The closest thing to what you are looking for is BigWorld. It is very expensive ($1M+)

I suspect the original poster would qualify for the indie licence, which is $300 plus 10% royalties.

HeroEngine is also an option which is available as a $99/year subscription, but may or may not offer what the original poster expects.


I would second the above recommendations of starting smaller; this simply isn't a suitable project for an inexperienced developer. An MMOG is harder to make and run than most beginners think.

You could also look at the open source Ryzom Core, which has proven capabilities -- but again I would caution that the project is still likely to be beyond your means, as in addition to all of the development and content creation you would still need to handle all of the server hardware etc. as well as the business side of things.

The closest thing to what you are looking for is BigWorld

Huh. I honestly had no idea that Wargaming still sold new licenses to third parties.

That said, BW is definitely not what the OP is asking for. Right from their own FAQ (emphasis added):

How much programming experience do I need? Is it a drag and drop / WYSIWYG application?
- You need knowledge of Linux and Windows game development ideally. This is not a drag and drop game kit.
- You will require knowledge of Python to implement your game ideas and drive the machinery of the game logic.

You could also look at the open source Ryzom Core, which has proven capabilities

Are the Ryzom Core tools any good? If nothing else, looking through the public code... it's very, very game-specific in places (e.g., I see hard-coded assumptions about the game's races throughout the shared and tools code.)

Also, it's all Affero GPL (so less "Open Source" and more RMS-style "Free Software"), so the project is basically useless for anyone who plans to actually invest in making a game rather than just doing it as a hobby.

Are the Ryzom Core tools any good? If nothing else, looking through the public code... it's very, very game-specific in places (e.g., I see hard-coded assumptions about the game's races throughout the shared and tools code.)

I haven't used any of it, but from a poke around I would have to agree with your assessment - unless you're making a Ryzom cloneyou would need to do significant work to generalise or at least adjust the code-base, and depending on your planned business model the licensing is likely to be an issue for commercial projects.

I mentioned it more for completeness than anything, but depending on the original poster's (and future searcher's) goals it may be useful either directly or just as a learning aid. :)