Zite component of ZAME, an example Godot game for the ZeroNet Godot plugin, which allows game developers to make fully-p2p multiplayer games without a server.
First install and run ZeroNet.
Create a new site either through the menu on ZeroHello or through the command line with:
python ./zeronet.py siteCreate
In both instances you should get a public key (otherwise known as your site address, the XXX in http://127.0.0.1:43110/XXX for your site).
In ZeroHello's menu, there's a button that says 'Show data directory'. Clicking that will open up the site data folder. In there should be a folder with your site address.
Inside, delete everything that's in there, and copy the files from this repo into it.
Finally, open up content.json with your favorite text editor, and replace
1LX49GcJ52xF8UGvN1obXex6u4XLwfmzZW with your own site address. Do the same
for data/users/content.json.
Navigate to your site (may need to refresh with browser console open) and you should see the ZAME level explorer!
ZAME is a platforming game. A very important part of any good platforming game are the levels and level design. ZAME allows you to both play and design your own levels (called 'maps') and share them with the wider ZAME community.
If a game developer wanted to implement such a level sharing feature in their game, they typically would have to first purchase a server running in the cloud somewhere with cloud storage. They would then set up that server, with a database, perhaps a web server with a REST interface, and implement caching and such on top of it so that it runs quickly.
This is all well and good, but such a server likely requires a monthly payment, that only gets higher as more users join and play your game. You have to upgrade the storage capacity, upgrade the CPU to handle more requests, not to mention keep the server and its software up to date.
Wouldn't it be better if your users could do the hosting for you?
ZeroNet makes this possible, and even developer-friendly. Created by developer Tamas Kocsis, ZeroNet is a networking protocol that allows for the creation and hosting of websites on a network run entirely by the users browsing it. No longer do website developers have to worry about purchasing an expensive server, and keeping it running 24/7. The average smartphone of today is decently powerful. Let's spread that hosting workload over the users who themselves are invested in keeping the site and service going!
ZAME is a game built in Godot, a free and open source game engine. Godot has a plugin system, including a plugin for games to connect to the ZeroNet network called ZeroFrame. ZAME uses this to send and receive commands to a local ZeroNet daemon running on the host machine. Currently a running local ZeroNet daemon is required for ZAME to function, but this will soon be packaged up into another Godot plugin, and thus it'll all come packaged together in the game itself.
The ZAME server is just a ZeroNet website (commonly referred to as a 'zite'),
that holds Godot Scene files (*.tscn), which are just text files describing
the contents of a Godot Scene. This is very easy to import and export into
Godot, and hold all the information necessary for a user's level, so we just
use them without any further encoding.
ZAME uses the ZeroFrame Godot plugin. This plugin allows you to use the ZeroFrame API to communicate with the locally-running ZeroNet daemon.
Users are identified on ZeroNet via a public key (ex.
1MGkgDZU8KW1LATaQr5rrfLFSjjnsxw6sF). Their data is stored on the zite in
the data/users/<their public key>/. That directory contains two files:
content.json and data.json, as well as a maps/ directory, which
contains all the levels they've made. The content.json file just contains
metadata about the other files. The data.json file, as the name suggests,
has all the user's data, such as level names, level descriptions, and upvoted
levels.
When a ZAME player has created a level and they are happy with it, they can publish it to the ZAME community. This process is done via the following:
-
ZAME reads in the current user's
data.jsonfile usingZeroFrame.fileGet. -
The data from the file is parsed into a Godot dictionary, new level metadata is added, then the dictionary is converted back to JSON.
-
ZAME then write the updated
data.jsonfile back usingZeroFrame.fileWrite. -
ZAME sends the level file to the ZeroNet daemon using
ZeroFrame.fileWrite, placing it in the user'smaps/directory. -
Finally, ZAME tells ZeroNet to sign and publish the latest changes to the user data using
ZeroFrame.sitePublish. Your level is now available for anyone to view and download!
When a user visits the zite, information from every user's data.json file
is compiled into an easily queryable SQLite database automatically by
ZeroNet. The zite can then simply execute a few queries to show the latest
and most upvoted user levels!
ZeroNet has the concept of optional files, which are files that are not automatically downloaded and seeded by every user when they download the site initially. This works well for sites with videos or many images, which would be a pain for each user to download just to see your site's main content.
ZAME's zite uses this feature, but only for map preview images. As maps are text and thus quite small already, there isn't much need not to try and share them as much as possible! However, map preview images are less important (and much larger in file size!), and thus they are only downloaded on demand, when you request to view them.