Building a Virtual World on a Budget
To those low-budget, indie game developers busy making massively multi-player games (especially MMORPGs), I salute you!

As an old-school MUD / MUSH player and developer (though not NEARLY as old-school as these guys), I entertained the thought myself for a a few months after exiting the games biz back in 2000. In fact, the engine that became Void War was originally for a Massively Multi-player RPG - albeit for a much smaller-scale one that I envisioned as more of a super-MUD than a mini-EverQuest at the time.

A cooler head prevailed, and I backed off that project.

But there are several nutcases out there who are still chasing passion instead of reason, and I think the gaming world is richer for them.

Eric "Malevolent" Rhea has a great write-up on the challenges and pitfalls of indie MMORPG development based on his painfully current experiences developing Wraith: The Iron Horse, a 3D MMORPG (being developed in Torque, I note...), which has just hit their Beta milestone.

I wish 'em the best of luck!

Labels: Indie Evangelism, programming

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 8:01 AM (Permalink)