   Executing an MMO from story to release...tips?
  Home does a story become a game or how do you break it into development stages?How much creative control does an author/creator maintain after his concept is put into development?What guidelines does a development team have to follow when it comes to sticking with the creators concept when it comes to time/budget constraints?What realistic goals are set moving forward from story to game development?What are some of the major challenges that need to be considered right out of the gate in the whole MMO development? (knowing time and diligence are amongst the highest)Me and a few buddies are nearing the completion of our story and are wanting to get started with the development process.  Some of us are programmers, others designers and what not.  Parts of the game will be freelanced as well.We would like to get some followers to help answer and ask questions of there own here.  We will be posting the answers we find, as well as more questions we come up with.  NGP is another site I will be making posts about this topic.  Figure the more places I post, the more answers I'll get :P   
Quote:Home does a story become a game or how do you break it into development stages?A story "becomes a game" when somebody develops a game with a certain set of features and mechanics, and then uses those features and mechanics to convey the story in some form. How the game is broken up into "development stages" depends on the person or people doing the development -- there is no universal methodology, every team has different needs and processes that will work optimally, et cetera.Quote:How much creative control does an author/creator maintain after his concept is put into development?That depends entirely on the team.Quote:What realistic goals are set moving forward from story to game development?That depends on the team. Some projects -- in fact, most -- don't even begin with the story, because plot is not gameplay, and a game without gameplay is called a "movie."Quote:What are some of the major challenges that need to be considered right out of the gate in the whole MMO development? (knowing time and diligence are amongst the highest)Time and diligence are no more important to an hobbyist MMO than any other hobbyist project. The "major challenge" is that it is basically impossible for you to actually make an MMO. That first M means something. You can make a multiplayer online game, certainly; but if you have to ask the kinds of questions you are asking, you will never be able to achieve the 'massive' part with your current level of experience.If you want to make a game -- any kind of game -- with your buddies, go ahead and get started. What matters is the process that will work for you, so you need to figure that out amongst yourselves. How many games have you collectively worked on amongst yourselfs? How long have the programmers been programming, the artists been drawing or modelling or what not? What's the largest team you've ever worked on? Was it via the internet or in person? Will this project be? Et cetera. ;jpetrie said:The "major challenge" is that it is basically impossible for you to actually make an MMO. That first M means something. You can make a multiplayer online game, certainly; but if you have to ask the kinds of questions you are asking, you will never be able to achieve the 'massive' part with your current level of experience.You are absolutely right.  The idea behind what we are trying to do, is phase everything.  We all know that we are not going to have a MMO right out of the gate, it will take years to create.  Starting with just 'MO' phases is what we have planned.  Several small multi-player games that will find their way into coming together.What we are looking to get from here, is advice from those who have developed an MMO from scratch to finish, comments from those who are currently in the development process.  What were some of the experiences you're going through, some of the challenges you had to overcome.  What questions do we need to investigate?  Did you break your idea into phases?  Did you start off making a multiplayer online game and work it into MMO?  What sources did you use?Currently, we have been looking over at IGDA, getting into a chapter in our local community surrounding ourselves around others who have the same interest in gaming as we do.  Programmers and artists have 5+ years experience, all have worked on different levels/sizes of teams.  This will be our first game together.   ;  In looking for my obligatory indie MMORPG link, I stumbled across this old post that might be useful.   ;  Those were great reads.  Through them I have realized that I myself, and not quite prepared for making a MMO.  I have been programming in PHP for about 6-7 years know I have the learning curve needed to transition that sort of programming into game development.  That's why I wanted to start off making an online text based mmo, such as a Basketball Team Management system (which I have posted in these forums here)  As I have been going through writing down all the different aspects I think a basketball game would involve I begin to realize how big this really is. I will continue to work on it here and there, but I have comprehended that I should probably get a few more simplistic games under my belt before I just dive right in.  I did what most books recommend, and that is make a TicTacToe game which once I get more time to finish the game, I will write a brief tut on and integrate php and ajax to make it multiplayer.(dhtml/css/&#106avascript is all that is implemneted now) (I can do better with the A.I.).  Next I want to make a one on one basketball game scenario that runs off of stats you give a player (most of the stats I posted in the forum I linked above is what I am thinking of using).Anyway, I started babbling.  Thanks for the posts, and any guidance, push in the right direction that would help better my skills, knowledge, and common sense in ultimately creating an MMO would be greatly appreciated.I linked this post and those other forum posts you recommended me on NGP forums.   ;  Number 1 thought that occurs to me for you guys to ask yourself.  "Why do we want to make an MMO and what do we have to gain also what do we have to lose"?  If you all want to tell a story, especially one with a lot of depth, a MMO might not be the right goal.  Not that stories can't be done in a MMO, but just consider that the majority of MMOs focus on character development and about being the best.  With emphasis on acquiring rare items, having high levels and scores, and doing achievements.  Most of them are developed around this principle and caters to that kind of mentality.  Even if there is a bunch of lore and easter eggs hidden around the game.Ok, so assuming you answer those questions, and still want to make an MMO.  The next step after that is a full blown design document.  It doesn't have to be final in the sense it's concrete, but it needs to be comprehensive and leave little doubt to how the game is supposed to feel and progress.  Whether it ends up that way is up to you and your team.After the design document, the next step would be to assess your groups skills and collect what experience everyone has.  You then need to start using their knowledge to come to agreements on basic technical decisions.  Make a basic technical document.  Decide on what language do we want to program our game in, what libraries are out there that can make our work a lot easier?  Also assess what skills are we currently lacking or need more experience in.  If you're making an MMO, this will probably be networking, you'll need someone who really knows what they're doing.Once you have a basic technical document then start hashing out what kind of work needs to be done for art, programming and etc.  Especially programming, start breaking down everything into smaller tasks and modules.  Start making technical designs for things like GUI, File handling (such as managing files, packages and etc), Scripting, and etc.Now if you haven't given up yet to this point, you should more or less know what you have to do to make this game work.  That's the truth of the matter, and these set of steps can be used for almost any kind of project.Edit: A few minor error fixes.   