So, for the last several year’s I have had this dream to make a MMO. I know, I know “One of those guys”. I understand (or maybe don’t) how big of a project an MMO is. However the idea for my game has been a recurring theme for a long time now, and it’s kind of a bummer knowing that there is no way I’ll ever see it come to light. Not because I think it would sell more copies than WoW, but simply because it’s a game that I want to play, and share with others.
That being said. What should I do to satiate my game development appetite? Do you think that given enough time I could finish an MMO? What about a multiplayer game that wasn’t massive in terms of players, but had a massive world?
You could never finish an MMO by yourself, or with a “hobby team”. An MMO (or a game with a massive world, for that matter) takes years to build for a dedicated team working more then full time.
So should I drop my idea all together and just accept that it will never be done? Or do you think I should limit my scope, perhaps build my game as a single player game first, then take it online? Not as an MMO but something different.
Start with a limited scope multiplayer game and work your way up from there. MP games are quite different from SP games structurally so I don’t think you’d do yourself a service by starting with an SP game as a foundation for MP games.
I think that is what I am going to do. Start small. I am not making a mass-market game, and I have all the free time I need. Thank you for the morale boost P_Hansson, and the words of wisdom from Uncasid and fholm.
lol That’s a pretty bold statement… Yes MMOs are hard but they are becoming easier for smaller indie teams to complete. There’s been a few MMOs built by a single person. Yes it’s not easy but it CAN be done.
I underatand that an MMO is a massive undertaking, and I think that coming in with the attitude of being the next WOW or Rift or EvE is wrong, unless you have the resources. I dont think though that a “small-scale” MMO is entirely out of the realm of possibilities. There are so many third party systems out there for independent developers.
As far as my game is concerned though, I think ill be sticking with Photon Server. The 100 CCU is plenty to develop and test with.
Depends on your experience. If you have years of experience with game programming a simple small-scale MMO is possible if you put a few years into it. Of cause if you just want to sync 100 cubes running around it can be done a lot faster. Would i recommend going into it? If you do it for the learning experience, SURE! If you just want to make your dream game then no.
I feel like the term MMO gets thrown around a lot, lately. A lot of times people who claim to want to build an MMO really just want to build a game with a persistent world, and never really intend to get a huge number of players. And then, when they ask about how to make their game, the nay-sayers immediately swoop down to tell them that they’ll never manage, because an MMO is a huge undertaking, and they don’t really understand the scope of the project the person wants to make.
I don’t know if what OP wants to build is really a full-bodied MMO or not, but I feel that people should be a bit more careful with the term.
Sharpevil, Perhaps I am not using the correct term. What I want is what you described. A persistent world RPG is what I want. I have never intended for even a fraction of the player base of a large scale MMO. perhaps a new term should be developed…like Small Scale Persistent World Multiplayer RPG SPWMRPG haha. That is what I want to do.
A multiplayer game of around 32 players max seems perfectly doable by one guy using Photon. It’s not a big deal. MMOs are a massively different story due to servers having to work in parallel and be in sync (to a degree) and all that jazz. It’s just stupid for one man to attempt and will take years, and your game will still lie in a primitive state (unless it’s primitive to begin with).
Also finding a lot of players is actually near impossible for an indie to achieve. Maybe just try a normal game with MP.