I'm investigating AppGameKit for a product that I plan to develop. This product will be Client/Server based and use AGK's interface and multiplayer networking, but there is a snag: I need the server to be running a Linux OS. Also, this server process will need to be written in C++ as I will need to connect to a database and spawn other child processes as needed. Am I completely stuck with AppGameKit not being available for Linux?

Another idea I had was to use AppGameKit on the client, but have a custom server process listening for the client's AppGameKit messages. Would it be possible to receive and read the client's messages with my custom server process or are they encrypted/compressed somehow? I would also need to reply to the Client from my server process.

Am I trying to do too much with AppGameKit?

I can't see any reason why you can't do that. It depends on what you want your server-side process to do. A simple server will handle transactions between AppGameKit clients. Not a serious problem on a Linux or Windows server host.

Am I completely stuck with AppGameKit not being available for Linux?

But it is; Meego is Linux and AppGameKit is available for QT.

However as far as I understand it, AGK's multiplayer is only for LAN... Please correct me if I'm wrong here. However that would mean that unless your Linux server was in the LAN being played over, then it wouldn't work. You couldn't use this as a server over the internet I don't think. That said, AppGameKit tier two is coded in C++ so if you were happy to write your own client and server side multiplayer code, then you could integrate that with an AppGameKit app. Also I believe HTTP commands in are in the works but I'm not sure if they'd be what you're looking for.

The server code doesn't need AppGameKit - it just needs to establish connections with itself as a gateway and forward messaged to session members. I've got a Windows server for development purposes, so I can knock something up test it.

However as far as I understand it, AGK's multiplayer is only for LAN...

I've read through the documentation and it mentions that connecting outside the LAN is possible, it just needs an IP address and port to send messages. See http://www.appgamekit.com/documentation/Reference/Multiplayer/HostNetwork.htm

The server code doesn't need AppGameKit - it just needs to establish connections with itself as a gateway and forward messaged to session members. I've got a Windows server for development purposes, so I can knock something up test it.

That's good news that its possible. I don't have a ton of experience with writing network code, which is why I was hoping to have AppGameKit do most of the heavy lifting for me.

I'd love to hear if you could get a proof of concept working so I know that I'm heading in the right direction.

I've read through the documentation and it mentions that connecting outside the LAN is possible

I stand corrected! I don't know where I got that idea from then!