[web] Programming web games

You can't do anything with PHP but data-storage. Because it's serverside so you need to refresh the page (or use &#106avascript to open XHttpRequests, but this is nowhere near safe + fast). There was a guy who used &#106avascript to develop a platformer, but no offense, it's not that awesome compared to offline games.<br>Plus, you'd want to display the same thing in all browsers which is simply tiring. Believe me, it is.<br><br>My advice to you is to use either Java (Applets), Flash or Shockwave. Flash (app: Flash MX) and Shockwave (app: Director) require a license, so not free. But they're the easiest to create games with. If you have programming knowledge, you should go for Java Applets, they're quite powerful and easier for a programmer.<br><br>And really: don't expect too much from it. Web games are the most easiest to hack and often, but not always, are very simple. (Read: technically outdated)

You CAN do stuff with PHP besides data-storage. You can do logic as complex as you want to make it.

A lot of web games "Tick based games" run turns periodically, and allow people to do certain things per turn.

This is similar to the old PBM (play by mail) games, except that the ticks happen more often.

You can use this to build a fairly compelling resource management / strategy game. Graphics are more tricky, but using server-side image manipulation combined with client-side stuff, you can potentially display maps etc, for strategy games.

Tick-based games are like turn-based games, except everyone's turn happens at once (and once a turn is over, a new one starts immediately).

I was working on a fantasy strategy game based on this principle, but it stopped due to me losing interest / lack of time. These games are really quite compelling.

Beware of bandwidth costs on your hosting provider though! It might not sound like much, but 20 people hitting refresh at work all day can eat up the megabytes.

Mark

Listen to Pipo. How about a multiplayer browser-based strategy game?
Do somthing like I Will Kill You (www.iwky.com) or Kingdom of Loathing (www.kingdomofloathing.com). Or, if that's not your thing, try Flash, if you have the Bling-Bling.