FishNet - Networking Evolved

As a six year professional network game developer I've experienced many networking solutions. I've always found them lacking in some way or another, be it missing features, clunky work flow, or development halting bugs. It's time to have a networking solution that works, is feature rich, and where the maintainer listens to their audience. That is why I have begun work on FishNet, Fish Networking.

FishNet is my free for use,  source available networking solution which will take my past experiences and current knowledge to make something for everyone. FishNet focuses on making an easy to understand networking option, used similarly like UNET or Mirror, except with superior performance, more features, and designed for reliability (say no more to race conditions!).

I've been developing FishNet completely from scratch since early March. Many of the core features are in and have been benchmarked against competitors, with excellent results. I'm comfortable to say at this time that FishNet is no longer a hobby project, and will absolutely make it to the public. I'm asking for funding to expedite the development of FishNet. To this day development has been done during my spare time. I'd like to put my focus on finishing FishNet; however, to do so would result in a loss of income, which isn't great for paying bills. Your contributions will help offset those losses as I put more time towards FishNet.

Understandably you may have some questions. You can find what's completed and planned on my development Trello https://trello.com/b/taAfXWKP/fishnet-fish-networking here. You may also join my discord https://discord.gg/NqzSEqR for live updates, or to join in the discussion and development of FishNet. Below are some expected Q&A, thank you for reading!


Q: How similar will FishNet be to other solutions?
A: There hasn't been a single solution I've used that has been the same work flow. However, FishNet will mostly resemble UNET/Mirror. If you currently or in the past have used either of those networking solutions then transitioning to FishNet will be easy. There will also be free video tutorials made available on my YouTube, as well documentation.

Q: If the contribution goal is met when will FishNet be ready?
A: Once the goal is reached I'd like to dedicate a large portion of my time towards FishNet development. I'll be aiming to have FishNet test ready within a month. Testing will be to discover bugs and consider new features. While in testing FishNet is expected to be fully functional but issues which need addressing may be discovered during this time. Upon testing the source code will be made available.

Q: Why FishNet over other solutions?
A: As mentioned earlier every free solution I've tried has been lacking in some way. Whether it be features, performance, reliability, or even less thought about things such as bandwidth cost. With further concern, these solutions follow old-fashion design principles, regularly repeating the same mistakes as others. I'm designing FishNet to break this cycle.

Q: How can we trust FishNet will finish, or live up to it's claims?
A: I'm experienced and motivated. There are many tools I've made for networking in the past, and I use these tools daily for my job. When I say FishNet is a solution for everyone, that includes myself as well. The better I make FishNet, the easier my job becomes, and the more others benefit.

Q: How can we track development?
A: Daily updates will be posted regularly on my Discord, and weekly updates here. Once FishNet enters testing you may also follow changes on the git.

Q: What do I get by funding FishNet?
A: Previously early adopters could unlock lifetime Pro features. Unfortunately now with FishNet closer to release that window has closed. Donations are still open if you wish to help support FishNet. Pro feature subscriptions will be available after release.

Q: Wait, Pro features?
A: While FishNet will be entirely free for use I'll still have my specialized content made available to my Patreon supporters. In FishNet this will be named as 'Pro' features. Pro features will offer advanced settings that you won't find anywhere else, such as completed full projects or unique settings on some of my assets. There's no intentions to create development limitations by not having Pro features.