Just 2 quick questions

[evomay1]

Right i’m not sure where to put this so if i’m wrong then please point me in the right direction…

:…Question one…:
Right, i’ve hit this problem many times and its really starting to get annoying now.

I’m building an offline RPG game, i’m happy with all the coding needs to be done as i’m working on that (Even if its the most boring thing i’ve ever done)

Yet my problem is the terrain…i have pritty much zero imagination and struggling badly with this.

I build a town, looks very simple and not very nice looking, so i scrap it and restart, build a new town, still… it looks boring and simple…

Can anyone help me with this or give me any tips or ANYTHING

:…Question Two…:
I’m in talks with a friend and a family member about hiring a team of professional coders, 3d modellers ect ect to build me a MMORPG based through web player on my website, What I’m looking for is kinda like Runescape set up, where people signup in the website to play ect (NOT A GAME LIKE RUNESCAPE, just the set up). Basically, the game is fully tied in with the website where people can play for free, or even upgrade to unlock better and more features, they can use there game account in the sites forums, check out the highscores ect ect, im sure you’ve got an idea of what im looking for now, right?

So i’ll need someone to build the game as well as build the servers, connections, website, pritty much the lot which is required to make a MMORPG work.

But, i have a few questions which i would like to be answered before i start this massive project, also id like to be pointed into the right directions if I’m going wrong with anything.

So firstly how much would i be looking at to hiring people for this? i know its going to be costly but could anyone possibly give me a rough sum? in £?

How long would it take roughly to get a project of this size completed?

How many people would i need to hire?

once the project is completed and launched would i need a team to run it? or is it possible to run with just me and friends?

But the most important question i have going round and round in my tiny little brain is where could i find people i can trust? how would i know if i can trust them? how would i know if these people wouldn’t just build the game then use it for them self’s? (if you understand that last question)

There are so many questions i could ask to do with this but I’m going to keep it sort. So if anyone has anything extra to add to this just comment or let me know so i can edit this.

The more detailed answers would be highly appreciated as I’m willing to put time into this project.

Thank you in advance for any help
Evo

[keithsoulasa]

For question 1, theirs plenty of tools on the asset store to help with making your map . And if all else fails just go for it ( like use the map instead of scrapping it )

For question 2 .
No , don’t make an MMORPG, these types of games cost millions to make and are rarely profitable . Unless you have a few million just avoid them .

[evomay1]

so what would you suggest for question 2?

[keithsoulasa]

@evomay1

so what would you suggest for question 2?

Don’t make it . Find something else to build MMORPG’s are always way too costly

[zombiegorilla]

@evomay1

so what would you suggest for question 2?

@keithsoulasa

No , don’t make an MMORPG, these types of games cost millions to make and are rarely profitable . Unless you have a few million just avoid them .

I agree with keithsoulasa, just don’t. The expense and complexity is more than you can imagine. Not only that, but if you build a stand alone game and for whatever reason don’t update or move on, no big deal. MMORPG’s rely on the server infrastructure, going down that route you are committing to maintain it or screwing players. There is a reason there are few MMORPGs around.

[evomay1]

@zombiegorilla

I agree with keithsoulasa, just don’t. The expense and complexity is more than you can imagine. Not only that, but if you build a stand alone game and for whatever reason don’t update or move on, no big deal. MMORPG’s rely on the server infrastructure, going down that route you are committing to maintain it or screwing players. There is a reason there are few MMORPGs around.

So your saying i should just build a stand alone game?

[khanstruct1]

To give you a small idea, we were once in line to develop an MMO. It was a simple concept based on a major IP. The publishers budget for the project was $2 million. For that amount, you could hire a solid team and have a good game finished in 12 to 18 months.

As to your first question, try to build the town on paper as it would evolve naturally. Begin with the “main” road. Come up with small stories (in your head) about where other businesses would spring up, where people would build their homes and why (close to water, close to town, etc.). It depends largely on your setting, but if you create the town in a way that a real town would be created, you’ll have a much more realistic setting (and probably some interesting backstories for the folks who live there).

[keithsoulasa]

@khanstruct_1

To give you a small idea, we were once in line to develop an MMO. It was a simple concept based on a major IP. The publishers budget for the project was $2 million. For that amount, you could hire a solid team and have a good game finished in 12 to 18 months.

As to your first question, try to build the town on paper as it would evolve naturally. Begin with the “main” road. Come up with small stories (in your head) about where other businesses would spring up, where people would build their homes and why (close to water, close to town, etc.). It depends largely on your setting, but if you create the town in a way that a real town would be created, you’ll have a much more realistic setting (and probably some interesting backstories for the folks who live there).

OR you could play some sim city 2000 and base it off a working small town .

I took Urbanology in college . You have downtown where the town starts , expensive housing and business , then on the edge the poorer folks reside , the buildings are more run down

[evomay1]

Yes, unless you have lots of money to burn.

Start small, learn skills and make it successful. it would be cheaper to make 2nd rpg-game from profits gained from 1st game.

To give you a small idea, we were once in line to develop an MMO. It was a simple concept based on a major IP. The publishers budget for the project was $2 million. For that amount, you could hire a solid team and have a good game finished in 12 to 18 months.

Ok so i’m going to start a series of a stand alone game, Thank you for your help

As to your first question, try to build the town on paper as it would evolve naturally. Begin with the “main” road. Come up with small stories (in your head) about where other businesses would spring up, where people would build their homes and why (close to water, close to town, etc.). It depends largely on your setting, but if you create the town in a way that a real town would be created, you’ll have a much more realistic setting (and probably some interesting backstories for the folks who live there)

OR you could play some sim city 2000 and base it off a working small town .

I took Urbanology in college . You have downtown where the town starts , expensive housing and business , then on the edge the poorer folks reside , the buildings are more run down

Yano what, That sounds like a really good idea, ill start off small, maybe a forest, river… then move on to adding houses ect around.

@keithsoulasa that sounds like a great idea but the only problem to that is, my game will be set in medieval/roman times so if you know of anyother games like that please share

[Jingle-Fett]

Seriously though I’m glad you’ve changed your mind about making it a MMO, a lot of people want to make those and it rarely goes anywhere. It’s actually a bit of an ongoing joke around here (MMO Monday). You seem a lot more serious about your project though so I hope it turns out great.

For question #2, I wouldn’t bother working with other people until you have a working prototype. Getting 3d modelers on board before having a protoype is a bad idea because maybe they need to do their work in specific ways and by the time you finish your prototype, you find that you need X animations to work differently, or you’ve decided to do Y animation procedurally so it’s no longer needed (or whatever). Last thing you want is for the modelers’ work to go down the drain. If you can get some programmers to work with you then great but they’ll still probably be more motivated to work and stick with it if you have a prototype.

As to making a town, if it’s a generic town, you can sort of go with it and like others have said, start with the main road and start adding things in logical places and you can sort of let the history evolve as you make it. Specific details really won’t be too important, it’s a lot more freestyle. Another thing that would help would be to divide your town into different areas or districts. So you might have the urban district where all the living houses are, you’d have the shopping district, the political district, etc.
But if you’re making a specific town that is crucial to your story, then you’d probably want to start with the elements crucial to the story. For example if the player at some point needs to go to a town that’s in a canyon (with the canyon being an important story element), obviously you’d start with the canyon and then figure out where everything goes from there. Or if there’s a river that the player needs to travel to, then you know you need to start with at least a river.

Also ask yourself “what are the needs of the town and where does it go?” and then keep asking yourself questions. For example the town needs a leader so where does the leader live? Lets say he’s a king and he lives in a castle. Since he’s the most important person, the castle will probably be at the center of the town. Well naturally all the important people will also live nearby. So a bunch of aristocratic houses go near the castle. Where does their food, clothes and tools come from? They need a market place nearby. Where does the market place get food from? So you need farms too. And so on.