Making a killer MMORPG 2

So, we're back to the old MMORPG grind. Last article, I went over the basics of RPGs in a loooong story of what we see today, and problems with them. Now let's look at develping MMORPGs of your own, and see if it's worth it. Hint: It's probably not.

Currently, there exists basically two ways to develop your own RPGs:

1. Use a game maker program like Game Maker 6
2. Code it from hand till your fingers bleed.

Let's look at each's pros and cons.

1. Using a program like Game Maker 6



Lazy? Yes, not all of us can afford 10,000 hours of time to painstakingly RE-program the API shell for Direct X because it doesnt fit your basics. You're willing to make comprimises, and you're looking for something to give them to you. Enter Game Maker programs. Game making programs like Game Maker 6 take most of the useless coding away and put you in control of tools that will directly help you develop a game. These can range from basic APIs (Basically taking the work away of making DirectX or OpenGL run, to installing some bastardized sound system, or the like), to full scale development systems where "You never touch the keyboard!".

Now, these are good and bad at the same time. Let's use Game Maker 6 as an example. You will never hear me say developing on Game Maker 6 is easy. Hell, it's freaking hard. Unbearably so. The team who made GM6 did an outstanding job of simplifying a lot of complex jobs, but still, there is no fix to make something as complex as coding an MMORPG simple. So, you'll still spend tons of hours programming, you'll just have a nice little GUI instead of staring at Bloodshed DevC++ for 12+ hours daily.

As well, game makers have inherent limitations. Wanna use a different sound system? Nope, not allowed. Want to do 3D? While you could probably emulate it, you'll never create Doom 3 on Game Maker 6. As well, you could theoretically kill the inherent memory of Game Maker 6. The ability in programs like C++ to set memory sectors and pointers and all that good junk is gone- so you better set up some d*** fine loading systems or else programs like Game Maker 6 could very well crash on a crappy system. Go figure.

Oh yeah, and since we're talking about MMORPGs, it would probably be illegal to charge people to play the game, so server fees would be horrific and unfixable. NOT GOOD.

2. Coding

Coding is when you start with a little text pad (Well, actually a program like Visual C++ or DevC++ and participate in the old coding mill. What's so great about this? A lot of things. First off, coding by hand ensures that every single bit of the game is under your control. If you don't need a complex 3D engine running, you don't have it running. As simple as that. You control memory allocation, you control TCP/IP, you control just about everything.

Naturally, this is a pain. You have to control everything. You HAVE to. Therefore, you can't just ignore things like user input.... can you? So, expect a lot of useless coding. From what I've seen so far, probably the hardest part of this is taking all your nice artwork and the like, and paging it to the memory. Stuff like this takes time, knowledge, and at least two good 500+ page C++ books (I'm reading one right now! Complex Jewish religous texts are easier to read.).

And, let's face it, in any type of coding, you're going to have to align yourself with someone who knows the code, or is willing to learn for you. Either way, it's a lot of work. The coder will throttle you if you want something complex, and you'll never be rid of bugs until you whip him into more work. It just happens.

Still, I would reccomend this option if your dev team can do it. If you're making a "Killer" MMORPG, you should NEVER feel like you have to comprimise the game for ease of coding. Spend that extra month on character models so your game doesnt look like it was made in MS Paint. Just do it.

Page 1    Page 2    Page 3    Page 4