In Need of Online 3D Game Development Crew

Please send me a quote for the development of an online 3D game via PM. The online 3D game would be similar to Tantra and Ragnarok. Please include the time frame that would be the most humanly possible duration for such a project together with your online 3D game programming/development experience. Thanks.

 

hmm.. I'm interested in game development before, but I guess I would like to join so that I can get more experiences what language do you use? C++ i guess?

 

Would C++ be the most suitable programming language to use for the development of online 2d/3d RPG games? I don't know even 50% of anything related to programming - I'm a writer, a manager, a marketing consultant, and a businessman, but I'm not even 10% of a programmer!

 

Usually online games are based mostly on flash and Java.

 

Unless really complex lol.

 

An MMO these days requires a number of components:

Game client - usually written in C++/OpenGL/Sockets to maximize portability
Game server - also usually written in C++ with little to no user interface
Backend - a database server that handles all the game data. MySQL may work for that.

You have to design the backend and game server keeping in mind scalability to handle future users.

Then of course you need the web-site which can be used to register accounts and do various database things to keep things working properly. That requires its own server running Apache and a scripting lanaguge like Perl or PHP.

I created the following MMO solo using the instruction manual as the design doc and it took about a year to complete. It's not a particulary complex game and I have years of experience making games. There is no database backend for this game. It wasn't needed. Accounts are created using the client and various dot commands (eg ".newuser" or something) that are entered through the chat interface. If you have never made an MMO before you have to start simple. Go to a store and pick up a board game and make an MMO version of it. Seriously.

http://www.dawnofthegeeks.com/games/sackarmies_on-line/

The server isn't running at this time. I'm still in the process of updating my server computer to be ready for running games.

In short, you either need a couple really smart people that know all the languages required or a team of people that can work independently on each major component. You could probably get away with:

1. Web master: must know PHP/MySQL very well
2. Client programmer: must know C++ and OpenGL or SDL and a socket library such as Winsock to communicate with the server
3. Server programmer: must know C++ and a socket library to communicate with the client and database backend
4. Graphic designer for the game and web-site.
5. Game designer: must be fluent in the rules of D&D and able to communicate them to the server programmer

Note that nowhere to be found on the list is the ideas guy that can't actually do anything. If you expect to have a team you're going to have to list your credentials as well. Every programmer worth anything has a billion of their own ideas and they don't need some "ideas" guy telling them what to do. Inevitably all the people who actually do work will mutiny and you will be cut out if they project doesn't just die.

Two people could theoretically make this game (programmer who knows everything and graphic artist) but it will take minimum of two years to get a playable version of the game going.

The computational demands put Java out of the running. Java is not fast enough for such a complex project. You would need to use a lower level language such as C++ to get the speed needed to handle all the processing of messages and game logic.

To get your feet wet making an on-line game, something simple like

http://www.dawnofthegeeks.com/games/gang_wars/

may be more up your ally. A simple RPG with just a few stats and simple gameplay. Walk around, chat, modify the environment in some way, fight, etc.

 

Thanks for the useful info. Anyway, how much will this project cost? If two people can do this for 2 years, then 10 people can do it for 6 months (1 month for coordination time), right?

Let's say I'm the "ideas man", and my skills are in game conceptualization, marketing the game to both players and companies, and I have money (lots of it maybe) - will this work?

 

Money won't solve the problem if you think people and time are directly related. If you've had any prior experience with game projects you'd know about the law of diminishing returns. Not only does the project take longer because too many people are working on it but the whole is not the sum of the parts. Two mediocre programmers working together will produce mediocre at best code. Typically it will be even worse than the sum of the whole of the parts.

Have you ever actually completed any game project before? If so, what was it?

The chances of a project succeeding are greatly reduced if the manager has no programming experience. The reason being that they have unrealistic expectations. As demonstrated by your above post you have highly unrealistic expectations. If you've never had experience in the creation of a game before, an MMO is out of your league.

If you expect this project to be completed any time soon the people working on it are going to have to be paid full time wages. The more you pay the more likely you are to find real talent. It's very rare that you'll find actual talent that will work for experience only.

You also needed a feature complete design doc before anyone would even consider joining your project. "I want a game like X" is unrealistic. No design doc equals never ending feature creep which leads to more unrealistic demands and timetables. And then the project fails and you're out a lot of money.

 

I have some experience coding a 3d mmo game with Java although i doubt you can get someone to create one for you because it will be a long term project and lots of people from different expertise will be involved.

 

The main reason why I mentioned two online 2D games, particularly Ragnarok and Tantra, is that I want quite similarly the same outcome, but with a different marketing twist. I just need the basic functions of both games. The people who will work for me on this project will be paid full-time wages on a subcontractual per-project basis.

 

What kind of wages are you looking to pay?

Whats the range you have in mind from less experienced to very experienced?