   The Makeup of a Game (MMORPG)
  Hey all this thread is stricly theretical information and i have various questions that need to be answered and im hoping to compile it at the end into a usefull resorce.If in theory i would like to create a game i know i would need the following parts but shoot me where im misssing parts.Elements of a Game ProductionDesign Document & Artwork1 # Website - Pages - Home , About , Downloads , Guide , Account , Artwork , Community Customer Care , Payment help , FAQ.Programming FrameworkPaper based ideas ( design document for programming ?)Games Engine - Artificial Intelligence- Loading- Displaying- Animating models- Collision detection between objects- Culling- Physic's input- Graphical user interfaces- Networking- 3D Sound- Multi-Platform Development - Multi-Thread Processor Development Game Content - Specific models and textures- Meaning behind object collisions and input- Objects interact with the worldAPI ( Application Programming Interface )Sdk Tools (Software Development Kit)PolishFurther QuestionsQuestionsMy main questions are how to break this down further ?What parts of creating a game am i missing ?Games Engine- I'm belive i would need to create a C++ based engine, The theroy would be based on planing on making any 3D game. I'm also aware that many developers will write there own engines, but I’m not nearly advanced enough yet programming wise to know where to even begin with something like that. (though I do plan to understand programming better eventually). What are the limitations for a releasing or distributing process.including Copyright ?What kind of server power would you require for 2000 users ?i only understand the model and level design in an SDK format such as Steam ( halflife , Team Fortress) and creating models in software such as Autodesk 3D max. Im currently learning crating websites.I know this sounds rather impossable due to financial inplications aswell as code but please bear with me and lend me your time to create a layout a view of what it would take, Thank you for your time i look forward to your critism on the subject.Thankyou  Neil[Edited by - Zerox01 on September 2, 2008 11:57:02 AM]
  Neil, you wrote:>this thread is stricly [sic] theretical [sic] information and i [sic] have various questions that need to be answered and im [sic] hoping to compile it at the end into a usefull [sic] resorce [sic].>I know this sounds rather impossable [sic]  due to financial inplications [sic] but im [sic] just trying to layout [sic] a view of what it would take,The second statement belies the first. Compiling theoretical information to create a resource doesn't cost anything. It sounds like you're actually putting together a plan for your own project, and you're hoping helpful posters will spoonfeed you everything from scratch so you don't have to do any actual reading.  "A view of what it would take" to create an MMORPG is surely already out there. Just look at postmortems, articles, news items, and public company records.;  Quote : The second statement belies the first. Compiling theoretical information to create a resource doesn't cost anything. It sounds like you're actually putting together a plan for your own project, and you're hoping helpful posters will spoonfeed you everything from scratch so you don't have to do any actual reading.Hello Sorry if i made my intentions unclear im creating this thread to gain additional information to what i already am reaserching. I do plan to make my own project over the period of 6 years but this purpose of this thread is stricly informative for other users askng the same questions and should contribute to prevent a build up of further " how do i make a mmorpg " topicsI have recently updated the Top post as i will continue to do so over the cource of the thread, if im breaking any rules could a mod pm m with outlines of how to stay within the rules with this type of thread.To Continue : As it is clear that the programming if a massive part of this i would like to devide it into sections. After more reasearch i have managed to break down the information you have given to find a much better search result and vast information. I will Split Games enignes into Engine and content to make this easyer to understand ( later ill ad a small description in detail )I have also decided the type of route for the Games engine to follow using Roll-your-own game engines (Bespoke). Despite the cost, and many mainstream companies causing massive competition. This means the use of publicly available application interfaces, such as APIs like XNA, DirectX, OpenGL, the Windows and Linux APIs and SDL, to create an engines.Programming FrameworkPaper based ideas ( design document for programming ?)Games Engine -Artificial Intelligence-Loading-Displaying-Animating models-Collision detection between objects-Physic's input-Graphical user interfacesGame Content -specific models and textures-meaning behind object collisions and input-objects interact with the worldAPI ( Application Programming Interface )Sdk Tools (Software Development Kit)PolishFurther Questions:   ;  To be fair, there is no all-encompassing document to describe the breadth of producing a commercial computer program. There are more than just the internals of the program itself as has been hinted at in the list.I can certainly add to it, although many of the elements you have already specified are not required as you clearly don't understand the meaning of much of what you have listed, not that I do either. I've removed many of the bits that are redundant, too specific, or otherwise not appropriate for the list. For example, Displaying/Culling are conceptually the same framework, while Loading doesn't have its own special loading framework. This is something that's developed based on implementation requirements. But what do I know *shrug*Elements of a Game ProductionProject Management - Design Document- Project Management Planning- Project Management Tracking- Network architecture (how machines are connected and why)- Emergency Planning- LicensingDevelopment Environment- Version Control- Change Log- Build process- 3rd Party Libraries (see Frameworks) System Administration- Network topology- Security- Redundancy- Fault-tolerance- Resource requirementsCreative Assets (i'm not all that familiar)- Concept Art / Preproduction art- 3d Template Artwork- Textures- Skinning- Icons(Other creative related processes)Website (this isn't even worth mentioning IMO)- Home - About- Downloads- Guide- Account- FAQ.Programming Frameworks- DAO- GUI- AI- Animation- Collision detection- Culling- Physics- Networking- Sound   ;  Thankyou for your constructive and organised comment, that is the sort of thing im looking to do , an i do find myself learning as i go,Could anyone see additional parts that would be required.   ;  Before you can decide precisely what components and resources you will need, you MUST design your game first. I suspect you'll also be surprised at just how few alleged MMORPGs actually pay anything other than lip-service to the "RP" part.FYI: One of the most successful, long-lived MMOGs is Runescape. This is not, in fact, an MMORPG as this page listing all their available "worlds" attests: at the time I wrote this post, of 169 available worlds, a grand total of, er, one, was set aside for actual "Role-playing". The game's design and core mechanics should give away the reasons for this very quickly. (There is a "free" mode, though you'll need to create a free account first.)If you genuinely want to create an *actual* role-playing game that adheres to the spirit of the older table-top forms, you're going to find it very difficult. Nobody has managed to create such a thing on a computer successfully as yet. Even WoW is, like Runescape, a grinding, stats-centric engine with fighting.Not there's anything inherently *wrong* with these approaches. But you should be aware that getting the role-play element into an MMORPG is most emphatically not a known science. Even the big guns have problems pulling off anything more than a massively multiplayer Gauntlet clone with added management sim elements. It's those management sim elements -- all those stats, experience points, etc. -- that gamers tend to 'play'. This is a holdover from the early days of tabletop RPGs, when their earlier tabletop wargaming ancestry was clear: the stats were needed to resolve fights and skirmishes using preset formulae from the rule-book, dice and, if available, calculators. (Personal computers did not exist back then.)Later table-top RPGs have moved away from such formula-based stat-management mechanics. Greg Costikyan's Paranoia is one example. That computer-based RPGs continue to pointlessly expose statistics as if these are the _point_ of the game is a clear indication of the paucity of originality in this sector of the games industry.   ;  Thank you for your post as to the design , i have this clear in mind am already constructing a Detailed Design document that i expect will reach over 200 pages.as regards to role play you are right in that i am unaware of the makeup of allot of games out there. But as regard to the idea basis of this project there will be a lot of Ai and interaction between players - Ai charicters within the game.For now the i would like to focus on the missing parts of my current list as follows and if people could reply to the following questions.Project Management - Paper based ideas (Storyline, Brief overview )- Design Document for Design (Game Concept Ect)- Design Document for Programming ( Goal Document)- Project Management Planning- Project Management Tracking- Network architecture (how machines are connected and why)- Emergency Planning- LicensingConcept Work- Concept Art / Preproduction art- 3d Template Artwork- Textures- Skinning- Icons(Other creative related processes)Programming Framework's- DAO- GUI- AI- Animation- Collision detection- Culling- Physics- Networking- SoundGames Engine - The Renderer- Loading / Displaying- Culling (occlusion and fulstrum culling)- Level Of Detail System- Physic's input- 3D Sound- Artificial Intelligence ( Genrally Game Content )- Networking - Level Design- Model/Character Creation- Level Creation- Objects interacting with world <- Scriping, Physics Engine should take care of most of itUnplaced Parts of Game Design- Animating models- Collision detection between objects- Graphical user interfaces- Interactive graphics (this is ultra-advanced stuff)- Antialiasing- Object tracking and lifetime- Multi-Platform Development - Multi-Thread Processor Development - Patch's & How to manageCan Anyone help put these into an order ?Other Seperate Issues From the Game EngineWebsite (Currently being Put asside once Info gathered)- Home - About- Downloads- Guide- Account- FAQ.- Artwork - Community Customer Care - Payment help , Copright- Product- Website - Insignia charicters when creating a website based on this game concept what type of programming should be implimented for the best results , HTML + PHP ?ServerQuestions What is involved in the creation of a server ?What kind of server power would you require for 2000+ users ?How will this react to the game engine ?What parts of the game as a whole has i missed ?;Quote:Original post by Zerox01Can Anyone help put these into an order ?First, break your document up into at least three separate documents.The Game Design Document will detail your story, your lore, your game mechanics, the controls and interface, and all the intangible things that make the game fun. This document should be written by the Game Designer.The Technical Design Document will deal with the complicated details of how it will actually be implemented. This is where all the stuff about APIs and SDKs and client server architecture belongs. This document can only really be written by people who know how these things work. If you have technical people on your team who can write it, then leave it to them; if this is strictly a solo project then the best alternative is to scale down your technical requirements to something you can do yourself. (In fact, I recommend scaling back anyway; it's infinitely better to start with something simple but functional and grow it than to start with a monolithic GDD for a WoW beating MMORPG and no idea how to actually implement it)Finally, there's the Media Design Document which details the look and feel of the game, in terms of artwork, visual style, sound effects etc. This needs to be done by someone with a decent vision of the game and the artistic ability to produce concept art and samples, which could be the designer or more likely, a lead artist.Note that all three documents are all interdependent on each other; there needs to be continual communication between the developers of each one to ensure that all the needs of the game are met.Quote:when creating a website based on this game concept what type of programming should be implimented for the best results , HTML + PHP ?Whichever one you (or your web developer) can produce the best results with. Quote:What kind of server power would you require for 2000+ users ?It depends on the server side code, the quality of the network code, and the amount of load each user will demand. Start with two users, and grow it from there.   