About A Flash Mmo I'm Developing

[dahamugo]

First things first, because I feel that this has to be said, I am indeed aware of just how much trouble the development of an actual Flash MMO game is going to take, but I am quite sure that, for the magnitude I am expecting the game to have early on, I am up to the task.

With that off my chest, I can begin talking about what I am here for. The thing is, after about 5 years of working around with Flash, I finally felt like I was ready to work on what I had been for so long wanting to develop. A full-sized Flash MMORPG.

Now, of course, the most normal thing to think after hearing that, is that doing such a thing is nearly impossible, and not worth a try when you don't have the resources it takes to develop what is surely going to be an expensive production, at least if it is to be a decent one. However, as I said early on, I do not expect this to be a massive production nor anything similar, for a long time. The idea is to develop something small, and as it works out (if it does) , develop it even further. Where it will stop, just how good it is gonna end, of course, is something that cannot be foretold, but as the dreamer I am, I have some seriously good expectations about this game.

But, why am I talking about this around here, you ask. Well, it's probably kind of obvious that what I am looking for, when coming here, is help. Because, no matter how much experience I have, how slowly I want to take on things or just how much faith I have, I can't produce something like this on my own.
I don't know about you, but if it was I that was reading this, what I would think was that I was just some guy who had this idea, and now wanted other people to do his work for him. I've seen that happening far too many times in the past. But that is not the case in here, for I can and will be developing most of the game by myself.
Thus far, what I have done includes planning on the game (which means about 3 or 4 notebooks full of formulas regarding game mechanics) and developing a kinda nice user interface. I'm very proud of what I've done with the graphics system of the game, which will be working around and isometric point of view that can be rotated (which means you can be seeing things from 4 different points of view). That engine is nearly complete by now, and the only reason I even came here, was because I had some of it to show.
You see, after studying a little about XML Socket connections, and all that comes with it, I managed to make an environment where you can walk around with a character on this graphics engine and see other people around (By this point of the text, I'd ask you to pardon me for such the lame writing stile, but I'm just not very imaginative right now). So, what I did was make a small recording of this being used, so you can take a look at it.
If you want, you can check it out at . You'll have to excuse me for the several mistakes I made around at the video, but turns out I wasn't as prepared as I tough when I began recording it, but you can get the idea of the video.
On the video, you'll only see as much as two different players logged in at once, but by the time of this writing, we managed to have as much as six different players around with no problems at all.

Well, hopefully, the video managed to catch you attention, and maybe even made you feeling like helping out on this. At least that was the whole point of its existence. So, I'll start talking of exactly what I need in terms of help. I'm dealing with most of the planning and coding of the game and a friend of mine (the one who showed up at the video) is maintaining a server for the game. What I need, however, is someone who would work with the graphics of the game, because at that I just plainly suck (the character you saw at the movie was actually "stolen" from a GBA game that also used an isometric point of view), someone to deal with the audio part (because I'm quite clueless on that aspect) and anyone else who believed to be able to give some needed help.

Not wanting to talk much more (and because I feel like what I just wrote just plain sucks, in terms of structuring and choices of words), I'll just ask anyone interested in helping to send my a message here (on newgrounds) and preferably a mail to [e-mail] , if possible with some sort of sample of what you could do.

With no more to say, I thank in advance for any answer, and say goodbye.
Sincerely, Dahamugo.http://www.dahamugo.com/sample

[dahamugo]

Well, seems like I screwed up on the first post (damn you, no preview of post). The link to the video that was supposed to be in the midle of the text ended up down in the end...

[ProfessorFlash]

Flash games should be simple and fun. RPG's fail instantly.

[jmtb02]

At 1/24/08 07:22 PM, ProfessorFlash wrote: Flash games should be simple and fun. RPG's fail instantly.

That's not why he's here, and that's really not true. Sonny recently came out and works really well, and is really popular. His engine actually looks somewhat developed, if you took the time to look at it.

[willobeen]

learn AS (sorta easy) PHP (harder, but still easy) and have some fucking amazing art and you'll be able to do it.

[BitchWeed]

At 1/24/08 07:22 PM, ProfessorFlash wrote: Flash games should be simple and fun. RPG's fail instantly.

That's not true. Fish-eyed, misanthropic Newgrounds users can't get enough of RPGs, from what I've seen. Even the ones with poor graphics tend to do exceptionally well.

Good luck with your project. :D

[criticalhammer1]

At 1/24/08 07:22 PM, ProfessorFlash wrote: Flash games should be simple and fun. RPG's fail instantly.

yes you could easily cash in on great simple creative games like Alien Hominid and Orbita

[black-raven]

At 1/24/08 07:26 PM, willobeen wrote: learn AS (sorta easy) PHP (harder, but still easy) and have some fucking amazing art and you'll be able to do it.

looking at his preview i think he already knows it...
this is the first mmorpg post that actually makes sense and where someone can see that it has promiss.

to bad i'm not that great of an artist else i would help :)

[Skeik-Sprite]

At 1/24/08 07:47 PM, criticalhammer1 wrote:

At 1/24/08 07:22 PM, ProfessorFlash wrote: Flash games should be simple and fun. RPG's fail instantly.

yes you could easily cash in on great simple creative games like Alien Hominid and Orbita

Alien Hominid is anything but simple.

[MrCryBaby]

Good Progress,I hope it's a big hit!

[dahamugo]

Oh my god, generally positive feedback, and even an mail sent. What else could I ask for? Guess I iwll proceed to making comments on posts made...

For him who said Flash RPGs are insant fails, I can only have pity. For he is clearly one who does not realize the full potential of Flash-

For him who recommended me to use AS3 instead of XML, I'd like to ask just why he thinks that is a better idea. I'm currently running the game with Palabre, a free XML Socket server.

And for those who just added some generally positive feedback, I thank you.

Sincerely, Dahamugo

[ProfessorFlash]

At 1/25/08 04:59 PM, dahamugo wrote: For him who said Flash RPGs are insant fails, I can only have pity. For he is clearly one who does not realize the full potential of Flash-

I didnt say you couldnt make one. You can make super cool rpgs. I was saying that it's a waste of time. You won't get enough success compared to the time and effort you put into the game. I feel pity for you for you have such high hopes and you will be so disappointed. It makes me sad knowing what the future holds for you.

[dahamugo]

At 1/25/08 05:06 PM, ProfessorFlash wrote:

At 1/25/08 04:59 PM, dahamugo wrote: For him who said Flash RPGs are insant fails, I can only have pity. For he is clearly one who does not realize the full potential of Flash-

I didnt say you couldnt make one. You can make super cool rpgs. I was saying that it's a waste of time. You won't get enough success compared to the time and effort you put into the game. I feel pity for you for you have such high hopes and you will be so disappointed. It makes me sad knowing what the future holds for you.

By just how rewarding developing what I have already done, I can surely tell that it is by no means a waste of time. I am the kind of person that develops games that I'd like to play. If anyone else wants to play it, and even likes it, great.
Also, I tough I had left quite clear I had no really big hopes on this project. I'll just keep working on it, and whatever happens, I'll be glad. There will be, I assure you, no disppointment from my part, not towards this game at least. There is absolutely no reason to feel pity for me.
Of course, you can still think that I'll just end up with a lot of work worth nothing, but as long as this game ends up existing somewhere in the future, I'm happy.

Sincerely, Dahamugo.

[Wurmy]

That looks really cool O.o
Who knows if you'll be able to make it in the end, but good luck anyways.

Also a tip or two..
Personally I'd rather have the newer messages come at the bottom instead of the top (but that's just me). That and to record your movie I would use CamStudio. It's free, open source, etc.. no watermark (like the hypervideo thingy) and you can automatically export to swf (although I'd rather do it myself <-<)

Well.. I'd say your off to a very good start. When I saw this thread I was about to just go and 'flame' and tell you how it's so hard etc.. And I'm sure that other people may have though this too.. Very nice video though, shows you know what you're doing (At least how to get some basic sockets n stuff going)..

Good luck though. I'm no artist so I can't really help you there.. but I guess I'm always available to help with ... something <-< ... man I was so ready to type out a giant 'you're-never-going-to-be-able-to-make-t his-start-small-etc...' reply.. Yep..

Good luck, hope you find somebody to help you with the art.

[dahamugo]

At 1/25/08 06:25 PM, Wurmy1029 wrote: That looks really cool O.o
Who knows if you'll be able to make it in the end, but good luck anyways.

Also a tip or two..
Personally I'd rather have the newer messages come at the bottom instead of the top (but that's just me). That and to record your movie I would use CamStudio. It's free, open source, etc.. no watermark (like the hypervideo thingy) and you can automatically export to swf (although I'd rather do it myself <-<)

Well.. I'd say your off to a very good start. When I saw this thread I was about to just go and 'flame' and tell you how it's so hard etc.. And I'm sure that other people may have though this too.. Very nice video though, shows you know what you're doing (At least how to get some basic sockets n stuff going)..

Good luck though. I'm no artist so I can't really help you there.. but I guess I'm always available to help with ... something <-< ... man I was so ready to type out a giant 'you're-never-going-to-be-able-to-make-t his-start-small-etc...' reply.. Yep..

Good luck, hope you find somebody to help you with the art.

Wow, even more positive feedback. Just how great is that?
But, yeah, I expected people to come in flaming if I just said that I wanted to develop an MMO, but thankfully, I had something developed to show up. Lucky me, huh?
Well, I'm still hoping I find an artist or two, just gotta keep my hopes up.

[GuyWithHisComp]

At 1/24/08 07:26 PM, willobeen wrote: learn AS (sorta easy) PHP (harder, but still easy)

You're kidding, right?
Atleast I'd say it's the other way around.
PHP is really easy and ActionScript is harder (atleast when you get in to more complicate stuff)

Maybe that's because I did AS before PHP but I still think PHP is much easier.
kthxbai.

[KaynSlamdyke]

At 1/24/08 07:19 PM, dahamugo wrote: What I need, however, is someone who would work with the graphics of the game, because at that I just plainly suck...

I'll link this thread to some of my non-NG artist buddies. See if it gets a response out of them.

[dahamugo]

At 1/25/08 06:46 PM, KaynSlamdyke wrote:

At 1/24/08 07:19 PM, dahamugo wrote: What I need, however, is someone who would work with the graphics of the game, because at that I just plainly suck...

I'll link this thread to some of my non-NG artist buddies. See if it gets a response out of them.

Wow, wouldn't it be ever so great if that worked out?

[dahamugo]

At 1/25/08 07:43 PM, LCurtis wrote: I suggested using AS3 as it is generally faster than AS2 and for an MMORPG speed may end up being a problem. Also, the socket class would allow you to save bandwidth compared with XML since XML passes a lot of pretty useless data. But, if your server is dependent on XML then I guess that doesnt help much.

Anyway, good luck.

Well, even tough I never even tried to mess around with AS3, that does sound interesting. However, I do not know just what kind of server I'd have to use with the socket class.

[wasb]

looks great can you PM me when its done (or if you need a beta tester email me at [e-mail])

[dahamugo]

At 1/25/08 08:17 PM, wasb wrote: looks great can you PM me when its done (or if you need a beta tester email me at [e-mail])

Heh, it's still gonna take quite a while until it is complete, or even until there is anything worth beta testing.

[gsquare567]

holy shit. i thot u were bluffing. thats serious shit. didnt know it was even possible, but i guess i don't know enough about flash yet.

some serious shit there, i definately cant do that yet. i think u've passed the hardest part already, just connecting the clients to a server is hard. its a very big project tho, especially to do alone. i'm sure once u release it you can hire people. ur in da money man!

[dahamugo]

At 1/25/08 08:23 PM, gsquare567 wrote: holy shit. i thot u were bluffing. thats serious shit. didnt know it was even possible, but i guess i don't know enough about flash yet.

some serious shit there, i definately cant do that yet. i think u've passed the hardest part already, just connecting the clients to a server is hard. its a very big project tho, especially to do alone. i'm sure once u release it you can hire people. ur in da money man!

Well, the hardest - and longest - part is yet to come. Adding content. As difficult as developing the engine might be, it is nothing when compared to just how time consuming adding the actual content to the engine is gonna be. And you're right, it Is too big to do alone, and that's pretty much why I'm here.

[black-raven]

answering to the one who thinks this is a big waste of time... isn't every unsponsored flash a big waste of time... something like that is called a hobby.

what is the benefit of collecting post stamps... that's a big waste of time 2,
or living in general... because in the end u die... see what i mean,

creating stuff is very rewarding and it teaches u to value other peoples work and it learns u stuff, wich u can use in your carreer...
in comparison to collecting post stamps, doing flash games and animation is usefull, u can develop your self as a add designer and a webdesigner and all other sorts of stuff. wich can make money next to the dailly job... so making a game that is hard works and lots of practice sure isn't a waste of time, sorry if this isn't really on topic but i just needed to say that :p

[dahamugo]

At 1/25/08 08:29 PM, black-raven wrote: answering to the one who thinks this is a big waste of time... isn't every unsponsored flash a big waste of time... something like that is called a hobby.

what is the benefit of collecting post stamps... that's a big waste of time 2,
or living in general... because in the end u die... see what i mean,

creating stuff is very rewarding and it teaches u to value other peoples work and it learns u stuff, wich u can use in your carreer...
in comparison to collecting post stamps, doing flash games and animation is usefull, u can develop your self as a add designer and a webdesigner and all other sorts of stuff. wich can make money next to the dailly job... so making a game that is hard works and lots of practice sure isn't a waste of time, sorry if this isn't really on topic but i just needed to say that :p

Despite the typing and grammar errors, this post has a very, very nice point. Truth is, the main reason for me to be doing this, is the simple fact that I like doing it, nothing else.

[DarkScythes]

At 1/25/08 08:33 PM, dahamugo wrote:

At 1/25/08 08:29 PM, black-raven wrote: answering to the one who thinks this is a big waste of time... isn't every unsponsored flash a big waste of time... something like that is called a hobby.

what is the benefit of collecting post stamps... that's a big waste of time 2,
or living in general... because in the end u die... see what i mean,

creating stuff is very rewarding and it teaches u to value other peoples work and it learns u stuff, wich u can use in your carreer...
in comparison to collecting post stamps, doing flash games and animation is usefull, u can develop your self as a add designer and a webdesigner and all other sorts of stuff. wich can make money next to the dailly job... so making a game that is hard works and lots of practice sure isn't a waste of time, sorry if this isn't really on topic but i just needed to say that :p

Despite the typing and grammar errors, this post has a very, very nice point. Truth is, the main reason for me to be doing this, is the simple fact that I like doing it, nothing else.

not only that but think of the cash this could real in if it makes it big(hate to be the capitalist fag ;D ). I'm emailing you, I'm good with graphics I'd say, and I can animate decently well. With about a half month of practice I could probably get into the style you need for the game. (considering it could be totally different than what I'm used to).

I'll show you my work in the mail.
also, do you have an msn? aim even? .....yahoo..?

[dahamugo]

Well, I do not have much more to say right now, but I guesses I'd just try and keep this topic higher up for a while. Still hoping to catch someone's attention.

[dahamugo]

At 1/26/08 05:06 PM, Psycho wrote: Wow, that video looks brilliant. I'd really like a chance to test this game myself :P

Well, I'm just currently reluctant to let anyone to try it out just beacuse I'm afraid of someone stealing the work I have already done....

[black-raven]

that's a good desision :)

and sorry for the grammar faults english is not my native language.
anyways i'm sure psycho won't steal anything because else he would turn himself into a hypocrite(i always see him (rightfully) acuse people of ripping of codes and stuff.)
but still beter save then sorry, next to that i don't really see any interesting u could find out by testing it then seeing it be done in the video,

[StolenOne]

wow! ive never seen anything like this before in flash! good luck, and i hope it gets completed, because i would definately play it! im more of an artist/animator, and im still developing my skills, but if you need any help, id be glad to help!