I not sure if this think has been suggested yet but here goes:
Why not offer a flash based package for game developpers to automate game saving. For example, i'd like to continue my Gem Craft save game from anywhere i play on ArmorGames. (Ex: Work, Home, Other friend's PC)
This would obviously force people to use ArmorGame accounts to save their progress and log back in when they play a game but it's little compare to the aspect of saving your game state and loading it from any computer out there. I can't even start thinking of losing my GemCraft game if i have to format my computer, i'd be crying :P
Obviously, users that do not log in should be able to save/load using cookies like all the games are currently doing.
I don't think it would be all that hard to accomplish and it would actually improve games played on ArmorGames. The only thing is to develop such a package. I'm not really much into flash programming but i can surely help do the PHP/MySQL side, security aspects and the package conception.
Ah, I think I grasp the concept. It would be great so that we could access our files from any computer.
Obviously, users that do not log in should be able to save/load using cookies like all the games are currently doing.
Hmm, I don't know: Then each game would have to have two saving mechanisms, and that could turn into a problem. And I think the coding would be very long or impossible and it would mean that Armorgames would have to be integrated into the game itself to allow it. I think developers just don't want to do that.
I like this thought, I'm not sure how hard it would be, but I know from my experience with Amorphous+ on fourdifferent computers that redoing achievements and such gets tedious enough to ruin even the best games.
umm wouldn't this require the cookies to be saved on the AG server? If so then it could be an issue with slowing down the server, and it would not work either way if you want to play it on another site unless new codes in games allow you to somehow access saved games from the flash file on another site, and it would require additional AS3 coding within every game, just like(from what I am aware of) game achievements on Kongregate are like. Overall I suppose this would be a nice option, for people who play the games on multiple computers, but there are quite a few complications with this.
About the complexity of saving don't worry, the goal of the topic was to ask if it would be cool to be able to access your saved progress from any comp.
For the performance hit, you just have to monitor games to see if they save too often. If so, warn the developper to change their code because it might be faulty. For the complexity, none, as hard as it may be to save cookies, it would only change the line(s) of code required to do so via a function call or a class object call. The rest is hidden from view so that part is not really a good argument. The only one that really stands is the argument about the server load.
be too laggy if the saved game cookies were on accounts and it'd improve account stealing %.. try emailing yourself your temp internet files or summtin
Stealing what? Accounts? On Armor games to get what? Game progress of other users? We are not talking about paying accounts or any specific priviledge, i don't understand how someone would want to highjack armorgames accounts :P
But for the lag, i agree, it is one problem but thats a problem of hardware, you can always circumvent that!
This idea is nice, but it would be very complicated maybe even impossible, and if possible ArmorGames would have a lot of lag, Storing all cookies on there server is not a good idea, and the coding would be so long.
I don't see why you people bother about lag... add one server dedicated to that and you are done. A server doesn't cost much to manage if you already have one and the hosting itself isn't all that expensive. If you can already afford one, you can usually afford at least one other, or else it means your company is running on a very tight budget...
For the complication, if you are a programmer i'd be glad to discuss this with you but if not don't assume it is complex, it is not actually really complex. The complex part is the discussion mechanism between the server and the flash. You have to encode/encrypt it to prevent hacking of the saved data.
About the weight of the information, know this. You already play games that weight several megs and load them pretty fast... Cookies are limited to a certain amount of kilobytes. Saving information in a cookie is instant yes, to the server means you have to establish a communication but that is relatively fast.
Take 80 000 players x 10 000 games x 250 k data max per player = 195 312 500 K or approximately 180 GIG of information...
Now, understand that is if ALL users save 10 000 games and each game requires 250k of data to save. 250k of data saved is a lot when you realize that most games store your name and few switches (true/false) and a few scores... usually this can fit in a approximately 1k of data which equals 1024 bytes of data, most numbers take up to 32 bytes of data, a name of 10 characters = 10 bytes... imagine, 1k of data is a lot...
Well if cookies have limit, i don't know why the saved data on the server wouldn't...
I was thinking of sugesting a limited number of save games throughout all the games. Let's say 50 saved games or scores. After that, you have to pay a yearly fee of 5$ to be able to save more information to the server.
Even 50 saves is a lot... If you don't have anymore space left, you can delete games from your save state manager or store the save state to cookies, but then, you can't log in to another computer and play that state since it is cookie based.
If we redo the maths:
1 000 000 players x 50 save games x 10k max = 476 gigs... but that is if all players (1mil is a lot) all save 50 games each with a full 10k data...
Another option would be to pay to keep save games forever or they get deleted after a while if you have not paid for it. For example, 3 months and if you pay the 5$ per year, we extend the save game to 1 year of non playing, after that, too bad for you it's useless to keep that save game for so long and not play it at all.
that should be an option to pay 5$ to keep your saved games on
Well if cookies have limit, i don't know why the saved data on the server wouldn't...
any add ons at all will cause it to slow down, and one as big as this you definetally need a larger server...AG got extremely slowed down from having a "Last active:" feature on everyone's profile page
Cookies are limited to a certain amount of kilobytes.
Cookies are limited to a certain amount of kilograms! I can prove it, I ate them all. Muwhahaha. I ate teh cookies. Just thought I'd point that out./spam
