Microsoft Azure...?
-
I have no idea what is required for hosting a MU* but I was watching this video about Linux when the instructor mentioned that if you didn't feel comfortable dual-booting Linux you can log into Microsoft's new Azure service and create a cloud server version of Linux to play around with for free.
I was just going to throw it out there in case the people with the know-how might want to use it as a development platform for new games without needing to put any money up-front to build it.
-
This is a potentially very cool idea. I think that I would still recommend DigitalOcean though. I think I pay something like $5 a month, and you get credit when you start so your first month you don't actually pay anything.
As @Faraday points out in her very helpful documentation, that's less than a large coffee. I can move some funds around for straight-up ease of use.
Racism isn't Tinkerbell. It doesn't need you to believe in it for it to exist.
-
@Carex It's a good idea. Although as @Derp says it's pretty affordable to run a Linux server since the hardware requirements to run a MUSH are pretty low, it also makes little sense to be paying anything upfront if what you want is to just develop a game from scratch, build a grid, try out some code bases etc before opening it to the public.
-
Both Azure and Amazon Web Services have free tiers if you stay under their resource limits. The trouble is that their pricing structures and resource metering can be difficult to understand, so it's easy to stray from the free tier into being forced to pay for things. I prefer Digital Ocean, as @Derp mentioned (though Linode seems nice too). It's not free, but most MUs will run on their $5/mo plan and it's very clear what you're getting and what your price will be.
-
How does developing a game actually work? If you pay for server space do they give you a login for a shell account where you can edit the game files and such? The only MUSH I ever tried to build only lived in my harddrive.
Do you FTP the files back and forth that you can't edit with the Godbit on the game?
Does the $5 include the basic codebase or just the server space?
Is there some kind of MUSH base code you upload to it and run to start the game? -
@Carex It depends on the game.
All the codebases (that I'm aware of) are free & open source, so you only have to pay for the server.
Penn/Tiny/Rhost - you log into the server shell account to install the game, but then all building/coding/etc. for the game is done from your MUSH client.
Evennia/Ares - you install the game in the server shell account, and typically use version control (like GitHub) to manage the game code and sync changes from your PC to the game. You can also FTP files or even edit the code directly in the server shell if you prefer. Building is done from your MUSH client.
-
@Carex said in Microsoft Azure...?:
How does developing a game actually work? If you pay for server space do they give you a login for a shell account where you can edit the game files and such? The only MUSH I ever tried to build only lived in my harddrive.
What your monthly subscription to such services gets you is essentially your own host (a virtual server running Linux), and based on the plan you purchase a certain amount of space on its file system and CPU. Since MU* don't use much of either you typically only need a basic plan.
Once you have those you pick a code base (there are several both older and newer such as Ares or Arx-code). They will have some dependencies based on what language they're written in, where the data is stored, etc. Those can be found in their documentations.
Once you have that you follow the installation instructions and it opens a port on your host that you can use to log into your stock game. What you do after depends on your goals and your coders' technical abilities.
-
Not sure about Amazon but if you get a virtual private server from DigitalOcean or Linode, you'll have access to a private virtual Linux server, complete with root access, etc. It's indistinguishable from working on your Linux box at home.
Files can be transferred to and from the server quite easily via sftp/scp.
The cost is just for the server space. You'll have to install development tools (git, C compiler, make, etc) and the server that you want to run. You can generally do that with a simple command. i.e. to install RhostMUSH you'd do "git clone https://github.com/RhostMUSH/trunk.git". and that will fetch the source code for Rhost.
Edited to add: If you're looking to develop a MUSH (e.g. PennMUSH, Rhost, MUX) and want to experiment without comiting any $$, free hosts do exist. This won't be an option for Ares or Evennia games though due to significantly higher resource usage.
-
Oh and for all that is holy... automate some off-site backups. Don't just create a tarball of your installation and a database dump to store on the game's host itself (although do that, too, for convenience) but make sure you're downloading regular snapshots into at least one other machine - two different machines is even better.
Also to be a purist... until you've verified you can restore everything from scratch using those backups, they don't count.
- He who takes offense when not intended is a fool. He who takes offense when intended is a greater fool.
-
@Arkandel said in Microsoft Azure...?:
Oh and for all that is holy... automate some off-site backups. Don't just create a tarball of your installation and a database dump to store on the game's host itself (although do that, too, for convenience) but make sure you're downloading regular snapshots into at least one other machine - two different machines is even better.
Also to be a purist... until you've verified you can restore everything from scratch using those backups, they don't count.
Part of the benefit of using GitHub. So long as all that is up to date, you've basically got an offsite backup of everything.
Racism isn't Tinkerbell. It doesn't need you to believe in it for it to exist.
-
@Derp said in Microsoft Azure...?:
Part of the benefit of using GitHub. So long as all that is up to date, you've basically got an offsite backup of everything.
Well your code anyway. You still want to back up your database and config files and such. Ares has built-in support for automated backups using Amazon S3 FWIW. It's mildly tedious to set up initially, but it's a nice comfort.
