Searching for the right framework/engine/...

[bwsemg]

Hi all,

 

I'm pretty new to the gaming industry and am in need of a solution and I’m wondering if you could guide me through, please?

I want to launch a website where people can play games on on both desktop browser and mobile browser. Since I would like to launch more games in the future and “lock” some out, I need some kind of parent-child relation in the application so that only the “unlocked” game can be played.

 

Basically when the user accesses the website I need the parent “app" to go check in the database which game (1 game) can be played (locked/unlocked by me) and then load the game in dynamically.

Other features I need are

- JSON calls (or any type of calls) to GET/PUT in the database (to show data coming from DB)

- Facebook integrations (FB login, FB share, …)

- Game engine (such as gravity, events, … )

- UI layer where my player data will come from DB (if available) or can I solve this with "plain" HTML/CSS and PHP calls in the app?

- Dynamic asset/sprite loading

- possibility to design responsive (desktop/tablet/smartphone, …)

 

I've been browsing around (a lot) and cannot seem to find a decent fit. Any suggestions would be heavily appreciated.

 

Thank you in advance,

 

Sem

[rich]

I wouldn't include JSON, Facebook or even a UI layer as part of your requirements for a game framework:

 

1) JSON is native to JavaScript anyway, but DB calls are not the responsibility of a game framework, which is 100% client side, but of the web stack.

 

2) The Facebook API is ever changing (literally) but interfacing with it from JS is just a simple matter of of calling their API as needed, again I don't think this is the job of a game framework, but of the web site itself.

 

3) UI Layer - this has more arguments, but honestly you're building in a web browser - you've the whole of CSS/Forms at your disposal, so use them Most frameworks will provide for Text handling and some will offer simple Buttons and maybe a few other UI elements like a checkbox, but still I would say use the browser where requirements are more advanced than this.

 

The rest of your requirements I agree should be covered, or are the sort of things you need to deal with in your own code, because they are game specific (responsiveness for example).

[bwsemg]

Hi rich,

 

Thank you so much for your quick answer.

 

So if I understand correctly, I need to find a game framework that can communicate with the "web browser" itself in both directions.

 

For example:

1/ user logs in with Facebook so I authenticate him with a JS API call to FB

2/ DB call with AJAX or some kind to get the player's info (rank, points, credits, ...) and the game I have set active

3/ present that data to him with pure HTML/CSS/PHP/... but not IN the game but in a seperate div

4/ game framework receives response and loads the game logic that I want (game A or game B, the one I've "unlocked" in db)

4/ user clicks "play game" inside the game and scores,  for example, 10 points

5/ those 10 points get posted to the db again through AJAX logic of the web browser (not the game)

 

Is that about right, you think or am I again mistaking the lifecycle?

[rich]

1, 2 = Yes

 

3 = At this point you've lots of options. You could just create a single global JS object, put the data in there, then the game can read it directly, or pass it over in some other way - but essentially I'd still keep it all JS based. Remember a decent JS game framework will let you access anything present in the browser.

[rich]

Sorry worth adding - it's perfectly sensible for you to call the FB login stuff from your game, it's just a JS API call after all - lots of games have "login with facebook" buttons on their title pages for example. All I'm saying is that when the player clicks this, you just make a direct FB API call, rather than trying to find a game framework that hides this bit from you.