Project setup: Websockets and workflow 2

voxel • 2 years ago on Multiplayer Kajam 

My current plan is to use the haxe programming language to create my kajam entry. In theory I can write a single codebase that can be compiled down to a headless (no graphics) server to run in the cloud, while having that same code be able to produce the playable version of the game. In order to get multiplayer support in the browser, I'll also be using websockets.

But more importantly I want to be able to quickly iterate on my entry during my free time, so I've set out to automate as much of the build and deployment workflow as possible. Nothing fancy, just a makefile that builds the server, deploys it to the remote server and launches it. I can then launch the client on my local machine and see messages passing between the server and client, which seems like a pretty important precursor to a remote multiplayer game. Testing with a local server on your development machine is OK but bypasses a lot of the issues that can occur with a 'real' server out on the interweb.

The test was successful but revealed that terminating the server on the remote server left a zombie process sitting on port 8000, which means that attempting to run the server again would fail as the port was unavailable. This behaviour didn't occur when hosting the server locally, so there's some instant proof that it's worth testing on as realistic a setup as possible. Hooray.

Comments (2)

Laguna
 • 2 years ago • 

Haxe is such an awesome language. I really enjoyed doing a lot of gamejams with it - and HaxeFlixel as a framework. Also congratulations on your working example. Looking forward to further videos (which is a great idea, btw).

voxel
  • 2 years ago • 

Augh, sorry! I have to quit the jam. I put way too much time into this entry and it's still not close to done, I need to cancel it and get back to doing other work! Thanks for organising the jam everyone

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