iOS Multiplayer

SgtPickles

SgtPickles

Tiller
Adding onto what Odin said, in regards to the potential question "why?" as I've seen it brought up multiple times. Just to note, I'll be speaking as an individual with experience, and not be representing anyone or any organization:

Developing a video game is hard. There is a lot of interconnected, small pieces that must be considered. Even the smallest detail requires a lot of consideration.

Your hit a button make your character use the hoe to break up the dirt and plant seeds in stardew valley. You must consider: What should I do when the player presses another button during the animation? How long should this animation last? Any shiny effects? What if the player hits an invalid area on the ground? Should another animation play? Etc etc.

Now think about this: This is just questions regarding the use of a single tool. Now consider for the axe. Now the pickaxe. If you start analyzing things, you'll start to see how giant of a task this is.

Developing online multiplayer for a video game is harder. When I push the W key to move my character forward, the other players should see that in a timely manner. There is even more to consider.

When I'm playing online with friends, how does the game handle lag? How does the game communicate with other copies of itself? Is there a dedicated server? How do I handle a player who is playing from Europe, and is connecting to a player in the United States? Should I only allow players to play online together based on their region?

Note: If a game does not handle lag properly, a player can use it to its advantage and cheat (or break the game). A famous game for this: Maplestory.

Developing online multiplayer for a mobile game has additional things to consider. The mobile game market is also, in my opinion, cursed. I'll provide bullets for each possible issue:
  • Latency in mobile online games is a bigger problem. The connection the mobile phone will have will most likely be less reliable. Now I gotta consider adjusting for that latency.
  • Mobile phones have data plans. Even those with "Unlimited" data still have limitations (their phone provider will start to slow their speed after so much). If the game sends a lot of data, and they are not on Wifi, it will consume a lot of their monthly data plan. Not only will this anger the player, but they will now be in-game for less time.
  • User behavior of mobile games. This is the cursed part! Most people who play mobile games are playing in very short spans. This is in part due to how customers view gaming on mobile v.s. gaming on console / PC, and the market being flooded with cheap cash grabs. Which begs the question even more: Is this worth it to develop?
  • Input from the user is gonna be different as they will no longer be using buttons, but touch and gestures. This may change somethings regarding online play. (To even have a mobile version that plays well is already tough, considering how much input can change since we no longer have a controller or keyboard).
  • Developing online multiplayer feature for a mobile version of a game is gonna take additional cost to develop. Potentially high costs with low return. If you spend 3 to 6 months developing this, and it turns out only a very small portion of the players use it, its not worth it.

Of course, if the demand for online multiplayer in the mobile version of a game becomes great, the issues above (mainly the cost and time to research and develop it) start to look smaller.
 
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