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Good evening people of the internets,
I have some happy news! As my time as a Java Developer progresses and work forces me into deeper and darker corners of Java Programming I find myself actually learning something... despite my best efforts.
Unfortunately for me with great knowledge comes great creativity, and as such I have officially started writing a brand new 2D ORPG I have for now codenamed "Project Dustmite". Why dustmite? Well, all the hardcore projects at work have amazing names like "Project Vulture" and given the complexity and size of those, Dustmite seemed fitting in comparison.
There are a few things I can tell you about the project so far, I started it about 8 months ago when I got the Job as a Junior Java Developer but promptly stopped when I realised I just didn't know enough to get anywhere... I'd find myself learning something new every day then going back to Dustmite and re-writing everything from scratch to take advantage of this amazing new concept I'd discovered and it was a waste of time.
Times change however, and although I am by no means a hardcore Java Developer, I know enough now to just crack on with it and see where it takes me. Inevitably I'll make some bad design decisions and in years to come have to go back and rip out various systems, but I'm paying a lot of attention to System architecture and attempting to make... well to make something ^.^
Currently I'm working on the networking side of things. Client / Server architecture are very important to me and as such I'm spending a bit of time on it. I've made the bold decision to use Object streams as they just make life so damn easy. Why is this bold? Well, I'll tell you all about that in the future when I have some real benchmarks behind me and a solid network architecture to hammer the hell out of.
Currently each client connection gets its own thread server side and all IO is handled by the ClientConnection object, which when an Object is received goes back up the class hierarchy to talk to the Packet Factory which decides which kind of object we have received and what to do with it. The main Server Connection Socket keeps track of all the current threaded connections and has a reference to.... hang on a minute, I shouldn't be going into all this and blowing your heads off just yet.
I'll touch on the client, which fires off a Connection to the server and spawns input and output objects each in their own threads, these then handle all the network IO for the client. Incoming objects get cast to a generic object by the SocketInput object then passed back up the class hierarchy to the client-side PacketFactory which acts just like the server one.
"Packets" or Objects as they now are, are serializable objects that sit inbetween the Server and Client in their own Project. This is beneficial in a number of ways. As each object... I'm doing it again. Sorry xD
The message I was trying to convey here is work has started on a new Game and I should hopefully have it up soon in the form of a chat Server. I would really appreciate your help testing my networking code out and the structure in general in a few weeks when I throw up the client for download. It will effectively be a Chat client, but the back-end is built for a much heavier system, a game in fact ^.^. The first super ultra mega alpha test will be going live next month and I'd really appreciate it if those of you who are interested could band together and help me make this right.
Lets prove it is possible for a lone indy game developer to make something from nothing in this day and age, where the market is saturated and there are a lot of bad games out there designed bring in the cash and waste peoples time, perhaps we can make something that people want to play, that people enjoy playing, and that doesn't take the piss with insane charges.
I have a dream people, but its through other peoples motiviation that I draw mine so... lets do this?!
I know what I want to create is along the lines of what Mirage nearly was, but I want to take it further. If you have any ideas on what might work as an awesome game mechanic or what kind of world / situation you would love to be running around in the midst of, now is the time to bring it forward! I have some ideas but at this stage they are still ideas. Games are evolving at such a fast pace these days.
What would make you login to a 2D indy mmorpg and enjoy yourself? In your opinion, what should games such as this charge for these days, and what should they charge? Should they charge at all? Can they get away with charging for things in this climate? How much time should we have to spend playing the game to become powerful, and how much of it should be down to skill?
I'm not a company, I'm just a random lad - so make your opinions brutally honest and to the point. If I was to set out on a mission to create a 2d MMORPG that would bring in enough revenue for me to start a business - what would you expect and how would you invisage paid services working? Is a business a feasible idea or can online 2D gaming only be hobbiest none-profitable ventures these days.
Lots for everyone to think about I guess, but why not. Why not give it a go? I'm sure a lot of you feel it, you want to create something that people love and craft a career out of it - well, I'm going to work towards giving it a go... if it epic fails, it epic fails - but at least someone gave it a try!
Wow this is a long post... let me know your thoughts... though I'm not even sure people come here anymore!!
Take it easy chaps,
Liam
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