This post is divided into two sections. First up is -WHAT We Added- followed straight after by -HOW We Did It-!

WHAT WE ADDED

ONLINE LEADERBOARDS!!!! Our community has been following us on Discord and Twitter for the last 12 months of our game's development, and have been really excited to be able to play the game and compare their stats with their friends. The demo currently available to the public is a single player experience with no network connectivity, so the only real way to "prove your best time" is to take screenshots such as the below and ping it into discord:  HOWEVER, on the path to continue to add network-driven features to the game, we have just developed and introduced the latest update - Online Community Leaderboards, accessible via the "SCORES" button on our website!

HOW WE ADDED LEADERBOARDS

To be honest, adding online connectivity is pretty simple if you have access to the right technology. For us, that involves using the http_get() request from within GameMaker itself. Any time the player completes a valid run, we trigger the http_get() function and build a Query String to submit to our own private server hosted at BubblegumZombie.com. This query string contains all parameters such as your username (you input it in-game), your best time, and your "rank" (S through to D).

We capture that information using a programming language called PHP. In PHP, it is simply a case of capturing the query string information and throwing it into a MySQL database with code similar to;

//Remember to sanitize user input
$best_time = $_GET['time'];
$player = $_GET['player']; 
//PDO
$db -> query("INSERT into leaderboards....."); 

And that is really all there is to it. Just like that, we have OFFICIAL Speed Run leaderboards where players can compare their times with their friends and the rest of the community! Be sure to follow us for when this update releases on ITCH and STEAM next Friday (26th August!).