I just got email from eGames, Inc. I have to fix one error in Tile Panic!, and it’s ready for publication in a collection. (The error, BTW, is that I need ta’ make the Internet based help file into local help files instead. BFD – a 5 minute job.) So, we’ll see how much longer it takes for it to actually see a real-world box. Given how long this thing has been drug out, I’m not holding my breath any. However, it would be a nice addition to my monthly checks (granted, eGames pays quarterly, not monthly) from revenues created from sales of a boxed collection with it in there.
The whole BBS thing is fallin’ together rather quickly now. I figured out some really slick ways of pullin’ off real-time games -vs- turn based play. It really mixes the two, using Apache + PHP + MySQL on the server side, and just a nice little VB app on the client side. Then I’ll document the protocols I use (trivial) and anyone can create a client for any platform they want. Theoretically, the VB based client will run under Wine anyway, but, no one really likes that sort of thing anyway 😉
The cool part of this is that it means I can write games for the BBS without any specialized software running on the server side. $19.95 / mo. for the server side of things means I can get a fairly good profit per customer.
Chat is handled using a Jabber client, since my current webhost provides a local Jabber server for each group they host. Perfect – that gives me some great flexibility. If you want to just use the Java app for chat built into the web page, great. If not, use any of the other Jabber clients out there, and disable the web page client. Also means that I can integrate chat directly into the client programs too. Sweet.