What is Volity?
Volity is a communication protocol for creating and playing Internet-based, multiplayer games, with a focus on board, card, and parlor-style games. It leverages several existing XML-based technologies to provide a broad, cross-platform game-playing environment for end-users, and lets programmers rapidly create development frameworks and specific game modules.
For more information, please read this essay outlining the system and its core components.
Project status
Oh, lots to do, but we're getting there...
With the help of my friend Andy, I've been creating Frivolity, the reference implementation of Volity's server software, written in Perl (because we both know and love Perl, but Volity game servers and clients can be implemented in any language, and for any modern platform). This exists as a collection of Perl libraries that one can browse and download from Volity's SourceForge page (http://sf.net/projects/volity). We've also started pulling in another friend or two to create our first client application, written in Java.
We have registered the three obvious volity.* domains, and plan to host and maintain the central Volity network "bookkeeper" component at volity.net, and provide Web-based tools to give volity.net accounts to any player or game programmer who wishes them, though (as the essay shows) any existing Jabber server may also be used as a Volity host.
We're aiming for a public release of some sort by July 4, 2004.
Resources
For now, please visit Volity's SourceForge project page for the latest news and file releases, links to mailing lists, forums, and other information.
Please contact Jason McIntosh with any questions or comments about this website or the Volity project.
