PECL WinBinder!
You should have a look at it.
Come try out Heaven and Hell – the game
Not saying much here. I will let you judge by yourself.
Meet you in the Realm!!!
This is a fairly well developed game for only being around a year and a half, Nowhere-Else and Beyond. Only one developed/programmer, and he did a good job. The game is always having updates that utalize more and more ajax instead of javascript, and it also has some extra features like an alternate Java map display instead of normal JavaScript. Using the Java can also enable the 2.5D view (perspective) instead of the plain old 2D view. Just a note: The game has over 60′000 lines of code (That’s a lot for one person who has another job! (He develops this game in his spare time))
“http://blog.quantum-star.com/index.php?/archives/239-Redux-First-Official-Code!.html”
-Maugrim
I believe that is about right. Our site is a good example. We have just entered Beta testing at Shogun Wars. Right now we’ve don’t have much using AJAX, mainly just the message system, but we have big plans for it the (hopefully) near future.
It is definitely easier to implement when you know it is coming.
Lol … that was cute. I had just bookmarked that link above to my site, and somehow still had it in the clipboard… then my browser freaked out and decided to make this form disappear and I had to either submit blindly or re-type… I guess I should have re-typed.
Within the quotes above it should read:
“It’s not that Ajax is bad, it’s just something new and finding a valid use for it in what is in some cases legacy code is difficult. The newer the game project, the more likely someone will build in Ajax elements…”
I like perl, php and mysql. but some time a server setup with all the facility can be a hard job. We have developed a simple software which does all the thing automatically. It has php, mysql, email, pop3, dns, page designer, phpmyadmin like thing all built in. we named it dotash project and avail free at http://www.ashnah.com
ashnah language is the world first language that has cgi, xml, database all built in. user do not need any external library for this and it introduces xdll concept.
It is ideal for home or small office use.
AJAX games are popping up more often as the technology ages. The most complex one I’ve seen is here (http://www.voximperium.com) and is called Vox Imperium. Its a clone of Civilization written with AJAX tech, but its also multiplayer.. I’ve seen worlds with ~50 people playing at once. The networking is well thought out.
As far as I know its written in PHP/Javasscript with MySQL on the backend.
I’m working on a fully Graphical PHP Adventure game with AJAX principals (no refreshes).
It has a shop system, battle system, item system and worlds that you can visit, all the while walking through each island maps artwork and players.
Here is a new ajax powered free chat Chant,
that can be integrated to Wordpress.
I hope this help
I’m working on developing a simple browser game using PHP, HTML and MySQL. It’s going fairly quickly, and I’m still working on the base engine, but I’m amazed at how much PHP I’m learning.
I’d like you to contact me about this game, add me on messenger if you’d like. I want to find ways how to release exploits/hacks etc..
It is a known thing in the game and very common and I want to do it.
Please mail me.
Thanks, sean walsh.
It is not long ( January 2007 ) i implemented a newer and heavily modified version of WebChess on my own server. No AJAX, but blazing fast.
http://chess.yourforum.gr
Come and invite me to a game if you can take a serious challenge
Hey can you please contact me, I think I’m interested helpping to work on this game.
Sg1: A 2d ajax multiplayer real-time strategy game. This Game is awesome and is made by AjaxProdigy.com
can any one tell me where i could download all the php / mysql / ajax codes wahat ever is needed for a mafia kinga game . something like omerta or torncity. please mail me to merejulius@yahoo.com
Bin schon seit langem stiller leser deines blogs und finde deine artikel wirklich gut. In letzter zeit ist mir aber aufgefallen, dass dein Seitenlayout im chrome browser total zerrissen ist… Ich kann deinen blog nur mit dem Internet Explorer lesen. W?re toll wenn du das problem beheben k?nntest