Building an MMO

This article is a quick overview of the game making process.
http://housenysian.com/ummo/2007/11/26/dev-012/(multiverse version)

A new article will be forthcoming that covers usage of Peragro Tempus (open source mmo eta 2yrs) from download to demo

  1. Game Type – MMORPG, RPG, FPS, or RTS
  2. Idea – Such as “The Forces of King Arthur VS Demons from the Pit: An RTS”
  3. Design Doc - Lengthy document detailing your game, from economy to enemy AI
  4. Business Plan – A document that details projected game sales, expenses, and profit
  5. Art Design / Asset Creation – This is where any necessary 2d/3d art are created
  6. Prototype / Demo – Something that can show the look and functionality of the game
  7. Alpha / Beta – Once funding  is secured, you have to build a prototype of  the game (plus game systems, dialogue, music, community site, etc)

We will be talking in this article about the steps in between 4 and 6.

Once the game design document is in a relatively completed form (it will be constantly update throughout development), we proceed to create the business plan. In the business plan we explore and explain the market, the game design, and our projections for how it will perform in that market.

It is almost impossible to get investment based purely on the design document and business plan. An alpha/beta/demo (either playable/interactive or non-interactive) of the game itself will show potential investors what the resulting game should look like.

There are a few different ways to go about doing this:

  1. Use retail game such as Crysis, Half Life 2 (Source Engine), or Doom 3 to make demo
  2. Use MMO engine for Demo (such as Multiverse, Realmcrafter, or Torque Game Engine)
  3. Use  available single player game engine to create demo (such as NeoAxis engine)
  4. Roll your own

We have decided to use completely open Source technology to create the game. While we may use some retail products as necessary in the future (such as SpeedTree) we have decided to make the game Open Source (where safe and protecting of development funds).

To this end, UMMO is now a fork of the Peragro Tempus engine.

For now, if you wish to assist development of code or art assests (which will eventually be shared with the public), please join the #peragro IRC channel on Freenode (irc.freenode.net) …

The UMMO nick there is grendel28 (or some variation)

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