Big name developers like Bungie, Irrational Games, and Treyarch have budgets reaching into the millions, as well as a staff of designers and programmers working around the clock to bring the next blockbuster to your doorstep. It’s an incredibly bustling market, one that frequently brings in more revenue than movies, and propels video games into the mainstream consciousness without ever batting an eye. Of course, that’s just one face of the video game industry.
We’ve seen a virtual barrage of indie games for consoles and mobile platforms in recent years, combating the staple franchises and old classics of yesteryear with innovative new concepts and ideas that breathe new life into a slumping industry that ebbs and flows like teenage emotions. Journey, the stunning adventure game for the PlayStation 3 from developer thatgamecompany, recently took home six out of 10 awards at the Game Developers Choice Awards in San Francisco. Other hit titles, like Bastion and Minecraft (which just hit the 10 million sold mark), continue to showcase just how powerful indie gaming has become in recent years.
However, this is article isn’t here to tout the success of others; it’s here to help you create a success of your own to tout. Making an innovative and groundbreaking game is just as difficult as creating a hit song. It requires a combination of hard work and innovation, a perhaps a dash of genius thrown in to boot. We are in no way suggesting that just anyone can sit down and make a game like Super Meat Boy or Limbo. But making a playable game is not as insane as you might think, it just takes a little bit of time and patience. Here’s our quick guide on how to make a (very simple) video game. No experience necessary.
Choose your step:
- Conceptualize the video game
- Choose the proper software
- Build the characters and environments
- Tinker and publish the game
Give it try by clicking the download link below:
Conceptualize the video game.
First things first, think about what you’re doing before you plow
full-steam ahead with your game. It may not be a necessary step if you
are just tinkering, but it’s one we highly recommend if you want your
game to contain at least an ounce or so of substance. It’s easy to fall
prey to the curse of second guessing your ideas and wanting to go back
and continually replace what you’ve done. You can easily get stuck in
this pattern forever. Visualize the kind of game you want to make, but
make sure it is within your limitations as an amateur game designer.
Making a completely immersive 3D world on par with the likes of Skyrim and Bioshock
is out of the question, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take the
time to flesh out your game’s beginnings. Below are a few suggestions of
things to think about from the get-go. Remember you can always expand
later and change things later, but having the basics locked down will
help.- Know the type of game you want to make (i.e. a platformer, shooter, RPG).
- Know the budget. There are both free and premium options ripe for the taking.
- Know the length. Keep it short or attempt something on the sprawling side?
- Know the basic plot. It doesn’t have to be elaborate, just have a general idea of the game’s goal.
- Know your skill level. Start with something simple and build from there.
* The DT Express Quest Conceptualized: I knew I wanted to create an 8-bit, side-scrolling game incorporating our 404 page.
And since we’ve recently become completely obsessed with coffee here at
DT (seriously, our new coffee machine is so sophisticated it may become
sentient and try to take over the world), I thought it fitting to throw
that in the mix as well. I chose to keep the game short for the sake of
the article, offering only one level and few obstacles as part of my
video game endeavor – but I also knew that I wanted to expand it down
the line. The plot fluctuated from time to time, but it always revolved
around our CEO Ian Bell reclaiming the captured espresso machine at the
end of the level and garnering points through coffee mugs. The cliche
spikes and flame-throwing baddies were a must, as was that over-the-top
8-bit rendition of the Requiem for Dream theme (credit of Joel Pöllänen).A web hosting service is a type of Internet hosting service that allows individuals and organizations to make their website accessible via the World Wide Web. Web hosts are companies that provide space on a server owned or leased for use by clients, as well as providing Internet connectivity, typically in a data center. Web hosts can also provide data center space and connectivity to the Internet for other servers located in their data center, called colocation, also known as Housing in Latin America or France.
The scope of web hosting services varies greatly. The most basic is web page and small-scale file hosting, where files can be uploaded via File Transfer Protocol (FTP) or a Web interface. The files are usually delivered to the Web "as is" or with minimal processing. Many Internet service providers (ISPs) offer this service free to subscribers. Individuals and organizations may also obtain Web page hosting from alternative service providers. Personal web site hosting is typically free, advertisement-sponsored, or inexpensive. Business web site hosting often has a higher expense depending upon the size and type of the site.
Single page hosting is generally sufficient for personal web pages. A complex site calls for a more comprehensive package that provides database support and application development platforms (e.g. PHP, Java, Ruby on Rails, ColdFusion, or ASP.NET). These facilities allow customers to write or install scripts for applications like forums and content management. Also, Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) is typically used for e-commerce.
The host may also provide an interface or control panel for managing the Web server and installing scripts, as well as other modules and service applications like e-mail. Some hosts specialize in certain software or services (e.g. e-commerce), which are commonly used by larger companies that outsource network infrastructure.
Contents
Reliability and uptime
Multiple racks of servers
Types of hosting
A typical server "rack" commonly seen in colocation centres
Many large companies that are not internet service providers need to be permanently connected to the web to send email, files, etc. to other sites. The company may use the computer as a website host to provide details of their goods and services and facilities for online orders.
- Free web hosting service: offered by different companies with limited services, sometimes supported by advertisements, and often limited when compared to paid hosting.
- Shared web hosting service: one's website is placed on the same server as many other sites, ranging from a few to hundreds or thousands. Typically, all domains may share a common pool of server resources, such as RAM and the CPU. The features available with this type of service can be quite basic and not flexible in terms of software and updates. Resellers often sell shared web hosting and web companies often have reseller accounts to provide hosting for clients.
- Reseller web hosting: allows clients to become web hosts themselves. Resellers could function, for individual domains, under any combination of these listed types of hosting, depending on who they are affiliated with as a reseller. Resellers' accounts may vary tremendously in size: they may have their own virtual dedicated server to a colocated server. Many resellers provide a nearly identical service to their provider's shared hosting plan and provide the technical support themselves.
- Virtual Dedicated Server: also known as a Virtual Private Server (VPS), divides server resources into virtual servers, where resources can be allocated in a way that does not directly reflect the underlying hardware. VPS will often be allocated resources based on a one server to many VPSs relationship, however virtualisation may be done for a number of reasons, including the ability to move a VPS container between servers. The users may have root access to their own virtual space. Customers are sometimes responsible for patching and maintaining the server.
- Dedicated hosting service: the user gets his or her own Web server and gains full control over it (user has root access for Linux/administrator access for Windows); however, the user typically does not own the server. One type of Dedicated hosting is Self-Managed or Unmanaged. This is usually the least expensive for Dedicated plans. The user has full administrative access to the server, which means the client is responsible for the security and maintenance of his own dedicated server.
- Managed hosting service: the user gets his or her own Web server but is not allowed full control over it (user is denied root access for Linux/administrator access for Windows); however, they are allowed to manage their data via FTP or other remote management tools. The user is disallowed full control so that the provider can guarantee quality of service by not allowing the user to modify the server or potentially create configuration problems. The user typically does not own the server. The server is leased to the client.
- Colocation web hosting service: similar to the dedicated web hosting service, but the user owns the colo server; the hosting company provides physical space that the server takes up and takes care of the server. This is the most powerful and expensive type of web hosting service. In most cases, the colocation provider may provide little to no support directly for their client's machine, providing only the electrical, Internet access, and storage facilities for the server. In most cases for colo, the client would have his own administrator visit the data center on site to do any hardware upgrades or changes. Formerly, many colocation providers would accept any system configuration for hosting, even ones housed in desktop-style minitower cases, but most hosts now require rack mount enclosures and standard system configurations.
- Cloud hosting: is a new type of hosting platform that allows customers powerful, scalable and reliable hosting based on clustered load-balanced servers and utility billing. A cloud hosted website may be more reliable than alternatives since other computers in the cloud can compensate when a single piece of hardware goes down. Also, local power disruptions or even natural disasters are less problematic for cloud hosted sites, as cloud hosting is decentralized. Cloud hosting also allows providers to charge users only for resources consumed by the user, rather than a flat fee for the amount the user expects they will use, or a fixed cost upfront hardware investment. Alternatively, the lack of centralization may give users less control on where their data is located which could be a problem for users with data security or privacy concerns.
- Clustered hosting: having multiple servers hosting the same content for better resource utilization. Clustered Servers are a perfect solution for high-availability dedicated hosting, or creating a scalable web hosting solution. A cluster may separate web serving from database hosting capability. (Usually Web hosts use Clustered Hosting for their Shared hosting plans, as there are multiple benefits to the mass managing of clients).
- Grid hosting: this form of distributed hosting is when a server cluster acts like a grid and is composed of multiple nodes.
- Home server: usually a single machine placed in a private residence can be used to host one or more web sites from a usually consumer-grade broadband connection. These can be purpose-built machines or more commonly old PCs. Some ISPs actively attempt to block home servers by disallowing incoming requests to TCP port 80 of the user's connection and by refusing to provide static IP addresses. A common way to attain a reliable DNS host name is by creating an account with a dynamic DNS service. A dynamic DNS service will automatically change the IP address that a URL points to when the IP address changes.
- File hosting service: hosts files, not web pages
- Image hosting service
- Video hosting service
- Blog hosting service
- Paste bin
- Shopping cart software
- E-mail hosting service
Obtaining hosting
Web hosting is often provided as part of a general Internet access plan from internet service providers. There are also many free and paid providers offering web hosting.A customer needs to evaluate the requirements of the application to choose what kind of hosting to use. Such considerations include database server software, scripting software, and operating system. Most hosting providers provide Linux-based web hosting which offers a wide range of different software. A typical configuration for a Linux server is the LAMP platform: Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP/Perl/Python. The web hosting client may want to have other services, such as email for their business domain, databases or multimedia services. A customer may also choose Windows as the hosting platform. The customer still can choose from PHP, Perl, and Python but may also use ASP .Net or Classic ASP. Web hosting packages often include a Web Content Management System, so the end-user does not have to worry about the more technical aspects.
See also
References
a good SLA will clearly state how uptime is defined and what you’ll receive if the “uptime promise” is not met.
- Vanvleet, Derek. "Google Apps vs. Office 365: What Does 99.9% Uptime Really Mean?". Cloud Sherpas. Retrieved 7 October 2014.
External links
- Web hosting at DMOZ
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