Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Type name
Length (bytes)
AS3 Type
Notes
int
4 *count
int
Four bytes times
count is transferred
over the network.
Array (count > 1)
float
4 * count
Number
Four bytes times
count is transferred
over the network.
Array (count > 1)
double
8 * count
Number
Eight bytes times
count is transferred
over the network.
Array (count > 1)
timestamp
8 * count
Date
Eight bytes times
count is transferred
over the network.
Array (count > 1)
Design of a game avatar
There are numerous pieces of information that need to be tracked by a game server.
Beyond being just a game server, which enables multiple players to communicate,
the deployment needs to be more of a social platform for attracting and retaining
the player visit counts. One of the main pieces of information is of course related to
the player's representation within the community—the avatar. We will use the word
'object' not purely in terms of object-oriented programming, which it could very well
be, but here in this context to mean as a package of related data.
Avatar is different from a user object, as they both serve different purposes: for
example, the user object mostly deals with the actual person logging into the game.
The user object contains things such as username and password to log in; it could
also contain information such as date of birth, date of registration, and so on.
Further, in some game environments, one user could have several avatars associated,
although only one avatar gets to enter into the game for a user at the same time.
Avatar is a representation of a player within a game or a community. Avatar is a
placeholder for all the properties that is related to the player and more specifically
the game related properties.
For example, it contains name, points, experience, level, among others. An avatar
object is also persisted to the DB. In an industry that has shifted towards social
communities, it becomes all the more important for players to identify themselves
with the avatar that grows in experience, level, etc. The players then come back
to their avatar and friends that the platform remembers. The avatar could also be
visually represented either with a 2D picture or in 3D. In addition, the avatar may
also have the virtual money to spend, which is also tracked in the avatar object.
