Thread: client server communication

Depends on the game. What kind of game did you have in mind?

Is it an MMO? Do the players act in "real time", or is it turn based? How many players will/can there be? Can the players interact with each other? Will it be played across the internet, and/or via lan? Will your game make use of a "dedicated server" (i.e. one comp hosts the game but doesn't play)?

The more details you have flushed out the easier it will be to pin what kind of network options to use. In general, you might end up using both.

The server will send the "current state" of the game to each client/player, and in turn they will send what action the player has imputed back to the server. Alternatively, the server can keep track of what changes has happened and the clients can request for a "diff" from a certain time and then each client can update their state accordingly (this usually is better of you expect the current state to be really big, or if you have a slow network connection, but you'll have to pay attention to any synchronization issues that may pop up if real-time interaction is required).