PHP, Zend Framework and Other Crazy Stuff
PHP Game Development
Sourceforge Ranking Review
Jan 23rd
Sometimes I find it useful when measuring what’s being downloaded in terms of open source PHP games to look at the top 10 rankings on Sourceforge for each gaming category. I say sometimes, because it tends to be fairly unreliable and doesn’t really reflect real usage online.
The list of top ten Turn-Based Strategies (as filtered for PHP use) include:
1. phpDiplomacy (268)
2. Some Chess (1077)
3. Quantum Game Library for PHP (3196)
4. Solar Imperium (3860)
5. Solar Empire (4032)
6. REMLAB Web Mech Designer (4202)
7. Alien Assault Traders (5272)
8. PHP RISK (7156)
9. Star Trek: Allegiance (7351)
10. GameServ IRC Services (7417)
This shows the first place with a total showup is phpDiplomacy. The numbers in brackets represent overall Sourceforge rank against all other projects of all categories. 268 is remarkable. The Quantum Game Library, likely reflecting its status as a library as well as still hosting the current 0.7x series of the QS game, is third with a total rank of 1077.
QS is a really odd one to be honest. We’ve registered 36,000+ downloads compared to Solar Empire’s 21,000+ and Alien Assault Traders 12,500+ – I can’t explain it… Most of the downloads peaked over a year ago.
As for what the rankings tell me – all they really show is there is a fairly wide gap between each placement. The number one and two spots are widely separated from subsequent rankings. Overall the QGL has leaped up the rankings since last year. Our ranking on SF has moved from 16,808 in September 2006 to 1077 as of 23 January 2007. This marked shift coincides with the transition of the project from the QS game to the QGL library and marks the project’s highest average monthly ranking since June 2005.
Although SF ranking as a measure of project value is undoubtably suspect 
. It’s still a large driver of publicity so it’s worth improving. Astrum Futura is nowhere in sight, which is fine by me – it’s only getting started and doesn’t warrant much exposure yet.
AJAX for Alien Assault Traders
Dec 20th
A quick referral to Panama Jack’s blog where he discusses implementing a new AATraders template for 0.30 of the popular PHP space strategy and trading game. The new template uses AJAX, well with HTML rather than XML, to offer some options to resize each section of the interface as a user pleases, while remembering these choices with small CSS snippets stored server side.
It’s stuff like this that gives AJAX a good name – it improves upon what already exists, in a manner separate from the previous templates so it’s entirely optional. I know my own Astrum Futura is AJAX heavy, but PJ proves you don’t need a massive amount of work to leverage some AJAX tweaks for useability.
More on http://panamajack.aatraders.com.
