I think there ought to be a mechanism to make it hard to stay huge. I've been in a couple of realms where there are 2 or 3 behemoths just kind of floating around that are impossible to get rid of. I see that you drop off the leaderboard if you don't stay active but there should be a physical mechanism as well IMO - like maybe you gradually shrink over time.

There are green spiky cells that split you into about 10 cells if you are large and touch them. I've seen players fall off of the leaderboard due to accidentally touching them.

Ah I didn't realize they split you if you're large. Still though, my primary annoyance is large cells that just don't move anywhere.

Just like the time for the cells to merge increases with your size, the cells also lose mass at a given rate depending on their size. The only way I have found to circumvent this is to stay divided at super sizes so I'm not losing 1k mass because I can't catch anyone. For those cells not moving, just let them starve until they return to normal sizes.

I think cells losing mass is a new feature, or at least I definitely didn't notice that when I posted my comment a few weeks ago - maybe they took my suggestion :)

If you get big enough that you are subdivided and your subdivided cells are significantly bigger than the spiky circles, you can eat them!

Feature requests: choose the server (to play with friends), see map borders, super fast mode (twice the speed for everyone)

Great game!

At the moment you can use a trick to play with your friends (that's what I'm doing): For each player, redirect m.agar.io to your own server (/etc/hosts), which serves a static file with the gameserver location (which you get from the original m.agar.io). Then reload the game until you're in the same realm. Don't forget to set the Access-Control-Allow-Origin header.

Could you go into more depth on how to do this? How would one force redirect m.agar.io to the server of your choice? Also, what is "Access-Control-Allow-Origin header"?

+1 for visible borders. How about power ups of some kind? Maybe a speed burst that shrinks you, for example?

Just wanted to commend you on game design. It feels really balanced, and somehow it keeps the game interesting even after a _long_ time playing.

What I didn't understand is why it would disconnect me sometimes out of nowhere and reconnect me into another realm. It happened twice or thrice when I was on the leaderboard.

What dev stack did you use? Do you have a blog post with your math models for growing, speed, zoom, etc?

The servers restart periodically to apply updates.

I've already answered somewhere in here what it's written in.

I didn't write any math model, I just wrote whatever felt right.

Why did you ruin my day? I had things to do!!!

Awesome game, our productivity has dropped massively since I sent it around the office. Any plans to invite people to the room you're in?

Eventually. Unfortunately not the priority at the moment. You can look at the scoreboard to see if you're in the same server, though.

How many different 'servers' or relms are there? Care to comment on how many concurrents any one can handle?

There are 12 "servers" at the moment (divided among some regions, I think 6 for europe). But each server can host several realms, so I'm not quite sure how many realms are there, but at the very least 12 (probably 30 or more, though). A server can handle up to around 200 players (I don't know the exact number, the CPU is the limit).

I only notice about 50 people at once in most servers. When there is one big behemoth at least twice the size of the one in 2nd in the leaderboard, most people simply RQ.

I'm interested in how you made to balance the game? have you? or was it more of an emergent rule on itself?

Can you describe server side technology? How many servers are there? How many players do you handle per server?

The server is written in C++ with libuv to abstract networking (since I test it on windows but the servers run on linux).

See my reply to madeofpalk for the other 2 answers.

Why the decision to use C++ instead of NodeJS?

The main limitation on a server capacity is CPU

Probably speed.

Think that part of it is that only one process or thread can run at any given time in node. So, if you have a complicated multiplayer server, subroutines will start getting blocked.

Is it signifiant? I haven't even thought to lookup benchmarks.

This game is so addictive that should be illegal. Great job!

Can you add a chat? Something like http://tagpro.gg 's chat (doesn't get in the way and disappears after a minute). I really love the game, though! :-)

I played for several hours this morning. It seems playing cautiously and defensively is the best strategy. But splitting frequently and being aggressive is a lot more fun. Maybe adjust the balance to reward aggression more?

I'd like to let a 7 year old I know play, but then she might learn how to spell swear words. Is that the worst that can happen? Haven't seen any porn blobs yet.

cool I just noticed you can turn off skins and names.

Yeah I just added it :)

Brilliant - great concept and good execution. Awesome job duder.

Doyou have any other fun multiplayer games?

How do I add custom skins? Like those people called France with a France flag image :)

Have you tried taking their names? They are not actual bots. They are images provided by the game when you take them, even from popular references like 9gag or Steam.

Since Pokémon and Mario are widely popular games, how about some skins for them?

What's up with the statement about ad-blocking? Are ads part of the game or are you just trying to convince users to expose their browser to global malware and exploit delivery?

I have 18 servers running for this game at the moment. If you want to write me a check to pay for all of them, I'll give you my address.

I'm curious--do you really make enough from ads on this game to pay for all of the servers? I turned off ad blockers and didn't even see an ad.

So, are ads actually used in the game or not though?

There was no information on where to send a check, but I certainly would prefer that option over anything ad-supported.

Great game! Feature request: please add chat

Please don't. It will be filled with rage. ;-)

Emojis or pre-generated text like "close one" would be nice. I think full chat would be too much.

yesss -- they can be triggered with the keyboard, and displayed as the bubble face!!