Middleware for Next-generation Network Games

Middleware serves the varying needs of game genres and developers. This paper reviews major 3D game engines in the industry and discusses the functional decomposition of current game middleware. We also identify the requirements for middleware in game development processes. In particular, the paper proposes the design of a next-generation game middleware for massively multiplayer online games based on service- oriented peer-to-peer (P2P) networks, which facilitates data and resource sharing in heterogeneous P2P networks.