YoVille like MMO using Unity and Photon

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1

I am creating a completely 3D YoVille like MMO using Unity as the client and Photon as the networking. First of all is this possible with the Free Indie 50 concurrent license of Photon? My thoughts are that during development and when we first go live the 50 concurrent license would be more then enough since it will take time to build up a user base.

The game is a Christian take off of YoVille promoting Healthy Christian values. Our Target age group are preteens (9+) right on up to adults. We are aiming for a enjoyable, educational experience the whole family can comfortably get into with out worrying about themes they might not approve off.

Some planned features include:
Player owned Apartments/Houses (instances of a general apartment scene)
Furniture, clothes, pets, ect that you can purchase in game
Mini-Games that allow you to gain in game money
any other features I come up with

Ok if this idea is doable with the free indie license then my goal for today is to get something very basic setup.

2

Yeah, that sounds doable. Good luck!

3

Since I posted this I have decided to switch to SmartFox for the Server. I was having a hard time figuring out how to get Photon integrated with Unity. It’s been a couple days since I started working working with SmartFox and I must say things are moving right along. SmartFox is about $1,000 more expensive for the unlimited package then Photon but Considering the 2 largest MMOs of the type I am aiming to create were both created using smartfox I think I can manage the extra money. SmartFox’s success really speaks for it’s self. SmartFox has Club Penguin which is just the largest Children’s MMO to date with over 2million subscriptions and you have YoVille which gets I believe over 2,000 hits a day. Not to mention how easy it’s been for the most part to get integrated with Unity. All in all I am very happy with how things are turning out since making the switch!

Heres a sort of outdated Screenshot:

4

What was the problem you encountered?

  1. Download Photon Server (just 12MB)
  • run PhotonControl and start it
  1. Download Unity SDK (just 3MB)
  • open in Unity
  • change the endpoint your server (e.g. 127.0.0.1:5055)
  • run it

From start till end (including the download) this is < 5 minutes. How can this be simpler (well, yes, in the sample we could use the loopback IP already).

Same with the Island MMO Demo which gives you interest management.

It is less about the price - it is about how you value features.

Photon’s USPs are:

*** Support for (reliable and unreliable) UDP

Industry experts drill this down and explain why UDP is the protocol of choice for FPSs and MMOs. E.g. see http://gafferongames.com/networking-for-game-programmers/udp-vs-tcp/

SFS server uses TCP and has a non-binary protocol.

*** extend in C#, native server core (C++)

Photon Server side code is developed in C# (or any other .NET language).

For performance reasons the core of Photon is written in C++ - the UDP protocol needs heavy lifting. We kept it fast lean (Socket Server is only 3-4MB in size).

SFS is developed in Java.

*** Power-Ups (MMO, FPS, …)

We provide so called power-ups with source code. They help you to quick start development of complex apps. E.g. for MMOs we provide an interest management system with source code based on the Island Demo.

*** References

Leading Unity3D developers are using Photon for their MMOs and FPSs: CMUNE, Schell Games, Guppyworks, Zerofractal and many others. And I talk about Unity3D not Flash.

5

While I am sure that Photon has nice features (that I would love to use), there is simply not enough information for the newer user to figure out. Sure, you can download and run the files that come in the demo; but that is far from the same thing as actually creating a game that will work with it.

(These are not complaints, more like reasons why people won’t use Photon because they can’t figure it out.)

For example, the 2.2.2 SDK MMO Demo (the cubes) works great straight from the download… but actually adding it to a game? That’s not so easy. For example, you can’t simply add a character movement script to the spawned prefab (or a camera), or the usePhoton.cs script stops working completely. Not to mention that there are two different versions of Photon; the 3 prefab (out-dated and does not work with the newer SDK) and the .dll version. Obviously the newer version has more features, but the older version was way easier to set up; and you could use your own controller scripts. However, setting up a model instead of the cylinder was something else you had to figure out how to do; as well as add rotation tracking…

My point is, in order to use Photon - you have to redesign the scripts just to get a simple demo working as it should already be. So I am sure that just those few things would deter any of the newer users away.

Just my two cents. :wink:

6

Photon is a backend technology, its not a game kit … game kits for MMOs cost 4 to 5 figure (there is one basing on SFS available, costs like $15k per title).

the examples for Photon etc are there to show you how you basically interact with the technology, but anything beyond this point must be done by you and thats fine this way as you want to have control to opt it for your game, otherwise the tech is useless if you are forced to use a specific workflow (if you want to do that, buy HeroCloud, not engine, backend techs etc where you are going to write all yourself).
It will not be a 2 day task, especially if you aren’t an advanced network programmer, more a 2-4 week thing+ until you learned the basics and concepts and have a somewhere solid prototype design (the basic knowledge on the tech is a matter of a week or so given you are dedicated to learn it and don’t hope for tutorials that take you by your hand like a noob or child, cause you won’t find such things as expert technology is for experts, not beginners)

I’m sorry to hear that you expect them to do your work, which seems to be exactly what you think (no prefab to drop in or scripts to just drag over and dang all works), cause otherwise you would realize how much easier the Photon 2.2+ SDK is when compared to Photon 1.x …
But I might also be missinterpreting your postings in the various places …

7

MMOInteractive,

You might consider working with ElectroServer as well. It also powers some of the biggest and most popular MMOs out there, including Club Penguin’s main competitor Webkinz.

8

If you have yourself up and running with Smartfox and you are happy with it, then definitely stick with it. It boils down to how easy the product is for you to use personally, features aside, if you can’t understand and use it and do not have the time to figure it out, stick with what works. What is straight forward to me might be foreign to you. Can’t wait to see how your game turns out! Good luck!

9

Look forward to seeing what you come up with as I am another Christian game developer.