I was just lurking and reading but kyleran had to say platypus... Now thats just stuck in my head -.- platypus. Platypus. Platypus. But i do agree that anything designed by the mmorpg.com community will be like a platypus. Platypus is the definition of awesome though is it not?
Fun idea. However if you want even a small Indie MMO (which is still quality) - 2.5 million won't make it if you wanna create it within few years. Well if you can find lots of qualified free work sure. But else not really - programmers are expensive
You will need atleast:
A server hacker dude!
A database basement guy!
An AI wonderkid!
A program dude who really knows hes way around the amazing world of 3D math!
(you properly want more then one of each)
Few artists (3D, drawing so on)
Level designer!
The dedicated tester coffee drinking group! (Well if you can live with all the bugs you dont!)
The web guy who created your page from a blog template (who also knows hes way around databases).
Maybe a scrum maaaaaaster! Game designer and a story writer!
And ofcause the Crew Boss! taking care of money, meetings and the community!
-------------------------
Licenses for all programs such as Game Engine(yes there are some free ones like unity and hero engine - but hero engine want a slice, and with unity you want pro licenses for such a project), 3D software, something for 2D art, web-page textures, server (a more expensive part).
Fun idea. However if you want even a small Indie MMO (which is still quality) - 2.5 million won't make it if you wanna create it within few years. Well if you can find lots of qualified free work sure. But else not really - programmers are expensive
You will need atleast:
A server hacker dude!
A database basement guy!
An AI wonderkid!
A program dude who really knows hes way around the amazing world of 3D math!
(you properly want more then one of each)
Few artists (3D, drawing so on)
Level designer!
The dedicated tester coffee drinking group! (Well if you can live with all the bugs you dont!)
The web guy who created your page from a blog template (who also knows hes way around databases).
Maybe a scrum maaaaaaster! Game designer and a story writer!
And ofcause the Crew Boss! taking care of money, meetings and the community!
-------------------------
Licenses for all programs such as Game Engine(yes there are some free ones like unity and hero engine - but hero engine want a slice, and with unity you want pro licenses for such a project), 3D software, something for 2D art, web-page textures, server (a more expensive part).
i'll give 10$ if this guy is on the team.....he knows a thing or two...probably why he didn't start this thread :P
read half the thread and there was nothing super productive so here is something relevant:
in order to make a MMO you need to have server infrastructure, and allot of it. there is a cost on that aboce and beyond maintenence
so th backend which is physical = mainframe + maintenence*time
that will cost at least $10K and likely quite a bit more.
on top of that you need to get not into features which will cause excessive arguemetns.... features are for after you have a rough idea of what you want to make, what you need is high level functionality:
will it be a mud? (third person fixed camera)
will it be 2D sidescroller?
will it be 3D?
3D will be really expensive.
will it be a selfcentric roleplaying game? will it be RTS? platformer? mystery? music (guitar hero)? alt-history dynamic event game?
now continue through with the rest of the mechanics, not features. do you want to have the FPS type targeting? the Tera...? the traditional wow...? how will the GUI (sometimes called a HUD) interact with the player experiance?
what is the selling mechanic of the game; what human feeling gets arroused by the game? is it for exploration? is it puzzle based? is it set after the killer bartle type (like tera and in direct competition with tera)?
then and only then when you have the basic sense of the mechanics you want can you start estimating development costs. a mud or 2d side scroller will be cheapest.
how many assets, graphical characters and spell effects, do you want? can you crowd sorce the work to the people donating money so that the low expertise jobs can be done by the community? (and i'm not demininishing the work of artists as much as noting it is easier to have crowdsorce "jpgs" than version management for actual code. an artist can draw a new idea for a creature or new skin for an additional one wihtout screwing up the dependancies. code however can get screw up very easily if two people have mechanically distinct visions for a specific method.)
what platform will the game be for? meaning how will you import and interact with the graphics? Flash is really cheap graphics, but graphics are cheap anyway. so using an array of flash files for zones would be inelegant. using unreal of crisis or similar graphics engines will give great quality but will skyrocket the cost of development, so they should be avoided. will it just use the command prompt and ascii art? will it use the windows graphics engine (name i forget but it allows slightly easier development)? will it use the one that is supported by windows and macs? (again blanking on the name; one was 3ds max)
quite simply, what platforms do the supporters want? and/or what expertise do the coders you have actually have?
will you use allot of industry professional programers? will you use novice ones who want work experiance?
will it be pay to play, buy to play, ads to play?
so you by now have your list of approach, including how publically acclaimed it will be (which has to do with forcast server size/power). now you go and try coming up with a couple features which make the game unique.
but see you already have allot of mechanics that need to get started on so will the community get behind the game to suffecient degree that it will be made?
that is heavily dependant on whether you have a passionate team with at least some experiance.
then as the team develops the game, you have to have a few discussions with the experianced part of the team about kickstarter promises to try getting the funding even higher.
one last thing to realize. it wont be a clone but it will likely look like one. why? because it is cheaper to make something which you know than to innovate. so if god help you, the community choose to have a 3d game. the game will look poorly textured. with really under utilized poly counts. until the number working on the project/program hits above a hundred.
i'll help with a bit of the code as long as i retain the rights to any/everything i write regardless of whether the game gets published. but i'm novice in the classic object oriented world so while i could write some boss fights or AI (conditional stuff) i wouldn't be able to help with actors/graphics/realism. i also could help link mechanics with lore, and write lore depending on how certain the game style is.
personally i doubt "we" (the mmorpg community) would be able to come to consensus on anything; like setting. so if anything does happen it would be heavily based in just developing stuff as a small programming/art unit.
what features i'd like to see? here are some things i think need to be fixed:
in game travel engagement (normal walking to zone, warp to zone, and map travel suck)
immersion/psycology
leveling (should have a consistent style regardless of the approach chosen)
death mechanics (related to leveling)
dynamic events / questing
(there should be) no classic cinematics or game-engine optumized renderings. so if you want a monologue it better be ingame, without walls of text.
depth/diversity of mechanics, diversity of abbility.
one last time, i doubt we would get suffiecient funding until a vanilla game is developed. and most of the content need to add is just creative stuff.
And and and .....a big huge IP that everyone knows so we can get huge sales of a mediocre game
and maye some figurenes and a parchment map in a big box.. and charge 100 bucks and everyone who pays can get into the highly controlled media blitz....I mean beta
Unless you have a couple well known devs who headed large MMO projects before backing it, you're not going to get anywhere near the kind of money you'd need .
People are not going to throw money at a project just because it 'sounds good' unless there's something to back it up.
Comments
Interesting idea that I can't think of panning out too well. Too many cooks in the kitchen.
I am amused that the OP thinks EVE took a 'small budget' to create.
I guess 'relatively' it is small but it was in the MILLIONS.
Gdemami -
Informing people about your thoughts and impressions is not a review, it's a blog.
I actually like this idea. It's innovative.
Unlike this half decade of games, zing.
Played - M59, EQOA, EQ, EQ2, PS, SWG[Favorite], DAoC, UO, RS, MXO, CoH/CoV, TR, FFXI, FoM, WoW, Eve, Rift, SWTOR, TSW.
Playing - PS2, AoW, GW2
That is hysterical. And I also want in on the Beta.
Re: SWTOR
"Remember, remember - Kakk says 'December.'"
Yes.
To give feedback on moderation, contact [email protected]
The OP has no clue about what it takes in terms of programming, design, art and management to create a MMORPG. I wouldn't trust him with my money.
Fun idea. However if you want even a small Indie MMO (which is still quality) - 2.5 million won't make it if you wanna create it within few years. Well if you can find lots of qualified free work sure. But else not really - programmers are expensive
You will need atleast:
A server hacker dude!
A database basement guy!
An AI wonderkid!
A program dude who really knows hes way around the amazing world of 3D math!
(you properly want more then one of each)
Few artists (3D, drawing so on)
Level designer!
The dedicated tester coffee drinking group! (Well if you can live with all the bugs you dont!)
The web guy who created your page from a blog template (who also knows hes way around databases).
Maybe a scrum maaaaaaster! Game designer and a story writer!
And ofcause the Crew Boss! taking care of money, meetings and the community!
-------------------------
Licenses for all programs such as Game Engine(yes there are some free ones like unity and hero engine - but hero engine want a slice, and with unity you want pro licenses for such a project), 3D software, something for 2D art, web-page textures, server (a more expensive part).
Playing: League of Legends!
i'll give 10$ if this guy is on the team.....he knows a thing or two...probably why he didn't start this thread :P
read half the thread and there was nothing super productive so here is something relevant:
in order to make a MMO you need to have server infrastructure, and allot of it. there is a cost on that aboce and beyond maintenence
so th backend which is physical = mainframe + maintenence*time
that will cost at least $10K and likely quite a bit more.
on top of that you need to get not into features which will cause excessive arguemetns.... features are for after you have a rough idea of what you want to make, what you need is high level functionality:
will it be a mud? (third person fixed camera)
will it be 2D sidescroller?
will it be 3D?
3D will be really expensive.
will it be a selfcentric roleplaying game? will it be RTS? platformer? mystery? music (guitar hero)? alt-history dynamic event game?
now continue through with the rest of the mechanics, not features. do you want to have the FPS type targeting? the Tera...? the traditional wow...? how will the GUI (sometimes called a HUD) interact with the player experiance?
what is the selling mechanic of the game; what human feeling gets arroused by the game? is it for exploration? is it puzzle based? is it set after the killer bartle type (like tera and in direct competition with tera)?
then and only then when you have the basic sense of the mechanics you want can you start estimating development costs. a mud or 2d side scroller will be cheapest.
how many assets, graphical characters and spell effects, do you want? can you crowd sorce the work to the people donating money so that the low expertise jobs can be done by the community? (and i'm not demininishing the work of artists as much as noting it is easier to have crowdsorce "jpgs" than version management for actual code. an artist can draw a new idea for a creature or new skin for an additional one wihtout screwing up the dependancies. code however can get screw up very easily if two people have mechanically distinct visions for a specific method.)
what platform will the game be for? meaning how will you import and interact with the graphics? Flash is really cheap graphics, but graphics are cheap anyway. so using an array of flash files for zones would be inelegant. using unreal of crisis or similar graphics engines will give great quality but will skyrocket the cost of development, so they should be avoided. will it just use the command prompt and ascii art? will it use the windows graphics engine (name i forget but it allows slightly easier development)? will it use the one that is supported by windows and macs? (again blanking on the name; one was 3ds max)
quite simply, what platforms do the supporters want? and/or what expertise do the coders you have actually have?
will you use allot of industry professional programers? will you use novice ones who want work experiance?
will it be pay to play, buy to play, ads to play?
so you by now have your list of approach, including how publically acclaimed it will be (which has to do with forcast server size/power). now you go and try coming up with a couple features which make the game unique.
but see you already have allot of mechanics that need to get started on so will the community get behind the game to suffecient degree that it will be made?
that is heavily dependant on whether you have a passionate team with at least some experiance.
then as the team develops the game, you have to have a few discussions with the experianced part of the team about kickstarter promises to try getting the funding even higher.
one last thing to realize. it wont be a clone but it will likely look like one. why? because it is cheaper to make something which you know than to innovate. so if god help you, the community choose to have a 3d game. the game will look poorly textured. with really under utilized poly counts. until the number working on the project/program hits above a hundred.
i'll help with a bit of the code as long as i retain the rights to any/everything i write regardless of whether the game gets published. but i'm novice in the classic object oriented world so while i could write some boss fights or AI (conditional stuff) i wouldn't be able to help with actors/graphics/realism. i also could help link mechanics with lore, and write lore depending on how certain the game style is.
personally i doubt "we" (the mmorpg community) would be able to come to consensus on anything; like setting. so if anything does happen it would be heavily based in just developing stuff as a small programming/art unit.
what features i'd like to see? here are some things i think need to be fixed:
in game travel engagement (normal walking to zone, warp to zone, and map travel suck)
immersion/psycology
leveling (should have a consistent style regardless of the approach chosen)
death mechanics (related to leveling)
dynamic events / questing
(there should be) no classic cinematics or game-engine optumized renderings. so if you want a monologue it better be ingame, without walls of text.
depth/diversity of mechanics, diversity of abbility.
one last time, i doubt we would get suffiecient funding until a vanilla game is developed. and most of the content need to add is just creative stuff.
Hehe, people dont be so sad
I dont actually want to do this MMO. I stated it several times here.
I just want to see if people are interested.
And and and .....a big huge IP that everyone knows so we can get huge sales of a mediocre game
and maye some figurenes and a parchment map in a big box.. and charge 100 bucks and everyone who pays can get into the highly controlled media blitz....I mean beta
and and..........
LOL
Unless you have a couple well known devs who headed large MMO projects before backing it, you're not going to get anywhere near the kind of money you'd need .
People are not going to throw money at a project just because it 'sounds good' unless there's something to back it up.