ActionScript, Java, Projects → Better than SmartFox? Researching Project Darkstar Server.
I haven’t reached any conclusions yet, but I am really excited about Project Darkstar Server.
Project Darkstar is software infrastructure that aims to simplify the development and operation of massively scalable online games, virtual worlds, and social networking applications. Originally created by Sun Microsystems, it is today advanced as an open source project through the Project Darkstar Community.
I knew about it a few years ago, but it didn’t seem complete enough to bother with. But then I saw that CampFu had launched using it on their games backend, and that pushed me over the fence into wanting to investigate because it has to be pretty robust and usable to support a commercial product like that.
I like SmartFox Server just fine. I think for my needs (indie games on small to medium scale), it would work really well. But two big motivations for looking at Darkstar are that 1) Darkstar seems like it provides more MMO functionality from the start, and 2) Darkstar is free and open source.
I had written a hefty chunk of server code for SmartFox already, and had plans for more. That’s really the product’s weakness for doing something with a persistent world type experience. SmartFox is very bare bones, but that’s not a bad thing if you go in knowing it’s not MMO-in-a-box. Well, I don’t think Darkstar is, either, but it appears to have more than SmartFox that is specifically for virtual worlds. So that is what really excites me about it: maybe I can get to building game logic sooner!
I’ve only done a day of reading about it, and I’ve downloaded and browsed through the 0.9.9 distribution. So far it looks really cool, and I like that the developers want to make it seem like a single-threaded program, because I’m not looking forward to debugging thread race conditions and all that crap. Another big plus for Darkstar, in my book.
If things pan out, I am going to be releasing a multiplayer Flash game. Some folks were balking at the idea of using Unity for Lila Dreams, but I still think that’s the way I’m going for that project. But it doesn’t mean I’m done with Flash, because I have a closet full of game concepts that I’d love to be able to create eventually. PushButton Engine is still very much on my radar. And, as I’ve said elsewhere, I choose the technology based on the needs and goals of a project and its parameters. I’m not a fanboi of any particular technology, platform, programming language, etc. I just use what makes the most sense on a case by case basis.
Maybe Darkstar will become my server technology of choice. I need more time to dig deeper and find out what it’s really like to use it on something that is non-trivial. Does it really provide a lot of virtual world infrastructure as compared to SmartFox? Is it viable for indies? I guess you can find the answers when I post again on this topic in the near future! 
May 28th, 2009 at 4:23 pm
I was just reviewing Darkstar last night as an “example backend” for the PushButton Networking product. Right now the backend is fairly simple (run your SWF in server mdoe on the server), but it seems like giving people an MMO-capable integration would be exciting. What do you think?
May 28th, 2009 at 9:33 pm
I’m sure that would excite lots of people!
It would certainly give you very unique positioning in terms of marketing. SmartFox and Darkstar are cool, but they don’t have a *game engine* built into them. That could really put PBE in a spot where it might become the de facto Flash MMO engine. I think even big studios would view that as a very cost efficient solution in their stampede to make the next “casual” MMO hit.
June 3rd, 2009 at 5:26 pm
[...] I was looking at another server tech called Project Darkstar. It’s got more advanced (but different) features than SmartFox and, [...]
July 3rd, 2009 at 7:18 pm
if you’re looking to build an MMO, checkout the electrotank universe platform, eup. (its a shamless plug, i work for ET and help author it).
we have all the MMO basics implemented, allowing you to immediately focus on your gameplay and project specifics. the current released version only has support for a flash front-end, but we’re working on unity in the labs and would love to work with someone that is interested in building their project upon it.