Technology to choose for a web UI, turn based strategy game
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Hi! Just want to ventilate my thoughts on my plans to build a web UI, turn based strategy game. This has been in my mind for more then a decade now, but it's now first that I got the time to start I have started with the data model, and thats pretty completed by now. The database used will be MS Sql 2012 Express. The business logic will be written in C#, simply because thats what I'm familiar with from my profession. Now to the tricky part, the UI. Tricky at least for me since I haven't been coding web UI for many years What should I go for here? What technology to choose for a web UI, turn based strategy game? There will be no moving graphics, no sound effects. Just an old school, bord game style, turn based war game with units to move upon a hex based 2d map. My thoughs so far are leaning towards html 5. Build the map from hexagons placed upon a html 5 canvas object. Then place the game units to be moved on top of the maps hexes, in the same canvas. To move the units on the map, Javascript will be used. Javascript will also be used to communicate between client side html/javascript and server side C#. Json will be used to have data structures at client side, compatible with the data structures at server side Since I'm a c# developer, I'm used to MS Visual Studio. I'm still using VS 2010. In VS 2010, the support for html5 development is very poor but I guess in VS 2015 it has improved a lot, and I will get VS 2015 soon Any thoughts on the choice for UI technology? Given the fact that C# will be used for logic layers Thanks and regards, Mild#7
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Hi! Just want to ventilate my thoughts on my plans to build a web UI, turn based strategy game. This has been in my mind for more then a decade now, but it's now first that I got the time to start I have started with the data model, and thats pretty completed by now. The database used will be MS Sql 2012 Express. The business logic will be written in C#, simply because thats what I'm familiar with from my profession. Now to the tricky part, the UI. Tricky at least for me since I haven't been coding web UI for many years What should I go for here? What technology to choose for a web UI, turn based strategy game? There will be no moving graphics, no sound effects. Just an old school, bord game style, turn based war game with units to move upon a hex based 2d map. My thoughs so far are leaning towards html 5. Build the map from hexagons placed upon a html 5 canvas object. Then place the game units to be moved on top of the maps hexes, in the same canvas. To move the units on the map, Javascript will be used. Javascript will also be used to communicate between client side html/javascript and server side C#. Json will be used to have data structures at client side, compatible with the data structures at server side Since I'm a c# developer, I'm used to MS Visual Studio. I'm still using VS 2010. In VS 2010, the support for html5 development is very poor but I guess in VS 2015 it has improved a lot, and I will get VS 2015 soon Any thoughts on the choice for UI technology? Given the fact that C# will be used for logic layers Thanks and regards, Mild#7
By the sounds of it you are wanting your game to be played in a browser, over the web. In which case html5 is certainly the way to go, or else you'll be asking users to install plugins or allow an ActiveX component, which is a hurdle best avoided if possible. Otherwise, you're talking about a desktop application that can communicate with your online server - which is fine, but a) you'll need to convince users to download and install it, and b) you'll have the headache of writing different versions for different platforms. Even in html5, of course, you must still be aware of how your game will work on different size screens - everything from a dual-monitor 25" setup to a laptop to a tablet to a smartphone.... But there's rarely a "best" way to do anything - or rather, the "best" is what you're best at. And what you will enjoy doing the most. Not much point in doing it at all otherwise.
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By the sounds of it you are wanting your game to be played in a browser, over the web. In which case html5 is certainly the way to go, or else you'll be asking users to install plugins or allow an ActiveX component, which is a hurdle best avoided if possible. Otherwise, you're talking about a desktop application that can communicate with your online server - which is fine, but a) you'll need to convince users to download and install it, and b) you'll have the headache of writing different versions for different platforms. Even in html5, of course, you must still be aware of how your game will work on different size screens - everything from a dual-monitor 25" setup to a laptop to a tablet to a smartphone.... But there's rarely a "best" way to do anything - or rather, the "best" is what you're best at. And what you will enjoy doing the most. Not much point in doing it at all otherwise.
Thanks for your thoughts! Yes, the plan is to have it as a browser based game, not desktop. And yes, I agree about avoiding plugins such as ActiveX. For sure I will have some headache when it comes to different browsers, different user settings for javascript, different monitor sizes and so on. But so far I have not seen anything besides html5 that seems to be a good alternative to html5
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Hi! Just want to ventilate my thoughts on my plans to build a web UI, turn based strategy game. This has been in my mind for more then a decade now, but it's now first that I got the time to start I have started with the data model, and thats pretty completed by now. The database used will be MS Sql 2012 Express. The business logic will be written in C#, simply because thats what I'm familiar with from my profession. Now to the tricky part, the UI. Tricky at least for me since I haven't been coding web UI for many years What should I go for here? What technology to choose for a web UI, turn based strategy game? There will be no moving graphics, no sound effects. Just an old school, bord game style, turn based war game with units to move upon a hex based 2d map. My thoughs so far are leaning towards html 5. Build the map from hexagons placed upon a html 5 canvas object. Then place the game units to be moved on top of the maps hexes, in the same canvas. To move the units on the map, Javascript will be used. Javascript will also be used to communicate between client side html/javascript and server side C#. Json will be used to have data structures at client side, compatible with the data structures at server side Since I'm a c# developer, I'm used to MS Visual Studio. I'm still using VS 2010. In VS 2010, the support for html5 development is very poor but I guess in VS 2015 it has improved a lot, and I will get VS 2015 soon Any thoughts on the choice for UI technology? Given the fact that C# will be used for logic layers Thanks and regards, Mild#7