I'm having a dilemma with Monkanics and I need your opinions

General
1

So, I’m currently developing v0.1.1 of Monkanics. Which was supposed to be about creating the backend infrastructure (relay server, distribution, etc).

However, I’m having a LOT of trouble uploading the Linux export of my test relay server to a cloud provider. Let alone run and test it.

It has gotten to the point where I haven’t done any actual game design in about 40-ish days. I’m not spirialing like when I tried getting v0.1 working, but I’m getting quite tired of hitting hard networking roadblocks.

Even after all I’ve done, I still don’t have a real playable version of Monkanics. And without that, I can’t make any progress on my long-term goals in life.

So, I’ve done and research and heard about GD-Sync. They claim to be an all-in-one relay server plugin. At this point, I just need something that works.

There’s also NodeTunnel, netfox, etc, etc.

Now I have a decision to make. Do I either:

  1. Make the game first (By sidelining my own server implementation with a third-party)?
  2. Or stick it out and get my own relay server working?

I’m really worried about what sudden pitfalls I’ll run into if I pick option 1. But then again, I’m already suffering pitfalls in the present. And also optimising for future problems is really bad practice.

What do you guys think?

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Monkanics: A D-I-Why, Sci-fi arena shooter about crazy cyborg lab apes (Devblogs) [RETIRED]
2

Multiplayer is hard. Full stop. I’d say try the provider. You can always change later. But not having anything working is murder on motivation.

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3

Yeah i agree. you can always make the server later if youd like, but the main game is whats most important :smiley:

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4

I think that the best thing you can do for this project is actually make it exist.

There’s no point in reinventing the wheel if people have already made good implementations of what you want to do. The least you could do is study the source code of the plugins to draw inspiration but not using the resources meant to help people like you is just shooting yourself in the foot.

But remember, @discobot can help you along the way to figure things out.

(Take this with a grain of salt since I’m literally building a java library and Godot app to make a worse implementation of something that already exists and is proven good)

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6

First make a vertical slice that’s fun to play with as simple as possible networking system or even as several players split screen. If it’s supposed to function as single player too, make that first.

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7

make the game and use a third party for now.
make something people will actually be able to enjoy and then follow your plan for a Kickstarter, and if/once you have the needed support make the refined game with your own server infrastructure as you wish to do, you’ll do it

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8

Thanks for all the responses everyone. I decided to wait to respond, as I need some more time to form my final decision.

I’m actually starting to understand the fundamentals of cloud computing (as much as needed for Monkanics) by taking notes and the like.

I’ll keep you updated.

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9

I would probably do option 1, as thats kinda what i am doing for my own project—
And as @dragonforge-dev said, nothing working will ruin motivation and is like the reaper for most games i would say.

Its truly your choice though, and i hope it goes well with either outcome :slightly_smiling_face:

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10

This post has a happy ending!

I got the relay server working myself with the help of the community.

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