ByteClub Platform

Key features of our multiplayer gaming platform:

• High performance network server framework hosted and maintained by ByteClub, available 24/7
• Support for multiple concurrent connections from your iPhone apps (via 3G, EDGE or Wi-Fi)
• Easy-to-integrate Objective-C library that allows your iPhone app to communicate with our system
• Ability to create 2-player games without writing any server-side code
• Easy to use API to integrate your own game engine into the server for more complex games
• Various built-in user- and game-related services
• Players can use same login across multiple apps

Server infrastructure

ByteClub has developed a state-of-the-art multiplayer gaming server system that can handle thousands of persistent connections simultaneously. It is written in Java, utilizing some of the latest and greatest technologies available, such as Apache MINA, Spring Framework and AspectJ. It is running on top of the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) platform, which allows for the server setup to be easily scaled to match the demand.

The system is maintained and operated by ByteClub. To use it, all you need to do is sign up and integrate our client library into your own app.

Client applications

In order to make our system more accessible to iPhone application developers, we have created an Objective-C library that encapsulates all of the low-level networking code required to establish and maintain a persistent connection to our servers and utilize ByteClub's services. Users of the library get access to a high-level API that allows for a simple game to be wired up with just a few lines of code.

Services

The ByteClub Platform is more than just a set of servers and a library - it's an extensible platform that gives you access to various services that enhance your players' gaming experience. For example:

Player login/registration

All multiplayer games revolve around The Player - your users can easily create accounts, login, manage their passwords etc; all you need to do is make a good-looking interface for them to use and exchange a few messages with our servers. We take care of the rest. Plus, players can use their accounts across all of the games powered by ByteClub, which allows you to benefit even more from participating in our network.

Score keeping

Another fundamental part of the platform is a service that allows you to keep game scores and various statistics about your players. You feed us the data and we do all of the number-crunching and storing/archiving. As with everything else, this is done by utilizing a simple API.

Services (diagram)

2-player games

By using our PlayerMatch service, you can, without writing a single line of code on the server side, easily enable your players to compete head-to-head over the Internet. The game logic stays on the client side; we take care of matching your users with opponents (via a waiting list or private games) and establishing a communication channel (routed through our servers) between the corresponding instances of your application. One powerful application for this technology is extending a Wi-Fi head-to-head multiplayer game beyond the confines of a wireless network to connect players from all over the Internet.

More complex games

In some cases (such as with our Scramboni), lack of a "central authority" (game server) can make it difficult to implement the game logic correctly. This is where the Game Engine Integration service comes in. It allows you to encapsulate your game rules into a web application and plug it in to our system by means of an API, while still using our library on the client side to handle network connections and communicate with your server side code easily. At no point you need to share your code or intellectual property with us and you get to choose what language/technologies you want to use behind the scenes.

Not just for games

Even though this product was conceived while we were creating a multiplayer game, it can actually be used for a lot more than just games. Anything that requires real-time interaction between users (chat, social networking, messaging, info sharing, collaborative tools) can be implemented using our platform.

Interested?

We are currently looking for developers interested in trying out this technology in their own iPhone applications. To participate in the private beta, give us a shout: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it