Multiplayer Game Server for Turn-Based Mobile Games in Erlang

Sammanfattning: This master's thesis presents the analysis, design and implementation of a game server. The server is specialized for handling traffic for turn-based games, with additional focus on handling traffic over mobile networks. The content of the analysis includes defining requirements, the theory behind the network stack and choices in concurrency model construction. The design part focuses on creating valuable design documents that work as blueprints for the server implementation. The documentation for two prototype  implementations are also included, one with basic functionality and one that can be used in the real world to some extent. The thesis is motivated by a growing need for a simple and easy-to-use game network solution. The independent game development scene is growing rapidly since the introduction of the modern smart phone, which comes with great gaming capabilities. Independent game developers are often small studios that might not have demands for big, complex and expensive systems. This product aims to solve that problem by providing a simpler and more user friendly solution. The thesis concludes that the construction of a working game server solution is possible to achieve on a small budget. It also concludes that a game server does not necessarily need advanced features to be functional.