Can Ruby on Rails be a game server?

Question

I want to make a multiplayer game. So, I should make a server socket and loop forever to accept incoming client's request. Since I don't want a browser to browse a PHP website to do that, I just want to the server auto execute the server socket once. Can I use Ruby on Rails to do that?

Answer 1

Rails could be made to do it. but it probably is not the best tool for that particular job.

HTTP is a Request/Response protocol and sending out-of-band data is tricky, you need to use cometd or the new websockets, and have all the clients listening or polling for data.

I think using Erlang is a better tool, or if you are more comfortable with Ruby use a Ruby server (not Rails) using something like EventMachine.

Answer 2

Depends on what you want the server to be. If it's for a turn based game or non-realtime game (not RTS/FPS etc) then Rails should do fine. You'll want to use it as a framework for a web service rather than a website itself.

It could also be useful as an experimental server while you are developing the game itself since Rails code tends to be easier to modify in quick iterations.