Hello! I am quite new to this game-developing business, but I have always wanted to create an MMO that is rather different from the norm (hence why I want to /create/ it, because I can't find anything like it). It is /very/ small time; I'm not expecting more than 30 people if that to ever be on it. It's probably not a very widely popular kind of game, either, but a few friends and I still want to create something like it as a somewhat promotional item for a book I'm working on. As you can guess, I'm more the artist type, so I have no programming experience nor do I have time to learn how to be fluent with it. I also don't want to spend a lot of money if I can manage that. The game will initially be free, anyway. I have RealmCrafter, which I am about to try. I was more interested in Quest3D, but I don't have that kind of money for this project. In any case, I need to know how I will be able to host this game ideally for free. Are there free small time hosts out there? How would I deal with that? I will probably think of more questions down the line, but I would definitely appreciate your responses. Thanks!

You can host a game for free if you make friends with your local ISP or data center, and they let you keep a box hooked to their data pipes. Other way is to keep the machine running in some corporate environment where they let you do that.

Bandwitdh isn't free. While it's relatively cheap, it's still too expensive to give out for free.

Data centers offer somewhat cheap hosting plans ($100-200 a month, possible less for inferior hardware) and those include somewhat adequate bandwidth.

Other than that - MMOs are biggest projects you can get involved with - they also come with big price tags. And MMOs do not care about how many people are on. One or one thousand, software is the same, and just as complex. Multiplayer games can be simpler.

Try multiverse.net as well.

hey well sounds like you got a good plan, don't let people get you discouredge. It will be a long trip but in the end you will enjoy it, before some one says it no I never finished my MMO, so you could say I really don't know what I'm talking about but what the hey I'll just be nice with postive aditude.

~A.R.C.inc

Positive attitude goes a long way, but judging from the OP's comments, he is in over his head.

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am quite new to this game-developing business

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as a somewhat promotional item for a book I'm working on

MMO's are typically not promos for books...

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As you can guess, I'm more the artist type, so I have no programming experience nor do I have time to learn how to be fluent with it

Without a background in advanced software designs, years of experience, you aren't going to make this happen.

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It's probably not a very widely popular kind of game, either, but a few friends and I

MMO's die if they aren't popular.

Now i'm not trying to be mean, I've just seen many people here say they want to make a MMO w/o any programming skill. For example.

good luck though, prove me wrong =)

I agree with the above post, and in addition, I'm not sure how unique you can make a game from a game creator or such without any programming, and that uniqueness is what seems to be aimed at.

Still, best of luck.

sigma, scorchsaber & epiq, to answer epiq's last question,... by using sheer guts, drive, imagination and determination! I'm bettin' I'm the oldest person in this group and when a client says they want something, or I can sense a whole new business opportunity, I go out and learn it. REALLY FAST! Or, if I think I can't do it in time, I enlist help. Such as I've been doing here since I joined for that very reason.

Look at it this way, if you've got half a brain, and you can see other ppl doing things successfully, there is no reason why you can't do it too. So my logic is, I've got a reasonable head on my shoulders, if they can do it, I can too. So I'm thinking, if Xathiador wants to, I'm laying odds and bets, he/she CAN. Sounds all very motivational I know, but it's always worked for me, and I'm now 49 years old and still pullin' in the customers who are asking for newer, better, faster technology and solutions that are way out of my immediate knowledgesphere, but I'm not going to throw those opportunities away.

And... being the quintessential Libran, I keep seeing the better design angle to go with it.

So Xathiador, if you reckon you can, the odds are - you're right. And if it's a tough slog, you've prolly got the wherewithall to do it, so go for it. Just keep prodding and plodding and you'll figure it out. If you've got 'create' and 'drive' in your system, it'll happen.

And I can't remember now, but I think it was epiq who asked (my apologies if I've remembered wrongly), if you dont' have time to learn, how can you have time for MMO? Geez. Don't you have a separate icecream stomach epiq?

I mean, when your mother served you up meat and veg and you didn't eat your greens and she said, "well then you don't have room for sweets". We all know that's wrong! Of course you had room for sweets. Icecream fits in another section of the stomach - it's a fact!

Equally, we don't necessarily have time for some aspects of learning... it's a time management thing - a 'selective' time management thing. We do what we want to.

Somehow I suspect that Xathiador will do what he/she wants to and do well. I'm plunging in the deep end too 'X', and it's the only way to go. It's the tried and true 'sink or swim' method and you'll find out pretty fast if you succeed.

I really don't want to have derailed this fellow's thread, but I must respond to petafromoz's comments.

Drive, determination and brains go a long way. You're right, if you set your mind to it you can finish something. But somethings require a little more. MMOs are wicked hard to desgin. Why do you think it takes teams of software designers years and huge budgets to get something working?

sure there are a few examples of individual's here who have pulled it off. These people have been coding for years and have a lot of experience when it goes to the actual design. And by design I don't mean plot, but how all the subsystems interact, how to handle the client / server interactions.

IMHO, it isn't possible to get something decent from a game maker. You'll probably get something, but not what you want.

Quote:Original post by xathiador
I have no programming experience nor do I have time to learn how to be fluent with it.

This really is the key quote, and if you don't have time to become fluent with programming, this just won't happen, even if you do have gut and determination.

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Look at it this way, if you've got half a brain, and you can see other ppl doing things successfully, there is no reason why you can't do it too. So my logic is, I've got a reasonable head on my shoulders, if they can do it, I can too.

Using this logic in another comparable situation:
Lets suppose I want to design a performance car. Others can do it. Typically its done in team of people with huge amounts of experience and large budgets. But I want to do it and using your logic I go ahead. Now, I don't want to learn physics/math so I'm going to use AutoCAD to draw my car and hope it all works out.

See the folly of this argument is if you aren't willing to learn the key component to get done what you want?

Cheers

Thanks so much everyone.

Particularly you, petafromoz. I like the way you think--it's like how I think, only with experience behind it. I /do/ have a knack for "getting what I want," and I do it in just the same way that you describe. So far, it has worked every time. That's the way of the artist, I do believe. My time management is exactly that, too: 'selective,' as you said. I'm a very impatient person UNLESS I'm working on something with an ultimate goal that I can see. I like what you say about the icecream, a lot. Thanks /very/ much for all your comments and encouragement, and for talking from experience, too!


_Sigma; this is not a normal MMO in any way. I'm not looking to make money off of it or anything. In fact, I wouldn't care if I was the ONLY one playing it--because I /would/ play it, and I /would/ have fun, especially with the fact behind me that /I/ made it. I have a forum that is also promotional for my book, and currently it has 60+ very active members. I've discussed with them my ideas for a game such as this and they all leaped at it, aside from the fact that none of them can program. They all can draw, and write, though.

I checked out that link you gave. It looked to me like that person was drawing from fantasy, so to speak, and had no idea at all what they were getting into. I at least realize that I will have to make some sacrifices (and in turn, compensations), and I basically understand what all you have to think about when creating an MMO, because I can reason. I realize that you have to take everything into consideration--that your avatar does not simply stick itself to your arrow keys and allow you to move it around, but that you must first model it, import the model, assign a camera angle, assign the keys, assign what happens to the avatar when you press the keys, import the animations, set the animations to start and stop at the right time; etc. etc. etc.


Antheus: Thanks for the info--I'll work on playing my cards right with my ISP host. If I have a friend who owns a domain, is there a way for them to give me bandwidth, or is it simply more than can be stored on the domain? I have a feeling that domains have nothing to do with MMOs, though. I'll also look into Multiverse.

ARC inc - thanks for the encouragement; I definitely use/appreciate every bit!


However, I do believe that what I have in mind can be done, especially since I've seen things of similar nature be done, i.e. non-programmers creating a game that is successful. ( I would like to point out The Endless Forest ( http://www.tale-of-tales.com/TheEndlessForest/ ) - I wouldn't have even thought to begin this project if I hadn't seen their success. )

I just need a little more background information that you guys have provided me with a portion of. Thanks!