iPhone Gaming Server

[sndwav]

Hello ppl,

This might not be a pure programming question,

but I was wondering about multiplayer gaming on the iPhone.

 

I'm working on a game that will be a multiplayer game up to 4 players on the screen.

What kind of a server would I need to be able to sync the position of the players on the screen with as little latency as possible, and where I could keep scores, user info & such.

 

Will a shared-hosting server be suffice?

Do I need a dedicated server?

If so... do I need a Mac-specific dedicated server?

 

Thanks for the help

[jarrhed]

The server shouldn't need to run Mac OS X, I would expect it to be the most efficient and easiest to make would be to run it on Linux. Additionally, You should really think this out, how the server works, how the players connect keep it in sync etc. That's the best way to develop software for any platform\

 

Depending on the number of users, you will most likely want a dedicated, but that is completely dependent on how many people would be using it at a time and how efficient you make the client and server connectiivity

[andyong]

Sounds like a big task. If it's for a game you propose to distribute via the app store you may quickly run into problems when the user base expands. First of all you'll have to focus on keeping bandwidth usage to a min as apple don't like apps that will use a lot of bandwidth, and for your game to work using dedicated servers you will need to continue paying the hosting costs.