Darkstris

GRAND PRIZE WINNER (non-student)

Andres Martinez Quijano (quixote_arg)

Darkstris is a multiplayer cooperative online tetris game.  Up to 8 players per room can play side by side (no limit on the amount of game rooms).  Since the client is a Java Applet, it's very easy for players to join the game.

Darkstris Project Page

Transparent References and Garbage Collection

Esko Luontola (jackal)

Transparent references make it possible to write applications for Darkstar Server without the need to manually create and use managed references in the application code.  Instead, the server takes care of managed references automatically.  Garbage collector makes it possible to write applications for Darkstar Server  objects from the database. Instead, the server runs a data garbage collection periodically in a background thread.

Transparent References Project Page

Jonathan Wagner (tigeba)

Darkstar AS3 is a pure actionscript client for Project Darkstar.

Authserver

RUNNER UP PRIZE WINNER (student)

Authserver is a small API which enables MMO game developers to set up a customizable authentication server for their games. It also provides a default implementation which uses HTTP/HTTPS as the base protocol.  Key points of this project include: The authentication server receives "meta-information" from the game servers because this information should not be packaged with the client distribution as the available games and servers might change at any time. There is support for a multi-game and multi-server scenario; There is CAPTCHA support and support for sending a question string along with the captcha; There is accessability support. This means the API handles visual and audio captcha. On sucessful log in, the authentication server sends customizable information about the client to the game server, such as IP address, etc; There is a list for the most common authentication exceptions bundled, but the developer is able to extend it. API interfaces are separated from the implementation so that the developer is able to customize the software at any level.

Authserver Project Page

Cahua

Shawn Kendall (ShawnKendall)

This is a simple multi-player dodgeball like game inspired by an ancient Mesoamerican ball-game played by the Aztec and Mayans created in a playful style.  It features direct DarkStar networking as well as JNAG usage, a heavily modified version of the JMonkeyEngine, custom character animation and body control system and base collision and physics.

Tank War

Thang Nguyen (portlet)

This is the 3D Casual game. If you've ever played Counter strike, you will be abel to image our game. In our game, we will be controling a tank and fighting on funny maps such as: cake, legos...

Darkstar-profiler

Emanuel Greisen (oak)

The "darkstar-profiler" consists of two parts. A ProfileListener which runs on the server and logs all profiling data into files. And a GUI application for viewing files the profile info later on.

Darkstar-profiler project page

Darkstar Sharp

Darkstar Sharp is a pure C# client for Project Darkstar

Darkstar Sharp project page

Asyncproxy

Jack Strohm (jack)

A pattern I've frequently seen when working in Darkstar is the need to write lots of classes that implement the Task interface, each performing some piece of game logic. In order to maintain the Task granularity that Darkstar requires, I've often had large numbers of very small classes.  This can frequently be unwieldy.  I'd rather have fewer service level classes with simpler to follow methods.  The AsyncProxy library lets me create a ManagedObject and choose to execute it's methods as if they were running in a separate task.  I can now trade the implementation of numerous Tasks to the simplicity of a method declaration with a simple annotation.

Jnag

Vincent Cantin (karmaGfa)

Jnag is a data presentation layer that is operating on the top of Darkstar, which handles automatically the encoding and decoding of asynchronous procedure calls. The library is used in a way that is similar to RMI, but designed for the requirements of games. No type information is sent over the network, only data, in a way that is similar to what game programmers are usually doing manually. The library also handles annotation driven log mechanisms, and can also transmit references of remote objects between the 2 entities concerned with communication. The library is also very useful for security control since the object exposition to the network is dynamic (i.e. users can control at anytime which object should be able to receive messages and from who). The library is provided with 3 samples that demonstrate how to use it.

Jnag Project Page

Spacetree

Jack Strohm (jack)

SpaceTree is a 3D space partitioning library for Darkstar.  It's API is pretty simple.  You can create/delete/move "Spaces" which are regions of 3D space that can watch for other "Spaces" to either enter, leave, or move within them.  The API also provides a way to query a region of space for all Spaces that intersect that region.  The region that a "Space" represents can either be user defined or you may use the built in spherical region.

Testyard

Oleg Neklyudov (Inc)

Testyard is a functional testing framework for applications (games) based on Project Darkstar server.  Testyard is useful to automate regression tests and develop applications in test-driven manner (test-driven development, TDD). The framework is based on JUnit and Project Darkstar java client library (Project Darkstar Client SDK).  Tests run against a working server application from the client's perspective, i.e. tests interact with the server application using the same production client-server protocol. Subsidiary control action is done through JMX (MBean management objects).

Testyard project page