How to Develop an MMORPG With No Team And Limited Budget
"I was programming games professionally when the first MMORPG titles hit the market. Within a few hours of playing, I knew I wanted to develop them. The trick was in figuring out how to as a sole programmer with very limited money."

Sound familiar? For a few years it seemed like everybody and their cousin wanted to make their own EverQuest. A lot of folks still do, but the name has changed to World of Warcraft. Now it seems that every few days a visitor appears on various game development forums with what they think is a great idea, but no idea of where to start.

Well, in this case it was an experienced game developer, who knew where to start. And where it ends is anybody's guess. But the above quote comes from Josh Ritter of Prairie Games, and he actually pulled it off. His game, Minions of Mirth, launched a little under a year ago, and has been gradually building up steam ever since. At this point, it sounds like the game is truly a success. I'm a bit of a fan of his, as I've exchanged a few emails and forum messages with him a few times, and I have found him to be one of the most energetic and driven individuals I've ever met.

In a community where a hundred MMO projects get proposed and then disappear every year, he had me convinced a year earlier that he was actually going to bring his to completion. It was because, as an experienced developer, he understood the scope of what he was attempting. He understood it, and had a realistic (if extremely aggressive) plan for achieving it.

Gamasutra recently ran an interview (from which I took the above quote) in which he explains a little bit of how he managed to accomplish what many consider an impossible dream:

Road To The IGF: Prairie Games' Minions of Mirth

Some things Josh Ritter and Prairie Games did that didn't necessarily make it into the interview:

* He moved to North Dakota (the middle of nowhere) to extend his budget.

* Josh used Python to code the actual game engine, which proved advantageous when he ported the game from a Quake-based engine to Torque (a process which only took two months as a result).

* They made use of third-party graphics engines (customized, of course)

* Josh created smart tools to assist in development. One I took particular note of was a tool that created a .MAP file out of a much simpler Doom-format map. He could then model a level very quickly using an old-fashioned DOOM map editor, transform it into a .MAP file, and then use the more advanced (but more cumbersome) .MAP editing tool to finish the job. I don't know if he used this in actual production, but it always sounded to me as a very clever idea.

* They made use of off-the-shelf content. If you wander through Minions of Mirth, you'll see a lot of locations and set pieces that can be purchased "off-the-shelf." I doubt most players are taken aback by the fact that the game is not 100% custom content.

* They arranged for some independent investment to help with finishing the game - mainly to help fund art content (by indie game artists and modelers, I should add!)

* Prairie Games got creative with monetizing the game: In addition to conventional sales of the game itself (Minions of Mirth is not subscription-based), they've released a free version of the game which uses in-game-advertising (as I understand - I bought the full version and never tried the free one).

* And, of course, they entered Minions of Mirth into the Independent Games Festival, which may be worth some prize money (though they are up against some really great titles this year!), but more importantly gives them a bit more attention.

So - can an EverQuest-style Massively Multiplayer Roleplaying Game be done by indies? You bet! Minions of Mirth isn't the only indie-created MMO out there of course - AdventureQuest, A Tale In The Desert, and many others come to mind. There are also some others in development that I think have a high likelihood of seeing the light of day (including LinkRealms, a game being developed locally which I've talked about before). But I think Prairie Games' story illustrates what it takes to make it happen.

Labels: Interviews, productivity, Roleplaying Games

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