First, I assume network specialized programmers are in the same general hourly price range as any other programmer. Correct me if I am wrong, as I see far less network specialists to hire than other types of programmers.
Second, I thought it would be a good question, or at least an interesting one, to hear from someone who has experience with adding or creating multiplayer of ANY kind into a video game (or any system).
How many man-hours do you estimate it would take to add a small number of multiplayer to a singleplayer game, using Unity’s networking extension?
How many man-hours do you estimate it would take to change over from a fully working mulltiplayer / server system using Unity’s networking, to a larger server extension such as Photon, or Smartfox?
Interesting enough, it could serve to be informative to anyone, to encourage them to not create a MMORPG, or even a MORPG, but to start it out as a singleplayer or small multiplayer game, and then to expand forward. Then we could have more threads on singleplayer or small multiplayer RPG’s (ORPG’s) and their desires to expand to MORPG, and last but not least a rarity to hear of a project wanting MMORPG status (if it hasn’t achieved MORPG or ORPG status, then we could ask to step backwards first, giving in some estimates for addition AFTER the project is completed in a smaller stage.
Just curious oersonally as well, because I am not going to be making a MMORPG or a MORPG, but only a small 4 or so multiplayer RPG game, but wonder if it would be financially feasible to expand the multiplayer capacity after it is released. (Knowing the cost, can help to know the required level of success to fund the implementation).
Having no experience with large scale multiplayer (such as MMO server structure) it is interesting to know how big a task it is to connect 1000’s instead of 100’s, instead of 10’s, instead of 1 (no multiplayer). Well, I do understand the lengthy and scale of adding even basic multiplayer, but not the extra work I assume it takes to add capability to host more than just 32/64 on a single server.
Another interesting piece I’d like to know from anyone who may have experience or have read any related articles…
What is a good range for the cost of actually hosting a server which can sustain 100 players, or more?
I realize that Amazon Cloud is quite expensive compared to hosting elsewhere, but IMO taking the more expensive but feasible alternative would be interesting. Would one need only one server from Amazon to host this many players and the game server? FPS, RPG, RTS, whatever.
What is the average download / upload of data of players (second, daily, or monthly preferably due to cost calculations)?
While I realize every game is unique and will cost different amounts of performance or bandwidth, it is still a good question to ask even if there is a broad range in possibly costs.
Here’s the range for bandwidth costs of hosting a network server for 100 players on Amazon: $0.01/mo for a turn-based game with lo-fi assets to >$1000/mo for a real-game with multi-gigs of assets to download per player.
For server requirements: 1 average server can host 100,000+ players for a turn-based game with simple rules going down to <100 players/server for a (very poorly-coded) MMO where everything is computed on the server.
In many cases where the server is only used for matchmaking (FPSs, RTS, peer to peer RPGs) one server can support users into the 100+Ks.
The question really needs to be much more specific with regards to genre.
The effort greatly depends on the current game implementation and your intended multi-player design. Some games can add multi-player much easier than others.
That depends on how tightly or loosely coupled the current implementation is, and how differently the new multi-player engine is from the Unity one.
There are no easy answers to your questions. Even hosting costs can vary wildly. Some people advocate cloud deployment, which can save money when utilization varies, but at constant usage can cost as much or more. Support is one of the highest expenses.
The “Photon Unity Networking” plugin converts about 90% of your Unity Networking project to our Photon layer. It’s about the same API but on a load-balanced, dedicated server. Most of the manual conversion work will be in the area of GUI for selecting rooms/games.
About hosting: There are many different providers and services. We will add one soon, hosting Photon for you (as alternative to self-hosted). We noticed that Amazon performance is suboptimal. AirVM (e.g.) has better prices and networking performance.
