I'm wrapping up development on an iPhone game right now that uses data from a PHP/MYSQL database. I'm currently (pre-release) hosting all the data on a non-dedicated web hosting service, but I have no idea how that will scale once the game goes live. I'm a bit worried it will crumble to it's knees if the game is moderately popular.
The game doesn't pull in a lot of data. The average user will ping the database 3-4 times a minute just to grab a tiny amount of data (a few text strings). Everything works fine with just a couple people using it, but I don't understand MYSQL well enough to know how it will scale to potentially hundreds of simultaneous connections.
I'm skeptical to move it to a dedicated server because they're damn expensive and I have no idea if the game will tank out of the gate or if it even needs a dedicated server.
Any advice? And sorry if anything I've said here is just plain stupid. This isn't my area of expertise.
I would stay away from shared hosting for any real application like this. Dedicated servers are expensive, but you can get reliable and relatively inexpensive service from a virtual private server. I use a VPS from linode.com for all my dev work, the basic plan costs $20 a month and you can upgrade your plan very quickly (matter of minutes) if needed.