Can we install BGA on our localhost to ease programing ?

[bidulpik]

Hi,
it takes really a long time to test our game on fr.studio.boardgamearena.com
Each click wait for a server response and is quite long.

Can we install on localhost (to use with wamp for exemple), a BGA install ?

best regards

[pikiou]

I can answer this one: the code of BGA is and always will be proprietary.
Just to be clear, it doesn't include the code of the games you adapt! That code is yours.
But the code of BGA is written by 2 persons only; it surely has security weaknesses which could be abused if it were released even to a small audience.

Now, how long does it take for you to get a response? There may be too many devs working simultaneously on the Studio server (which is really slow compared to production ones).
It may also be caused by code that you may have to optimize.

[boloni]

But the code of BGA is written by 2 persons only; it surely has security weaknesses which could be abused if it were released even to a small audience.

Are you sure that Security through obscurity is a good idea? Usually a lot of security vulnerabilities can be found by determined attackers even without access to the source code.

[Een]

I can answer this one: the code of BGA is and always will be proprietary.

Maybe it's a bit strong pikiou, "always" is quite a long time and I'm not so sure of anything about the future myself
I'd leave it at 'there is currently no plan for publishing the BGA framework'.

Anyway, I intended to answer bidulpik's question, so, let's.

Can we install on localhost (to use with wamp for exemple), a BGA install ?

There is no packaging or install documentation for this, supporting it would be a nightmare (especially on wamp since we use lamp), and it's nowhere near a priority. So the answer is no (except maybe ad hoc installs for some very special cases, but not just for game development, the studio is meant for that).

The studio server can be very slow at times, as it's a small machine also handling some backup tasks. So during backup, resources are scarce.
The solution would be to upgrade the studio, but as we have some things being worked on under the hood that will impact the evolution of the studio, this will unfortunately have to wait. If at times you find the studio really slow, just try to come back later and check the timeslots that you'd better avoid.

Are you sure that Security through obscurity is a good idea? Usually a lot of security vulnerabilities can be found by determined attackers even without access to the source code.

There is no deliberate attempt at security through obscurity, as there is no deliberate attempt at security through exposition ("given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow" sure feels nice, but publishing is nowhere near a guarantee to get enough eyeballs, as has been demonstrated).

Security is a concern for any website, but on a gaming website, it's probably not the same level of concern as on some others. So we'll leave that debate to those for whom it's tantamount, let them tame that troll

As for us, we try to apply good security practices where it counts, but we know that - like any website - we can get hacked... and anyone using a website should know the website they use can get hacked and act accordingly (for example, to anyone reading this: if you use the same password on a gaming website and on another website that is very important to you... think again! )

[bidulpik]

Hi, and thanks for your answers. I've read BGA_TC_Dev_en.pdf

Code: Select all

I can answer this one: the code of BGA is and always will be proprietary.

Wow, what a sententious answer. Take it easy, we are not thief but volonteer developpers that contribute to the success of your platform.

Code: Select all

But the code of BGA is written by 2 persons only; it surely has security weaknesses which could be abused if it were released even to a small audience.

Security never allow to protect a site from every hackers, it just reduces the number of people able to hack it.

Code: Select all

Are you sure that Security through obscurity is a good idea? 

This is one advange of open source, everyone is able to contribute to improve your software.

Code: Select all

It may also be caused by code that you may have to optimize.

I've spend hours and hours for free(*) to developp backgammon v1, and I'm working with Peyo on backgammon v2 to have a pro version.
So please, do not pretend that my code is to blame. Even if it's true, that's not words I wanna read.

I've got a question when I've started developping the game.
What happened if I disagree with some policy of your site ? If you put advice in your site ? You have link to Amazon website, which is a society with many legal dispute concerning the french labor code. Why Amazon ? Do you earn money with these links ? How much do you earn with subscriptions ? What do you do with the money you earn with your site ? Is it enought to pay your server hosting or do you have to use your own money ? How much ? Can we contribute ? Does my blurbs make you angry because of the amount of days, months, years you spent with passion to developpe this web gaming platform ? (no offense)
etc etc etc

I dont want answers nor to start a controversial. But I'm sure that several of your developpers work or contribute in open source, if they developpe for free for you... just for gaming, just coz we love coding, just for fun, just for proudness.

I dont care about that for the moment, if I disagree, I can just get my code back, and stop programming, not what I want.

But I think, you'll have to think about it if you grow up; being an open-source association or being a private webgame agency ?

best regards,




(*) to be right, it's not totally for free, because I've got a BGA account.

[fafa-fr]

Code: Select all

I can answer this one: the code of BGA is and always will be proprietary.

Wow, what a sententious answer. Take it easy, we are not thief but volonteer developpers that contribute to the success of your platform.

Hi bidulpik

Just in case, to avoid mistakes : reading your answer (especially the "the success of your platform" part), I think you may have misunderstood something : the sentence you were quoting was not an answer from a BGA admin.
(hope I didn't misunderstand)

[Victoria_La]

We got a bit of topic here but i think the reason you asking is to speed up development.
I can give some advice on that considering answer for local server installation is a 'no'.

The only thing which is really takes long time is game restart. There is no restart button,
and expression stop, create new table, express start can take up to a minute.
So avoid restarting you game a a costs! The only real need to restart if you change database schema.
So try to develop it once and don't change after.
There is 3 save states you can use i.e. Save => 1 from dev UI.
Since these are just ajax calls you can do it programmatically too, hook saving one state when game
just started (like from onEnteringMyFirstState), and instead of full restart just do database state reload.
You can also just hardcoded few of the states in php, and add few development buttons in UI to get into these.

For the ui work you don't even need server, stuff like graphics and css and layout can all be done locally.

I love automation and fast dev cycle, bga studio is great platform in general, lets just help ourselves to be
more productive by sharing our tricks and automation scripts (and they have wiki for all the sharing which is great)
Maybe we can have a wiki on dev setup for all these stuff.