I’ve been looking for ways to build communities for almost a decade and one of the key themes has always been real-time connectivity. Of course there’s always polling where you have semi-real time information queried every five or ten seconds from the server, but in order to achieve true real-time you need the ability to push data to your application. There are some options here and I’ve tinkered and fussed with ElectroServer & Flash Media Server to name a few and just like the end of a five minute massage I’ve never been fully satisfied.

The big drawback is that you always had to write some type of server-side code. Come2Play is on course to change this dramatically with their client-side only API for real-time gaming. Let me say that again, with their API you can write real-time, multi-player games with only Actionscript. It will be the first time such a technology is available and it wouldn’t surprise me if they wanted to keep this awesome invention to themselves, but they’ve gone the extra step to make the client API and emulator open-source.

Here’s how it works. You get a container that connects your game to their server via the localConnection class. This is very cool because it allows you to write your games in AS2 or AS3 (and CS4 uses AS3 so this jump shouldn’t be a problem). You build the client swf to listen for events that fire when the game starts, a player makes a move and so on. The container handles starting the game, ending the game and gives players the ability to chat and wager on the outcome of the game. All in all Come2Play has delivered a complete solution that will then monetize your game and give you revenues generated from inline ads.

Whether you believe multi-player games will usher in a new world order like SGN’s founder Shervin Pishevar, there is no doubt games have the power to shape our culture as did the first Nintendo. Godspeed Flashers.

Here’s your toolkit:
Come2Play Multiplayer API - Get connected.
FlashDen Components - Get crazy.
Papervision3D - Get super crazy.
APE Physics Engine - Go overboard.
Flash Tracking from Mochibot - Know where your game lives.

Quick note: The API is in closed beta so you can’t upload to the server yet but you can pick up the emulator and start developing now.