Original Post
Hi all. I want to develop a web based multiplayer fantasy strategy game. I’m a college student with a few programming classes under my belt. I’ve had two C++ classes and two Java. I expect to undergo a step by step learning process, probably making many simpler games to test various programming areas that the big project will require. Here’s a rough overview of what will be involved. The game will include an entire fantasy world, with several continents and many nations. The map will consist of various shaped provinces, probably in the hundreds. There will be different terrain types as well as “locations” in the provinces. A location can be a city, dungeon, etc. A city, for example, will be associated with a particular nation or possibly independent. It will contain various sites, such as guilds, barracks, taverns, as well as many characters. Some characters and sites will be player owned and others will be computer controlled. Players will control a “position” which includes starting characters, as well as any characters they’ve recruited and sites or locations which they’ve taken over. The game will include certain factions which will each have their own victory conditions. Most nations will be factions as well. Players who qualify can join a faction and attempt to win by achieving its victory requirements. Some of you may recognize the inspiration of Legends; a play-by-mail game which started in the early 90’s and is still going. I played it briefly in 1993 and never forgot it. My first stage is designing the world. This involves no programming, just creative brainstorming. I plan to make the map first and use it for inspiration, so I’m learning GIMP. Graphics skill will also enable me to make any other needed sprites and images for the game. With an attractive map available, I can create cultures, nations, various magic systems and pantheons, etc. Hell, even if the game doesn’t work, maybe I could write some fiction based in the world! The game would preferably be playable in a browser with no downloads required but I understand that the complexity of the game makes that very unlikely. I just need to get an idea of what software package(s) would be the best choice for developing the game. Is the complexity too high for Java to be practical? I understand that the JVM can get pretty slow for big applications. I know I’ll need some kind of client/server setup, and probably scripting for the AI. I’m looking for good prices, hopefully free. Also, at some point when the game is polished enough, I want to introduce a cheap subscription plan. I don’t want to get stuck paying royalties on my work. I don’t doubt that it will take me several years to get from A-Z but that’s ok. This is my dream project. This semester I changed my major to web development but still don’t know a lot about it. I did dabble with Apache Tomcat in my second Java class but doubt that it’s applicable. Any ideas of what I should focus on learning? Thanks in advance!