(03-26-2011, 07:17 PM)ixnay Wrote: I use visual studio .net at work -- using C#. I had considered using it for this, but I probably should not pirate my work software for personal use. Visual Studio professional is quite expensive, and I'm not sure the "express" version is up to the task.
On the other hand, there are free development platforms for Java, which I thought could be a good tool for browser AND mobile development. Or if I just wanted to stick with a server-side tool to handle data storage, processing, and turn output, I could do what the Empyrean Challenge guys are doing and just use Access.
Or I could go with LAMP (linux, apache, mySQL, Perl).
Someone posted something about there being some potential PBEM platforms under development on SourceForge, so maybe it's worth a look to see if I could join one of those efforts...
Something to consider when developing a web app/service is not the cost of development, but also the cost of maintaining the service after deployment.
Hosting (and scaling) a LAMP stack is much cheaper than hosting and scaling a MSFT .NET stack.
BTW, the P in LAMP can be any number of things: Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby, etc.
If you're really set to go the MSFT route, and you have access to a .edu email address (as a student, alumni, or faculty) then you can get tons of software on MMs' kid-themed website https://www.dreamspark.com (seriously, what's with the yellow and blue spaceman with pink rainbows?!)
For my personal project (Far Horizons) I'm not sold on the web based GUI yet, and am still leaning towards a cross platform downloadable client.
For one thing, I feel like gamers take the installable game more seriously than they do the web game. Though I am definitely biased as I develop cross platform desktop software for my job. Going the web route would give me the chance to play with some exciting new technologies like WebGL, Canvas, and other HTML5 goodies.