Recently, I've come to a conclusion there are really no exciting MMORPGs. All the one's out now are either poorly produced, not popular, or just a plain grind. The only decent mmorpg out right now is World Of Warcraft. Which eventually just becomes 'raid or die' end game. I am thinking about creating a mmorpg. I'm just curious is there any engine out there that can support a rpg that isn't too expensive or even free. Ideas guys, toss out any. :D

While there are probably many more, the only one I know of off-hand is Realm Crafter, which is priced at US$55.

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Original post by Empire1 Recently, I've come to a conclusion there are really no exciting MMORPGs. All the one's out now are either poorly produced, not popular, or just a plain grind. The only decent mmorpg out right now is World Of Warcraft. Which eventually just becomes 'raid or die' end game. I am thinking about creating a mmorpg. I'm just curious is there any engine out there that can support a rpg that isn't too expensive or even free. Ideas guys, toss out any. :D

I think you should write a game design about that MMORPG you want to create.

How do you want to make it better then other games or better then WoW?


Then think about how long you need to code for each feature and when your done, you will propably notice that this project wont ever come to an end or it will not be that "exciting" like World of Warcraft.

If you try to learn something of it or just want to create an MMORPG as a "small" project, thats OK, but dont think that you will be able to create something "better" then WoW or other MMORPGs on the market.

You are asking for something verrry tricky here. World of Warcraft, which is "decent" by your standards, cost $63 million dollars and took four and a half years to develop. Now, you want to make a game that is *better* than WoW, but you don't want to spend much money on it.

I believe that you will find that there is a reason why no current MMO is very good.

But, if you are going through with this, take the time to plan ahead. Alot. Both in game design and in programming.

Ezbez is correct. If you want to produce a 'deep' game, there's a hell of a lot of work that needs to be done, and NO third party solution will do it for you - they may present rendering and networking support, but the actual mechanics of your game are left up to you.

Edit: As far as community MMO projects go, there's DogCity's Tearsol Online, which is looking very nice, and is already functioning - it's a fairly simple, 3D MMORPG, and I think it looks like it'll be great fun. Then there's my firm's projects, Primogen and Bloodspear, which are technically very complex, pro-grade projects, more suited to 'experienced' candidates. There's also bam104's Red Online, which has a great setting, set of mechanics and a very strong visual design behind it, but is in need of production artists (rather than concept) and programmers.

Each project will have it's own recruitment criteria, and I think the leads of each project are approachable with ideas and suggestions, provided they're well thought out and come with some suggestion of implementation. Basically don't waste anyone's time with 'I wnat to marrie teh Hulk and play hockey' concepts or if you're brave enough discuss concepts on here - you'll either get ripped to shreds, or you'll get the benefit of having your idea pushed along by the community.



[Edited by - _winterdyne_ on July 28, 2006 5:54:01 AM]

I would say that you should begin by making a game that focuses on being fun and avoiding grind.

Design it to be as small and simple as posible, and follow this design. Besides avoiding doing things that are not needed, you can have a meassure of how much of the game you have done.

You don't need the lastest and craziest technology, choose based on how fast you can develop with them and how easy.

Use code, graphics and sounds available from free sources.

Random generators are your friends. The deepness of the things created by the generator will depend on him, and you can avoid creating material for the game(for example maps).

At first you will probably have to do things on your own, but as soon as you have *anything* to show, you can put up a website and request for help, even thought people asking "when will it be finished?" will drive you nuts.

These are just some thoughts. I'm assuming(hoping) you know the basics of game creation and have some experience.

You obviously should write a design first, if you want you can post it in gamedev stating that what you want the most from the design is for it to be easy and quick to develop while avoiding the grind. After you are happy with your design and you have integrated changes based on the feedback, move to the next step :)

this will be hard, an mmo can take years to make from start to finish. finding a team will be even harder. why? because evereybody wants to make an mmo. but if can get a good team then your fine

I have been thinking about this recently, and I know you all have doubts. This MMO would not be 3d, but rather a 2d game like Ultima Online or Runescape.

Here's what I'm thinking right now. A 2d game with the view above the character. Made with Python and Pygame( www.python.org , www.pygame.org ).

This idea does not sound that interesting, but this could easily turn into a community project, with some of the best mmo ideas built by the community.

Here's what im thinking for starters.

-Easy leveling
-Town/City Raids
-Siege Weapons
-Hero classes ( Hero classes can take a long time to achieve )
-Dungeon Raids
-A large list of classes/skills


This is just for starters, if this seems like a good idea please give some feedback in this thread. If you guys like this idea I will most likely start a website/recruitment thread in the next day.

Whoa there! It's way too early to start recruitment. As the projects in the Help Wanted forum show, no one joins a project unless the team has something to show for themselves. At the very least you need (depending on your skills) a well thought out design document, some programming already done, or a lot of sample art work.

You might also want to consider what your motivation is. The only reason I see to start a MMO game is a deep desire to make a MMO game. If your goal is to learn how to design and build a client/server architecture, or to draw a full set of RPG sprites, then this project might be fun. But understand that making a polished game is an awful lot of work, and making a MMO is an order of magnitude harder.

In other words, you might need to put some more time into development to get a feel of whether you really want to commit to something this big before recruiting anyone else [smile].

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Original post by Empire1 I have been thinking about this recently, and I know you all have doubts. This MMO would not be 3d, but rather a 2d game like Ultima Online or Runescape. Here's what I'm thinking right now. A 2d game with the view above the character. Made with Python and Pygame( www.python.org , www.pygame.org ). This idea does not sound that interesting, but this could easily turn into a community project, with some of the best mmo ideas built by the community. Here's what im thinking for starters. -Easy leveling -Town/City Raids -Siege Weapons -Hero classes ( Hero classes can take a long time to achieve ) -Dungeon Raids -A large list of classes/skills This is just for starters, if this seems like a good idea please give some feedback in this thread. If you guys like this idea I will most likely start a website/recruitment thread in the next day.

I don't think you have what could be called an "idea" as of yet. How will this be different to any other MMORPG? Why will this be more fun than WoW? Your "idea" at the moment seems nothing more than "to make a MMORPG". Well fair enough, but hundreds of people - myself included - have that very same idea. The one thing that alters between pretty much all RPGs is the combat system - I suggest this is where you begin. You need to design a system that is creative and fun to stand out (because lets face it, despite being one of the most important aspects of any RPG, the combat systems in current games are pretty freaking boring!). Don't just base this off something you've seen in a different game - there's a reason why the latest RPG always has a new battle system: because nobody has done a perfect one yet. Find something different, not necessarily radically different, but definately different. Once you have an idea for combat, you have an idea for a game.

That you're opting for 2d is no bad thing; graphics are not a major aspect of an RPG, and in many cases 2d looks better anyway if you get good artists (though I must say if you're planning on a particularly large world - like you should - then this will mean a lot of work for your unfortunate artists).

Large list of classes and skills? That's easy enough to say, but how will you make each unique? A problem many RPGs find is that there are only a small number of different ways you can deal damage to an opponent, and generally classes that specialise in support roles are unpopular in the online game (ever played as a monk in Guild Wars? It feels more like forced labour than playing a game). Balance is, of course, a major issue for any game, but especially so in a MMORPG where character customization plays such a big role, so make sure there are no sucky classes.