4 ms·

Just wondering, but is writing custom servers for commercial games still a thing?

petee 3y ago
I think it will always be a thing for those who play games & like to dabble with tech, either to fix a bug, learn a language, or just see how the sausage is made.
madeofpalk 3y ago
For Minecraft, very much so. Minecraft, especially the Java version, is in a comparatively odd place in that it receives significant free content updates AND officially supports running any historical version AND has an extremely vibrant modding community. Minecraft (Java) is as much of a game engine for others to build on as it is a game itself.
- Filligree 3y ago
  The four great game engines: Unreal, Unity, Minecraft and Godot. I don’t think Minecraft is number four on the list. It might be number two.
  - jasonjayr 3y ago
    Roblox is somewhere on that list too ....
    - Filligree 3y ago
      How many thousand mods does it have?
      - BalinKing 3y ago
        Isn't each server its own mod, in effect?
- themoonisachees 3y ago
  This is because in addition to being the most sold video game of all time, minecraft is effectively open source. It's not literally open source, but you can decompile java bytecode with standard tooling, and symbols are available, either community-reversed, or official.
  - teaearlgraycold 3y ago
    Frustrating how game studios can see Minecraft's success here and not change a thing about their development practices.
    - Aurornis 3y ago
      There’s actually a very large and vibrant community for modding Unity games like this. More competitive games can’t afford any type of easy reverse engineering due to the cheating factor.
      - darknavi 3y ago
        Mods are the (amazing) end game for Lethal Company. So many fun, new tweaks and content.
        noah91734 3y ago
        For the curious: https://thunderstore.io/c/lethal-company/ https://thunderstore.io/c/lethal-company/ Click on any mod, and you can see the decompiled source. The mods use function hooking to run before or after certain functions are called rather than the event based system you see in Minecraft plugins.
    - ryukoposting 3y ago
      I think Minecraft's position today has as much to do with the content of the game itself as it has to do with its architecture/Mojang's engineering choices. The nearly-infinite expandability and modularity of Minecraft is partially due to the simplicity of the art, core game mechanics, and lack of storyline. Good mods are harder to make when the world they must integrate into is more complex. I think this means a lot of games wouldn't see the kind of sustained success Minecraft has seen, even with more "open" development practices. I hypothesize that the "open world" craze of years past was an attempt to capture Minecraft magic, but those games lacked the thematic open-endedness that really facilitates Minecraft's longevity.
- LtWorf 3y ago
  Minetest is much more of a game engine. I've heard from someone I know that played both extensively that minetest is less prone to losing everything for data corruption (never happened once in minetest, regularly in minecraft after a while. But sample size is 1).
  - tehbeard 3y ago
    Is that sample size of one from the java edition or bedrock edition of minecraft?
    - LtWorf 3y ago
      java
  - chungy 3y ago
    I don't think I've ever witnessed data corruption in Minecraft, and that's even playing since Alpha 1.0.11 and multiple data format migrations... well, my sample size is 1, too. I've also been on ZFS nearly the whole time. Are you certain Minecraft actually corrupted your data file, or do you suffer underlying hardware failure?
firtoz 3y ago
AFAIK yes, the RE scene is still active.
haunter 3y ago
Not just servers but for some games clients too https://runelite.net/ https://runelite.net/
- static_motion 3y ago
  I find RuneLite a fascinatingly well-built piece of software. The lead dev, Adam, did a fantastic job with it, and good on Jagex for allowing its use, even as far as advertising it on their own front page.
  - hoten 3y ago
    It really papers over (some of) the tedium of the game and let's you enjoy the rest easier. Love it.
- SunlitCat 3y ago
  Although writing game servers for commercial games is already "difficult", isn't writing game clients for commercial games a huge issue copyright wise?

I think it will always be a thing for those who play games & like to dabble with tech, either to fix a bug, learn a language, or just see how the sausage is made.

madeofpalk 3y ago

For Minecraft, very much so. Minecraft, especially the Java version, is in a comparatively odd place in that it receives significant free content updates AND officially supports running any historical version AND has an extremely vibrant modding community. Minecraft (Java) is as much of a game engine for others to build on as it is a game itself.

Filligree 3y ago
The four great game engines: Unreal, Unity, Minecraft and Godot. I don’t think Minecraft is number four on the list. It might be number two.
- jasonjayr 3y ago
  Roblox is somewhere on that list too ....
  - Filligree 3y ago
    How many thousand mods does it have?
    - BalinKing 3y ago
      Isn't each server its own mod, in effect?
themoonisachees 3y ago
This is because in addition to being the most sold video game of all time, minecraft is effectively open source. It's not literally open source, but you can decompile java bytecode with standard tooling, and symbols are available, either community-reversed, or official.
- teaearlgraycold 3y ago
  Frustrating how game studios can see Minecraft's success here and not change a thing about their development practices.
  - Aurornis 3y ago
    There’s actually a very large and vibrant community for modding Unity games like this. More competitive games can’t afford any type of easy reverse engineering due to the cheating factor.
    - darknavi 3y ago
      Mods are the (amazing) end game for Lethal Company. So many fun, new tweaks and content.
      - noah91734 3y ago
        For the curious: https://thunderstore.io/c/lethal-company/ https://thunderstore.io/c/lethal-company/ Click on any mod, and you can see the decompiled source. The mods use function hooking to run before or after certain functions are called rather than the event based system you see in Minecraft plugins.
  - ryukoposting 3y ago
    I think Minecraft's position today has as much to do with the content of the game itself as it has to do with its architecture/Mojang's engineering choices. The nearly-infinite expandability and modularity of Minecraft is partially due to the simplicity of the art, core game mechanics, and lack of storyline. Good mods are harder to make when the world they must integrate into is more complex. I think this means a lot of games wouldn't see the kind of sustained success Minecraft has seen, even with more "open" development practices. I hypothesize that the "open world" craze of years past was an attempt to capture Minecraft magic, but those games lacked the thematic open-endedness that really facilitates Minecraft's longevity.
LtWorf 3y ago
Minetest is much more of a game engine. I've heard from someone I know that played both extensively that minetest is less prone to losing everything for data corruption (never happened once in minetest, regularly in minecraft after a while. But sample size is 1).
- tehbeard 3y ago
  Is that sample size of one from the java edition or bedrock edition of minecraft?
  - LtWorf 3y ago
    java
- chungy 3y ago
  I don't think I've ever witnessed data corruption in Minecraft, and that's even playing since Alpha 1.0.11 and multiple data format migrations... well, my sample size is 1, too. I've also been on ZFS nearly the whole time. Are you certain Minecraft actually corrupted your data file, or do you suffer underlying hardware failure?

firtoz 3y ago

AFAIK yes, the RE scene is still active.

haunter 3y ago

Not just servers but for some games clients too https://runelite.net/ https://runelite.net/

static_motion 3y ago
I find RuneLite a fascinatingly well-built piece of software. The lead dev, Adam, did a fantastic job with it, and good on Jagex for allowing its use, even as far as advertising it on their own front page.
- hoten 3y ago
  It really papers over (some of) the tedium of the game and let's you enjoy the rest easier. Love it.
SunlitCat 3y ago
Although writing game servers for commercial games is already "difficult", isn't writing game clients for commercial games a huge issue copyright wise?