zendonut
05-14-2006, 12:38 PM
Hi all,
I am the manager of the Volity project, an open platform for multiplayer Internet gaming, built largely on XMPP (Jabber) and a handful of other related technologies. The project's homepage is at http://volity.org.
We also run the Volity Network, a public implementation of all the core features that the project defines, plus a few extra web-based services and other goodies. You can find that at http://volity.net. We've still got a lot of work to do with that site, but it's quite useable is as.
We consider the Volity Network to be an open platform; you can use our free development libraries (currently available in Perl and Python) to write multiplayer games quickly -- all the nitty-gritty of player authentication and communication such is handled for you -- and then create client-side UI files as SVG+ECMAScript (a.k.a. JavaScript) bundles, written rather like AJAX applications.
Since January, we've been running a betatest of Gamut, a free, Java-based browser for the Volity Network and all its games. We have seeded the Network with a handful of games of our own implementation, some designed by our in-house wizard Andrew Plotkin, and others designed by our friends at Looney Labs and Your Move Games (both small indie non-digital game publishers). Our goal, however, is not so much to push these games, but rather to encourage other folks to create new ones.
Some direct download links to the latest Gamut version (all of which require Java 1.4 or later):
Mac: http://volity.org/projects/gamut/releases/latest/Gamut-0.3.5.dmg
Windows: http://volity.org/projects/gamut/releases/latest/Install_Gamut-0.3.5.exe (This package will help you download and install Java if you don't already have 1.4+.)
Raw Java jar file: http://volity.org/projects/gamut/releases/latest/gamut-jar-0.3.5.zip
Developer-oriented download page, with source code / Subversion links, as well as UI development tools: http://volity.org/projects/gamut
And finally, a handful of Gamut screenshots...
Playing Looney Labs' Fluxx: http://volity.org/images/gamut/fluxx.png
Playing Your Move Games' Space Station Assault: http://volity.org/images/gamut/ssa.jpg
Playing Andrew Plotkin's Barsoomite Go: http://volity.org/images/gamut/barsoomite.png
Once you download and run Gamut, you can create a user account at its initial dialog box and then either jump right into the games listed in the Game Finder window, or read the friendly introduction that the Finder and the Help menu both link to.
I sometimes say that we're aiming to become an open portal, but I'm somewhat wishy-washy about describing it with those words since "portal" is so loaded with assumed meaning, especially to seasoned casual-game developers. Our angle of approach, allowing anyone to publish whatever they want and giving the user community tools to sort it all out, is rather sideways and strange compared to the usual models (though I'm pleased to see it appearing elsewhere, such as with GameTrove.net). I also don't want to de-emphasize the fact that Volity really is an entire platform; it's a platform that also happens to have a portal-shaped front end, is all.
Anyway, I'd love to get into a conversation about Volity with y'all, and would love it even more if some of you felt like taking Gamut for a spin, or checked out our developer libraries and such. Everything's free, and most of it's open-source besides. I'd also appreciate any feedback on other aspects, such as the website or developer documentation.
Is there a business model here? Yes indeed; I am also the president of Volity Games[1], the startup that's been pushing Volity development for the last six months and hopes to wrap some profitable revenue models around the Network once we've stewed in beta for a while longer. Chief among these is our idea to allow developers, through magical tools we will set up, to optionally charge players for access to their game parlors with a micropayment-based system, from which we shall collect a modest commission. (Yes, nearly every other attempt by anyone to do anything with micropayments has failed. We are full of clever ideas, though...)
We're currently involved in the usual feisty-startup comedy of groping around for investors or partnerships, but in the shorter term we're more interested in catching developers' attention, hence this post. We're trying to ramp up a cycle of developers making games that attract more players who in turn end up attracting more developers, even if most of the Network's initial games are at the hobbyist and public-domain level (as has so far been the case, outside of agreements we've struck with small non-digital game publishers).
If you do end up checking out Gamut, you can usually find me ("jmac"), the other core developers, and some other random friendly folk in the Volity devchat -- just follow the link from the bottom of Gamut's Game Finder window (or visit the chatroom "devchat@conference.volity.net" with a Jabber-capable IM client).
We really do think we can capture our own piece of the casual space by flying into the market at an oblique angle, carrying an open philosophy. Is this insane? You tell me. But I'd prefer if you looked at the system first. :)
[1] This is actually a DBA of Volity Ventures LLC, the name we incorporated under before learning that this tended to make people assume we were a venture capital group. Sigh.
I am the manager of the Volity project, an open platform for multiplayer Internet gaming, built largely on XMPP (Jabber) and a handful of other related technologies. The project's homepage is at http://volity.org.
We also run the Volity Network, a public implementation of all the core features that the project defines, plus a few extra web-based services and other goodies. You can find that at http://volity.net. We've still got a lot of work to do with that site, but it's quite useable is as.
We consider the Volity Network to be an open platform; you can use our free development libraries (currently available in Perl and Python) to write multiplayer games quickly -- all the nitty-gritty of player authentication and communication such is handled for you -- and then create client-side UI files as SVG+ECMAScript (a.k.a. JavaScript) bundles, written rather like AJAX applications.
Since January, we've been running a betatest of Gamut, a free, Java-based browser for the Volity Network and all its games. We have seeded the Network with a handful of games of our own implementation, some designed by our in-house wizard Andrew Plotkin, and others designed by our friends at Looney Labs and Your Move Games (both small indie non-digital game publishers). Our goal, however, is not so much to push these games, but rather to encourage other folks to create new ones.
Some direct download links to the latest Gamut version (all of which require Java 1.4 or later):
Mac: http://volity.org/projects/gamut/releases/latest/Gamut-0.3.5.dmg
Windows: http://volity.org/projects/gamut/releases/latest/Install_Gamut-0.3.5.exe (This package will help you download and install Java if you don't already have 1.4+.)
Raw Java jar file: http://volity.org/projects/gamut/releases/latest/gamut-jar-0.3.5.zip
Developer-oriented download page, with source code / Subversion links, as well as UI development tools: http://volity.org/projects/gamut
And finally, a handful of Gamut screenshots...
Playing Looney Labs' Fluxx: http://volity.org/images/gamut/fluxx.png
Playing Your Move Games' Space Station Assault: http://volity.org/images/gamut/ssa.jpg
Playing Andrew Plotkin's Barsoomite Go: http://volity.org/images/gamut/barsoomite.png
Once you download and run Gamut, you can create a user account at its initial dialog box and then either jump right into the games listed in the Game Finder window, or read the friendly introduction that the Finder and the Help menu both link to.
I sometimes say that we're aiming to become an open portal, but I'm somewhat wishy-washy about describing it with those words since "portal" is so loaded with assumed meaning, especially to seasoned casual-game developers. Our angle of approach, allowing anyone to publish whatever they want and giving the user community tools to sort it all out, is rather sideways and strange compared to the usual models (though I'm pleased to see it appearing elsewhere, such as with GameTrove.net). I also don't want to de-emphasize the fact that Volity really is an entire platform; it's a platform that also happens to have a portal-shaped front end, is all.
Anyway, I'd love to get into a conversation about Volity with y'all, and would love it even more if some of you felt like taking Gamut for a spin, or checked out our developer libraries and such. Everything's free, and most of it's open-source besides. I'd also appreciate any feedback on other aspects, such as the website or developer documentation.
Is there a business model here? Yes indeed; I am also the president of Volity Games[1], the startup that's been pushing Volity development for the last six months and hopes to wrap some profitable revenue models around the Network once we've stewed in beta for a while longer. Chief among these is our idea to allow developers, through magical tools we will set up, to optionally charge players for access to their game parlors with a micropayment-based system, from which we shall collect a modest commission. (Yes, nearly every other attempt by anyone to do anything with micropayments has failed. We are full of clever ideas, though...)
We're currently involved in the usual feisty-startup comedy of groping around for investors or partnerships, but in the shorter term we're more interested in catching developers' attention, hence this post. We're trying to ramp up a cycle of developers making games that attract more players who in turn end up attracting more developers, even if most of the Network's initial games are at the hobbyist and public-domain level (as has so far been the case, outside of agreements we've struck with small non-digital game publishers).
If you do end up checking out Gamut, you can usually find me ("jmac"), the other core developers, and some other random friendly folk in the Volity devchat -- just follow the link from the bottom of Gamut's Game Finder window (or visit the chatroom "devchat@conference.volity.net" with a Jabber-capable IM client).
We really do think we can capture our own piece of the casual space by flying into the market at an oblique angle, carrying an open philosophy. Is this insane? You tell me. But I'd prefer if you looked at the system first. :)
[1] This is actually a DBA of Volity Ventures LLC, the name we incorporated under before learning that this tended to make people assume we were a venture capital group. Sigh.