Online Ranking/Scores Site
by Darren Horton · in General Discussion · 07/12/2003 (2:27 pm) · 2 replies
Hi All,
I've had the idea of creating an Online ranking site for a while now. My last IT job was doing just this, writing ASP pages which used MS SQL Server in the background (not for games however, for business apps). The idea of the site is to provide a service to both gamers and developers alike.
The Gamer's Options
The whole site is driven by a profile system. It's free to create a profile, and the system would hold general details such as name, nick, public email etc. Once a gamer has an account, they can register a score with any game that uses the site's services. Their current and best ranking/score can be attached to their profile, and their 'presence' in a score table will be link to their profile, showing their performances in various games etc. The site could also provide contact between players, if for example they choose not to supply a public email address. Oh, and of course the classic Forums could eventually make an appearance, probably dedicated to discussions on rank and performances! The site would also be a good place for players to arrange challenges or even competetions.
The cost to the player is nothing.
The Developer's Options
Ranking pages for a game are customised to the tastes of the developer, from look and feel to the format and content of rank/score information provided. The tables can be based on time, score, average performances over attendances etc. Multiple tables can be provided per game if required, to cater for multiple game modes/objectives/scoring systems, and the number of 'positions' available in the table will also be flexible.
The cost for these Developer services would be fairly minimal - the site design focuses on automation, allowing most things to be done by the web server and the database. People hop on and drop off the tables as they play, and the rankings handle themselves. The real cost for this would be hosting, although it wouldn't be huge to start with - I already have a domain name and hosting agreement set up, along with a MySQL database, ready to go. If the site grows to any substantial size, I'll need to move it onto some 'managed' server solution, which again shouldn't be hugely expensive if I have contributing developers.
When it comes to 'web design' for the table pages, this could be handled two ways - the Developer provides a template for the 'look and feel' of the site, in which we fit the ranking functionality - or, we create a design and charge the developer a small fee for it.
The ongoing monthly cost for the tables would be small, and relative to the requirements - i.e. a 1000-position table would cost more than a 100-position table (although not 10 times, unfortunately :-( / :-)
I originally had this idea for JAVA Mobile games (which I may still pursue), but could actually provide the service for any game/application with HTTP access of some kind. All scores are updated by accessing custom-written ASP pages that ARE NOT accessible from browsers of any kind (to avoid the possibility of hacking the tables). The connection is secure, and various details are transferred to authenticate the user and also the game being played. The HTTP connection can then be redirected to another page that feeds back a result to the game/application, which can then inform the user of their ranking.
Does this sound interesting to anyone? Could you use it with your game at all? If so, please let me know your thoughts here, and we'll get a discussion going about it.
Thanks All,
]DaZMaN[ YM Studios
I've had the idea of creating an Online ranking site for a while now. My last IT job was doing just this, writing ASP pages which used MS SQL Server in the background (not for games however, for business apps). The idea of the site is to provide a service to both gamers and developers alike.
The Gamer's Options
The whole site is driven by a profile system. It's free to create a profile, and the system would hold general details such as name, nick, public email etc. Once a gamer has an account, they can register a score with any game that uses the site's services. Their current and best ranking/score can be attached to their profile, and their 'presence' in a score table will be link to their profile, showing their performances in various games etc. The site could also provide contact between players, if for example they choose not to supply a public email address. Oh, and of course the classic Forums could eventually make an appearance, probably dedicated to discussions on rank and performances! The site would also be a good place for players to arrange challenges or even competetions.
The cost to the player is nothing.
The Developer's Options
Ranking pages for a game are customised to the tastes of the developer, from look and feel to the format and content of rank/score information provided. The tables can be based on time, score, average performances over attendances etc. Multiple tables can be provided per game if required, to cater for multiple game modes/objectives/scoring systems, and the number of 'positions' available in the table will also be flexible.
The cost for these Developer services would be fairly minimal - the site design focuses on automation, allowing most things to be done by the web server and the database. People hop on and drop off the tables as they play, and the rankings handle themselves. The real cost for this would be hosting, although it wouldn't be huge to start with - I already have a domain name and hosting agreement set up, along with a MySQL database, ready to go. If the site grows to any substantial size, I'll need to move it onto some 'managed' server solution, which again shouldn't be hugely expensive if I have contributing developers.
When it comes to 'web design' for the table pages, this could be handled two ways - the Developer provides a template for the 'look and feel' of the site, in which we fit the ranking functionality - or, we create a design and charge the developer a small fee for it.
The ongoing monthly cost for the tables would be small, and relative to the requirements - i.e. a 1000-position table would cost more than a 100-position table (although not 10 times, unfortunately :-( / :-)
I originally had this idea for JAVA Mobile games (which I may still pursue), but could actually provide the service for any game/application with HTTP access of some kind. All scores are updated by accessing custom-written ASP pages that ARE NOT accessible from browsers of any kind (to avoid the possibility of hacking the tables). The connection is secure, and various details are transferred to authenticate the user and also the game being played. The HTTP connection can then be redirected to another page that feeds back a result to the game/application, which can then inform the user of their ranking.
Does this sound interesting to anyone? Could you use it with your game at all? If so, please let me know your thoughts here, and we'll get a discussion going about it.
Thanks All,
]DaZMaN[ YM Studios
About the author
#2
Thanks,
Darren.
07/12/2003 (3:24 pm)
I like it Nick, cool. BTW, Monkey Rally looks intriguing :-) I think it would be nice to combine the scores for lots of games on one site, rather than having a site per game - partly because it allows the building of a larger community and allows 'cross-over' for gamers - Mobile gamer's who own a PC may benefit from wandering on to a PC Game score table, providing free advertising for other developers. Also, although a large percentage of use have IT backgrounds, or previous web development experience - not everybody will have it, and some of those people I'm sure would prefer to avoid web development if possible, and the maintenance overhead that can apply with something like that - especially when there's lots of game code to be written!Thanks,
Darren.
Torque 3D Owner Nick "Dig" Koirala
LittleMonkey Ltd.
www.littlemokey.co.nz/
www.littlemonkey.co.nz/hiscores.php