Project Darkstar, Sun's version of the online game server platform written entirely in JavaTM technology, made its debut at the recent 2007 Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, where Sun also announced the opening of registration for the Darkstar Playground, which will enable developers to create a wide variety of games that can be provisioned through a single server platform, according to the Sun press release.

"Project Darkstar is proving to be an important technology foundation in the exploding multiplayer online game marketplace," said Chris Melissinos, chief gaming officer, Sun. "By open sourcing Darkstar technology, we will help enable the widest possible market for online game developers and remove their burden of having to build enterprise-grade server solutions, leaving them to do what they do best—build great game experiences."

Interested game developers can download the latest version of Project Darkstar at www.projectdarkstar.com. The new release of Project Darkstar features a simpler programming interface for increased productivity; plug-in APIs to facilitate integration of third party extensions; and enhancements for scalability, robust performance and fault-tolerant operation.

The source code for Project Darkstar will become available under a GPL license in the coming months. Further details will be provided at Sun's JavaOneSM conference May 9 in San Francisco.

The reception for Project Darkstar has been enthusiastic, as shown in the response of Chris Mayer, vice president of product development for NCsoft North America, who says, "Project Darkstar was instrumental in helping us initiate prototyping of a new online game project internally at NCsoft. The Darkstar technology team proved very supportive and we were up and running quickly. We very much appreciate Sun's initial efforts in developing the kind of server technologies needed to jump-start online projects."

In conjunction with the latest release of Project Darkstar, Sun also initiated the Darkstar Playground, which will allow approved developers to gain access to server resources to start developing their online games. Developers interested in participating in the Darkstar Playground are encouraged to visit www.projectdarkstar.com to apply and learn more about the program. The playground will be live at JavaOne '07 in May. [...read more...]

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