Online Gaming
For the last recent years, online gaming industry keeps growing tremendously. The advantages are very obvious:
- reach more audience
- lower running cost
- anytime and anywhere access
- and so many more
People literally port any kind of games to online space. There are poker card games (such as partypoker.com), arcade, sports, RPG, and so many more.
Perfect patterns for cloud model
Likewise some of the system that may experience burst (either predictable or unpredictable), online gaming would face the similar challenges as well.
I believe the following scenarios are not a stranger to you. They are a few patterns that suits most for cloud computing.
Figure 1. Perfect scenario for cloud!
Case Study: Games on Windows Azure
Many gaming companies are aware of the power of the cloud and have started to build new or migrate the existing game on Windows Azure.
1. Halo 4
One of the very popular example would be Halo 4. Apart from using high computing power, it also uses Service Bus as messaging engine.
2. Gameizon
Gamizone is another case study of online gaming company that utilize Windows Azure improve service, simplify IT maintenance, and obviously reduce costs.
3. Waappy
Waappy was is online gaming company that make use of Windows Azure to accommodate the demand that grew periodically
Windows Azure Toolkit for Social Gaming
For those who are not aware, Microsoft also released Windows Azure Toolkit for Social Gaming, a set of guidance, samples, and tools that helps developers quickly get started building a casual or social game on Windows Azure.
- There are two main components of this project. First, there is the toolkit. This download contains the core services and samples needed to learn the basics of social game development. The toolkit contains several simple games and the required server APIs.
- The second portion of this project is the game Tankster. Tankster is a multi-player social game that is built on top of the core toolkit. The full source Tankster sample is available for download including images, audio, JavaScript, and more.
Check out the tutorial on Cloud Cover Show and an introduction to tankster here.
Download from GitHub https://github.com/WindowsAzure-Toolkits/wa-toolkit-games
Happy gaming with Windows Azure!