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For the past two years I have been co-designing a free to play 2D MMORPG whose name I am keeping private for the moment.

The game is probably 4 months away from a closed, invite-only Alpha build, and as the title suggests, I want to test the waters to gauge interest in a game such as this.

I will be putting up Threads about the game over the coming months to ask certain questions and see various opinions.

First off, I didn't know whether to put this in the video game section or here, so if needs to be moved, please do.




Okay, let go over SOME of the features that the game should have for it's release.

- The game is a 2D Fantasy MMORPG. Think perspective as Secret of Mana, Legend of Zelda. It is a basic sprite based game.

- The game has, for all intent and purposes, 60+ unique Professions to choose from. All Professions will be balanced with each other. One class, the Jester, launches nailed filled pies at their enemies, or slick the ground with oil to run away! Another Profession, the bounty hunter, is made to hunt players of certain races and professions, so if all the top tier players are Jesters, Bounty Hunters remedy that by countering them. Players basically self police themselves...

- There is equal attention given to the three major schools of rpg gamers; PvE, PvP and Crafting. You can level to end game doing any other those three. That means you can craft from level 1 - 50 just like you could if you bashed monsters all day.

- The crafting system is a hybrid mix of Star Wars Galaxy's awesome, deep and complex crafting system and mini games. When you craft an item, you literally have to craft it, instead of waiting for a bar to crawl by.

- Crafter Economy. The game's economy will be run by the players, for the most part. Crafters can make anything from swords, to houses, to mechanical chicken pets.

- There is a Retroactive Leveling system, so that if you are level 45, and want to play with friends in a level 25ish area, your character is scaled back to match and you can join your friends. This way, you can enjoy new content for the game at any level, at any time.

- Players will be able to elect players as "kings" or "Mayors" of their faction, which in turn help out all players for that faction. If you promised certain things during your campaign, don't renege on those promises, otherwise you may be hung at the gallows!

- Player owned housing and zoos, for all those critters and trophies you collect.




I know MMORPGs are a dime a dozen, and I know this place isn't exactly the best place to see interest in one, but I would just like to see if any mmo or old school players out there would be interested in a game like this, but I care what my fellow wargamers think!

Here are some pictures of the game so far just to see if this kind of game art/style is your cup of tea.

The 60 classes thing seems a tad much but I would give it a go.

Reminds me of, among others, Sacred Seasons.

Since I'm not a big MMO fan, I'd have to say not interested. But best of luck!

corpsesarefun wrote:The 60 classes thing seems a tad much but I would give it a go.

Yeah, technically there are 5 classes, and from those 5 classes you have 60 professions, ranging from Necromancers to Juggernauts. Hard to explain just yet lol

biccat wrote:Reminds me of, among others, Sacred Seasons.

Since I'm not a big MMO fan, I'd have to say not interested. But best of luck!

Yeah, Sacred Seasons is a turn based game. The game I am working on is real time, like legend of zelda.

Thank you very much for the kind words!

A 2D MMO? Sounds interesting, I may check this out.

No.

But I don't like the idea because its a MMORPG. I buy 2D games more often than I buy 3D.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
On second thought, this sounds a lot cooler than most MMORPGs.

If there are enough factions and the factions system works in a way that gets Massively Multiplayer Politics going, (and I can make it run on my system) I'll give it a try.

You had me at "MMO Secret of Mana".

I played games before Secret of Mana, but I wasn't a Gamer until I saved the Elemental Sprites and road on Flamey.

Gah, I need to dig that game up again.

And remembering it made me realize how much I hate the ending

Requia wrote:If there are enough factions and the factions system works in a way that gets Massively Multiplayer Politics going, (and I can make it run on my system) I'll give it a try.

There are two Factions at the start. We are keeping it simple for now, nothing crazy. But there are also plenty of NPC factions that you may or may not get along with.

There will also be large scale battle fields for the PvP players, and this will include taking over key structures, defending those structures, diverting rivers to flood enemy towns, burn down trees in an enemy held area so their crafters cannot farm wood for a few days, etc...

We do plan in future expansions to add new factions, so that the games of politics can grow further, but that would be years from now.

Slarg232 wrote:You had me at "MMO Secret of Mana".

Yeah, this game isn't going to be as polished as a console game with a budget, but it plays in the same vein.

We have only a staff of 4 people working on the game full time. lol. But we've been at it since 2009, and it is almost ready for a test run by the public.

BuFFo wrote:

Slarg232 wrote:You had me at "MMO Secret of Mana".

Yeah, this game isn't going to be as polished as a console game with a budget, but it plays in the same vein.

We have only a staff of 4 people working on the game full time. lol. But we've been at it since 2009, and it is almost ready for a test run by the public.

Fair enough, but I rather enjoyed Secret of Mana, enough to where I am definately willing to help test this game for ya

BuFFo wrote:

biccat wrote:Reminds me of, among others, Sacred Seasons.

Since I'm not a big MMO fan, I'd have to say not interested. But best of luck!

Yeah, Sacred Seasons is a turn based game. The game I am working on is real time, like legend of zelda.

Thank you very much for the kind words!

Well, among other things, you said that MMOs are a dime a dozen. I'm sure there are other sprite-based 2D MMOs out there, so you will need to distinguish yourself in some way.

Graphics and gameplay are simply one aspect of the game, a much more difficult challenge is making the game challenging but still enjoyable. You need to have a way to keep people interested as they level up, but also keep them around for the end game. I've been coding and building MUDs (the precursors to MMOs) for over ten years, and the coding is definitely the easy part

Attracting and keeping players is far more difficult than getting an engine up and running. If you're going to charge people to play (and I assume that's the point), you also need to figure out how that is going to work, without people getting frustrated.

Anyway, just offered as some helpful advice. I'm sure that your team has been over these issues.

Sooooo....you spent two year hammering away on RPG maker XP? I must admit, I got bored of that program after three days. Kudos for sticking at it if nothing else.

Defintely interested Buffo although did vote option 2, would have to see/play more before a final judgement.

I would be interested in this. I think option 2 best fits my idea's of the game.

Ketara wrote:Sooooo....you spent two year hammering away on RPG maker XP? I must admit, I got bored of that program after three days. Kudos for sticking at it if nothing else.

This.

It actually sounds interesting. I like the idea of the Jesters.

Fantasy...

"shakes head"

Slarg232 wrote:Fair enough, but I rather enjoyed Secret of Mana, enough to where I am definately willing to help test this game for ya

The day we open our servers to a private few for testing, you're in.

biccat wrote:Anyway, just offered as some helpful advice. I'm sure that your team has been over these issues.

We have, but I am always welcome to read what other people have to say on this subject. The game is the culmination of dozens of people who have joined and left the team, all contributing in their own way. Without hearing the opinions of others, the game would not be where it is now.

Thanks!

Ketara wrote:Sooooo....you spent two year hammering away on RPG maker XP? I must admit, I got bored of that program after three days. Kudos for sticking at it if nothing else.

lol

The coding is 100% scratch made. We didn't buy a pre painted marine and paint over it... We created our own figures

Soladrin wrote:Fantasy...

"shakes head"

ROBOT HOUSE!!!!!

In all fairness, the next project we work on will most likely be Sci-Fi...

It would appear that, outside of not caring for MMO's, people are open to the idea so the question is going to be one of execution.

The 2D is fine, its more the gameplay and communtiy that will make it for me.

BuFFo wrote:

Slarg232 wrote:Fair enough, but I rather enjoyed Secret of Mana, enough to where I am definately willing to help test this game for ya

The day we open our servers to a private few for testing, you're in.

SAWEEEET roll for Fimion!

Ill help test if theres a place for me, but with school and that i wont be able to rack up too many hours...

If any of you are familiar with how Crafting was handled in Star Wars Galaxy, that is the model we are using.

BuFFo wrote:If any of you are familiar with how Crafting was handled in Star Wars Galaxy, that is the model we are using.

Could you explain it a tiny about it for those of us who don't know?

I'm always looking for something new. I'm a big fan of 2d sprite animation. I'd definitely be interested to play it.

Slarg232 wrote:

BuFFo wrote:If any of you are familiar with how Crafting was handled in Star Wars Galaxy, that is the model we are using.

Could you explain it a tiny about it for those of us who don't know?

I don't mean to cop out, but I saw your response right before heading to bed... Later today I'll answer you, sure