I’ve been working at game design for about a year and a half now. I got an interest in it longer than that ago, but that’s how long I’ve been learning. There is a lot to know. I’ve come up with a list of all the things that I believe are necessary for making a game. They range from modeling to code to specific features.
Please don’t think this is just a disorganized heap of jargon. I will be describing my understanding of the list in wordpad.
I think it takes a genius to design any type of video game. What it doesn’t take a genius to do is modify/add/delete content for a game with an engine that’s already been written.
It does take time and money though. Building an MMO is possible for an individual but the number of people who have successfully achieved it is in the single digits. Most people are not going to take it seriously.
Just Google Free MMO. Look at the first 10. Your game will not have 1% of that content after 5 years, same goes for player following, etc. That’s just assuming you can get it off the ground. You can’t afford the electrical and internet bills, the costs for hardware, etc. anyway.
And I’m sorry, but you still have to be pretty damn good to modify an engine that’s already been written.
There is no doubt you have identified many details that may come into play in your game development but it is not game design. This is more like prep work listing all of the specific skills/tasks you have identified.
First thing is… WHAT is the game you are working on?
If you have not chosen a game to make, then choose something.
Then watch some videos of people playing that kind of game (walkthroughs are great) and you will have a much better idea what you need to learn.
I think you are focusing so much on the individual trees you may be completely missing the forest.
Google “Game Design” , “Ludology” and “Game Design Document Template”.
Game design avoids unnecessary details if possible, artist and programmers know their field of work the best so we always try to stay on the highest possible level. We simply list requirements, document end results and guide them to ensure that we do not get Rambo fighting rainbow spewing ponies. It also helps the project if we do not need to update GD docs every time something is changed and if both programmers and artists understand the same text etc.
That link lead to something that reminded more of an early technical document… or something in that direction at least.
So what. Let the guy try. As a parent, I can tell my kids not to do something day after day and unless they try it and fail, they don’t believe it. If he wants to make an MMO, then let him.
We are making an MMO, does that make our work any less important? Should we go away? Now, unlike this young man, we have experience working on MMO’s and our programmers have some small games finished or near finished. We are not diving into an MMO (other than the networking) but starting small with a multiplayer game and then moving up. I know from experience what work is involved in an MMO and for a single person, it can be daunting.
But, not impossible. I always wondered why people feel this need here to bash anyone who wants to make an MMO. I think it is wise to tell people it is difficult, that it takes a lot of time and money, and that they will need help. As for success, most people who start games are not successful, regardless of the game type. Like any creative endeavor, we don’t always do it for success. Sometimes we do it just to see if we can do it.
I have a lot of respect for all of you and I have learned a lot. But even if we fail at finishing our game, we will never regret trying. This is the most fun I have had in years!
Oh…and I want to say that all this MMO bashing makes me afraid to share details of our game. I don’t want to be “not taken seriously” or ridiculed. And I am a grown up with experience behind me. I can’t imagine how many people fail to get involved because they are afraid of being dismissed. A forum should be supportive.
There’s value in a brainstorm bucket. We’re only human; we can’t remember everything. It keeps you from losing ideas, and it frees up brainspace for new ideas. The hard part as a designer is boiling it down into a concept as @GarBenjamin and Deon Cadme suggest.
Ugh, “ludology”, “ludo-narrative dissonance,” and other terms students make up to keep their parents writing checks for their grad programs. Can’t we just go back to “game design” and “game story?”
On a more productive note, also google “game treatment.” This is typically a 1-2 page overview. The first test of a concept is whether you can boil it down to 1-2 pages. If not, then you haven’t found its core principle yet. Even a sprawling MMO can be summed up in a few words. For example, the old MMO Dark Ages of Camelot could be summed up as “realm-vs-realm PvP in a fantasy MMO”.
Does your MMO’s overview consist of entries like “for loop”, “if statement”, and “undo and redo”? I have no problems with someone attempting an MMO, but they shouldn’t do it for what is very clearly their first project.
This isn’t merely a case of trying to walk when he hasn’t learned to crawl. This is like trying to run a marathon without knowing how to stand up.
I simply cannot take the OP seriously at this stage.
Ha ha. I get tired of the continual need to explicitly label every object, element, behavior and so forth as well. Worse, to assign new names just to make the things seem new. That happens entirely too often in game industry (though coining new terms and need to label everything seems to apply to most everything else too).
I guess we can take some pride in being Ludologists. It has a “better” feel than saying hey we study games. I honestly think that is the reason for most of these terms. Someone got tired of people making light of their study and so coined a fancy term.
Ludology isn’t a word created by students, it is the scientific name of this field… Game Treatment or more commonly known as “Game Pitch Document”, “Game Concept Document”. These documents are less about testing the idea and more about filtering the design into its core components so that you can better determin its USP, market values, target group and platforms etc… people higher up in organizations love them because they do not want to read your complete game design on X hundred pages… Also, these documents do not have to be limited to 2 pages, they can be much bigger. I want to remember that Bioshock had a 6-8 pages long concept document… One I worked on passed 20 pages because we needed more text and images to explain features that had not been done before.
I have nothing against someone, even a “noobie”, tackling a MMORPG. I have tried to provide some encouragement and guidance to them. When everyone tells them to “make pong” I suggest they tackle a section of their game. Think micro scale. Like get a mini town area running. Focus on piece at a time. Once they complete the micro area they can roll it out to large game world.
I think it is like @Ryiah said… this does not look like a game design but list of all things game dev. I don’t even see where it is a sign of a MMO but maybe I missed that in the document
I think most of us here have a lot of respect for you. You write with experience and optimism.
I did not say it was coined by students… it is usually the scientists and researchers who come up with the labels. Did it need a scientific name? I see no harm in giving it a name. I just don’t think it actually needed one.
I got the impression from the “game specific” section of the document. Auction houses, instancing and matchmaking, player housing, quests, etc. These are all typically MMO-related concepts.
Exactly. Teila has experience and is not attempting an MMO for her very first project. That makes all the difference. I would love to hear the details from her. Especially as she’s mentioned permadeath in other threads.
I don’t know. I spent an hour last night trying to get something to do something that it wasn’t clearly meant to do… and in the end I realized that the functionality I was trying to achieve is already built-in, in a sense. So it wasn’t even necessary. Didn’t work. Lost an hour of sleep for no good reason, didn’t really learn anything.
Trial and error, the “school of hard knocks” is good n’ all… but if you try to learn everything by not listening to advice, plowing on, etc. You’ll be in your late 60’s by the time you accomplish anything.
Point is, take advice. Google. Read up. It’s all free.