Pocket MMORPG

Peedyay · 01-09-06, 05:55 PM

I'm considering writing a MMORPG for PPC - probably 2D rather than 3D for sake of content creation and ultra-low bandwidth use.
There would probably also be a PC version, maybe even a mobile phone version too.

My question is, would people want to play an online RPG game on a PDA at all? If so, would you mind if the graphics weren't 3D?
How much data would you be willing to send back and forth in an hour for gaming if you're paying per mb for the data?

Peedyay · 01-09-06, 06:07 PM

Oh whoops I posted in the hardware instead of software forum didn't I? Sorry :P

Tak Maze · 01-09-06, 06:12 PM

I personally wouldn't mind a one-time fee, but I wouldn't be interested in some kind of contract. The handheld market is pretty short on games like these, so you'd probably make a bundle ;). Remember you'd have to pay for a server or three. That might make all that cash float away.

Peedyay · 01-09-06, 06:22 PM

Originally Posted by Tak Maze

I personally wouldn't mind a one-time fee, but I wouldn't be interested in some kind of contract. The handheld market is pretty short on games like these, so you'd probably make a bundle ;). Remember you'd have to pay for a server or three. That might make all that cash float away.

Well I'm initially planning it as a free thing, though depending on how many people wanted to play I might need to charge due to costs. Right now I'm interested if there'd actually be enough people to play it to get it off the ground (because multiplayer games suck unless there's other people in the game).

The initial idea is to allow it to be played over a GPRS connection without breaking the bank - and that should also mean I can host at least 500 players on my existing server without any problems. :approve:

01-09-06, 07:22 PM

Originally Posted by Peedyay

Well I'm initially planning it as a free thing, though depending on how many people wanted to play I might need to charge due to costs. Right now I'm interested if there'd actually be enough people to play it to get it off the ground (because multiplayer games suck unless there's other people in the game).

The initial idea is to allow it to be played over a GPRS connection without breaking the bank - and that should also mean I can host at least 500 players on my existing server without any problems. :approve:

Could you make an rpg similar to that of Matrix online with cars and other futuristic settings

I would pay anything for a game of this sort

Creating a player that resembles me that has nice weapons and choice of fight ability

then going online to meet people while combating them in a setting only known to the future ,,

it would feel much like christmas!!!

I think I speak for every one when I say this is the only one that hasn't been done right and if done right any other rpg wouldn't come close

The Addict is always @ it

darkdestroyer · 01-09-06, 07:25 PM

And somehow make it so every PDA can use it easily, not just the one's with the 2700G chip. Also if you could.. adapt it so it's mostly onscreen controls, since the touchpad on the 4705 is useless for gaming
.

nomadmatt · 01-09-06, 07:53 PM

i would pay only in up front cost. A pc and ppc version that could be played together would be grate. 2d is fine its mainly for pdas.

Peedyay · 01-10-06, 02:13 AM

Originally Posted by addictisatit

Could you make an rpg similar to that of Matrix online with cars and other futuristic settings

I would pay anything for a game of this sort

Creating a player that resembles me that has nice weapons and choice of fight ability

then going online to meet people while combating them in a setting only known to the future ,,

it would feel much like christmas!!!

I think I speak for every one when I say this is the only one that hasn't been done right and if done right any other rpg wouldn't come close

I don't think a matrix sort of game would work too well in 2D... having stuff like cars and guns needs good graphics and lots of data to be sent. Having said that, a futuristic game of some sort could work maybe.

Peedyay · 01-10-06, 02:27 AM

Originally Posted by nomadmatt

i would pay only in up front cost. A pc and ppc version that could be played together would be grate. 2d is fine its mainly for pdas.

This is one of the difficulties online games face... people don't like the idea of paying monthly but the ISPs don't mind charging monthly to rent the servers. Still, like I said I should be able to support about 1000 players before that becomes a problem, and thats a heck of a lot for PDA gamers.

Peedyay · 01-10-06, 02:31 AM

Originally Posted by darkdestroyer

And somehow make it so every PDA can use it easily, not just the one's with the 2700G chip. Also if you could.. adapt it so it's mostly onscreen controls, since the touchpad on the 4705 is useless for gaming
.

Yup, thats another reason for not doing it 3D - it will be much less fussy about the hardware. Controls are likely to be point-and-click with stylus/mouse. This makes it easy to use on a PDA, and also uses way less bandwidth than directional keys (because we only need to send "move to x,y,z" messages once rather than send "left a bit, right a bit, up a bit, forward, forward, forward, jump" constantly as you press the buttons :hide:

Tak Maze · 01-10-06, 10:34 AM

Like I said before, games like this are far from common, so I'm sure you'd get a large enough audience. Perhaps start with a relatively small world and work on it as more people join.
If such a game existed, I'd never stop playing!

Peedyay · 01-10-06, 10:50 AM

Originally Posted by Tak Maze

Like I said before, games like this are far from common, so I'm sure you'd get a large enough audience. Perhaps start with a relatively small world and work on it as more people join.
If such a game existed, I'd never stop playing!

Yeah, I'd personally love a game I can pick up and play online both on the move and at home, which is why I'm thinking of making it happen. I've got a good idea of how I'd do it and a fair bit of experience writing multiplayer code but its a huge amount of work and I don't want to write it all and then no-one plays it.

So far there seems to have been some interest in this thread/poll but not too many people have posted which worries me - it's one of those things where there's a "criticial mass". If there aren't enough people interested to populate the world in the first place, it will never be any good or be able to grow.

I wonder if there's anyone else out there that would like to be involved with a project like this? I'd be particularly interested to hear from graphics artists or people that could lay down some tunes :approve:

01-10-06, 02:50 PM

You should have posted this post in the game section, that way more can see it

and i think the matix or viewtiful jou would work out great

jcubes · 01-10-06, 03:16 PM

bPerhaps some type of game where there's a "grid" that comprises the play area and then people in the MMORPG would occupy or HOLD a grid area. Kinda like risk and make it persistent. You would fortify your positions and when you are offline it uses a risk type system to determine if your armies hold against the onslaught... since it's 2-d you could have PPC and PC clients that connect to the same back end...

You would get RISK junkies on board since it would be like a HUGE persistent game of risk. And you could have different units that would have better attack vs defense capabilities... ok now I really rambled... hope it helps :-)

For those of us who played starfleet command 1-3 it's like the dynaverse idea they had.

Peedyay · 01-10-06, 06:19 PM

Originally Posted by jcubes

bPerhaps some type of game where there's a "grid" that comprises the play area and then people in the MMORPG would occupy or HOLD a grid area. Kinda like risk and make it persistent. You would fortify your positions and when you are offline it uses a risk type system to determine if your armies hold against the onslaught... since it's 2-d you could have PPC and PC clients that connect to the same back end...

You would get RISK junkies on board since it would be like a HUGE persistent game of risk. And you could have different units that would have better attack vs defense capabilities... ok now I really rambled... hope it helps :-)

For those of us who played starfleet command 1-3 it's like the dynaverse idea they had.

That does actually share a few concepts with one of my favourite ideas, though I was thinking more along the lines of a RPG with a twist. I'm trying to design it in such a way that the world can be small at first and become huge, with players able to own land and build.

I'm considering an offline system so that you can play in a kind of sandbox when offline in a way that can benefit you online. That obviously opens up a whole can of worms with regard to people faking it and cheating though, but I'm thinking on the lines of making it so you can only do things like practice, rearrange items you've already got (not get new ones) and perhaps earn experience points at a much lower rate than when online and with a low daily cap (i.e. you play for an hour offline and get at most the same experience as playing an average 20 mins online - and if you play for longer you get nothing). If the land idea works out you might also be able to do cosmetic non-critical things to your home estate while offline.