Drakensang Online associated with Bigpoint GmbH
Languages used: C++CSSHTMLJavaScriptPHP
Frameworks used: Nebula EngineQtUbuntu Server
Target platforms: OS XWebWindows
The project
Drakensang Online is a freemium online role-playing game currently in Development at Drakensang GmbH (a subsidiary of Bigpoint GmbH).
As part of the team working on Game of Thrones: Seven Kingdoms I have had the chance to assist the team during the transitional period at Bigpoint.
The game is developed in Bigpoints in-house Nebula Engine and was playable in August 2011 in Open Beta and has been released in July 2012. Since then over 17 million accounts have been registered and the game has been localized to be released in various countries including the US, France, Turkey, Germany, China and many more.
My tasks 02/2018 - 08/2018
My main responsibility was maintaining the thinclient/launcher of the game handling account registration, token exchange and downloading of game files from a custom built CDN.
The launcher is built in Qt to ensure support for Mac OS X and Windows XP and upwards, serving a PHP-generated website communicating to external components such as the content downloader and server selector + login to authorize player actions with the game server.
The launcher can serve various frontends, as the game is distributed by various vendors even in the same country, each with their own landing-page or country-specific adjustments according guidelines, with some countries and publishers branching of the official codebase and building their custom frameworks on top. Updating the codebase while ensuring compatibility to all vendors, required excessive testing and opened up a lot of room for automated building and testing.