Making a killer MMORPG 2

Now, we've discussed coding methods, let's say we've got coding. Let me briefly touch on the type of people and skills you're going to need in developing an MMORPG. Keep in mind that the more specialists you "Hire", the more problems you're going to have. Why?

- When money comes into the equasion, people are going to want to be paid. Even if it's supposed to be going to server fees.

- The more people, the more problems you're going to run across with communication and the like. You can't just expect everyone to be nice all the time.

So, let's look at some skills you're going to need. Your perfect "employee" knows how to do at least three of these moderately well, preferrably specializing in one. This is so when he's not doing his primary job (Say, coding), that he can do something productive (Like graphics).


(The above is a really shoddy picture of the VALVe Development team, the people who made Half Life. Has Gabe always had like woman-hair?)

- The Coder

Your hardest worked person, this is the guy that sits there and plays Mr. Codemonkey. He's probably going to do the most work of all of the people because his job is to get everything working together. As well, bugs will make him go crazy, the sheer amount of work will make him cry, and the like. The more people who can code your subject language, the better.

- The Artist

This is someone who helps you, the designer, put your little dumbass ideas on paper. These can be used to create a "Teaser Page" online, or just to give your graphic artists a concept of what you're going for. Make sure he's a GOOD artist, not someone full of crap, and that he does well at your target subject (For example, if I ever wanted to make a shooter game with concept art, I'd drag Mike from his home, lock him in a cage, and make him draw 24/7. Oh wait, I'm doing that anyway..).

- The Graphics Guy

This is the guy who gets a little pixel hardon for pixels. If he be a 3D Artist or Texture artist (If you're doing 3D), or a little sprite maniac (If you're doing 2d), he's going to probably be #2 on the list of overworked saps. Graphics guys and coding guys generally clash because while the graphics guy is obsessed about keeping the quality of the graphics, the coding guy wants to compress them till they're one solid color. You see the issue. Thankfully, however, the Graphics Guy's job is easiest to learn, and thus you can get virtually anyone doing this job in his free time. When you're not yelling at your subordinates or doing work yourself, you should be clicking pixels into place.

- The Sound Dude

This is the guy with a plastic tube in his hand trying to make a gunshot sound. It's EXTREMELY stupid to assume you can go online and download sounds for your game (Hah, I could name some games that have done that, but I won't for posterity). It's unclassy, and when it's something like a footstep sound, people are going to hear it a lot. Try to get someone who knows sound enough to know that one slash sound will not cover every single weapon in the game.

(SUBJOB) The Voice Actor

If you're doing an MMORPG with some voice overs for common sounds (Maybe attack sounds, like a grunt, to full out sayings). I know the hunt for voice actors very very well from my flash days. Voice actors can be anyone- your grandmother, you, your little brother, a hobo- you just have to make sure they sound good. The best way to do this is to lock them in a small room with a SILENT PC and record them. There's a lot of techniques to do this. Generally, the sound dude can clean up or edit, but keeping the sounds as good as possible is important, especially if it's a sound you're going to hear a lot.

- The Bug Testers

These guys sit there and play your game over and over, looking for any issue possible. The best thing to do is pick someone who is borderline obsessive-compulsive. While you might want to choke him very tightly, he's probably your best choice for this work. The more freaking crazy neatfreak they are, the better your game is at the end. If you're super hardcore, just go look at the mental ward for the guy arranging Scrabble tiles into alphabetical order in little perfect triangles. That's your man.

- Your "Sell it" team.

These are the guys who can bullshit. Know a guy who sells cars for a living? Hire him. You need someone who can do such jobs as polling generic gamers, finding people to test the game, making a website for the game, and other jobs that you probably won't want to touch. In my MMORPG, I'll probably be handling this the most, because it's kinda fun. However, if you don't know how to program HTML or the like, don't do this job. You need someone to make your game look as kickass as possible.

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