Robust, Efficient Networking

Austin GDC 2008

Ben Garney, Pushbutton Labs

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Lots of games have bad networking. Not a lot of games have great networking. Learn about the ingredients and design decisions that are needed to keep your game running smoothly in even the worst network situations.

Note: KeyNote won't export the talk as PPT. I have recorded myself giving the talk in my living room, and that is linked below instead. I also have an MP3 of the session at Austin. The session audio is much better, but the video has the visual aids.

Video Of The Talk

MP3 Of The Talk From Austin

Download The Talk (PDF)

Download The Talk (Keynote w/ Audio)

Here are links to some useful related resources:

• OpenTNL, the GPL-ed networking library I referenced. The source code can be found at http://opentnl.cvs.sourceforge.net/opentnl/tnl/. Check out the zap folder for a full-featured example game. The documentation has several useful explanations, too.
• Wikipedia article on Client Puzzle Protocol describes how puzzles work in TNL, as well as giving links to the papers.

Please contact Ben with any questions or comments at

Information about the other talk I gave at Austin, Unlocking Flash To Build The Next Great MMO