Lets get this MORGP started!

Hey kids! I thought it was about time I wrote my first .plan.

Who is this guy?

My name is James Spellman. I've been a game programmer since the good ol' days. My day job involves using Torque for Serious Games. Now I'm hoping to get serious with my Indie efforts.

The Project

The project I've selected is what I would call a MORPG (not Massive). The general idea is to create a multiplayer role-playing game that is more like Neverwinter Nights than EverQuest. I hope to reintroduce the concept of Dungeon Crawl and perhaps lose the repetitiveness of static instances and cleaning up the yard trash. Another way to think of it would be a Dynamic Multiplayer Skill-Based Adventure Game. As an extra twist, I'm considering developing simultaneous Sci-Fi and Fantasy worlds at the same time.

The Approach

I've spent a few years talking and dreaming about it. I've played several games that are out there including, but not limited to, EverQuest, EverQuest II, Star Wars Galaxies, World of Warcraft, Guild Wars and D&D Online. I've made notes, drawn pictures, captured screenshots, added to favorites and written code.

I've started writing a design document. Each Chapter pretty much reflects a Milestone. I've written notes and ideas in most chapters but only really flush it out when I'm ready to work on that milestone. Then I start building it.

The Journey

I'm not fooling myself that I'm going to make a commercial product by myself on the first pass. I'm more aiming for a workable prototype that I, my friends and possibly others would want to play. There will be plenty of stock art and models. There are technologies that I'll have to simply live with rather than replace. But should it have that special something, it should serve as a model for "doing it right."

I fully expect, however, to do some things as good, if not better than the commercial products out there. And in cases where someone else has got it nailed.... I'll rip it off in a heartbeat.

That, in fact, is why I decided it was time to write this. I've managed to cobble together parts of Persistent Storage, Character Management, a Container System and World of Warcraft-style Player Control. And now I'd like to share some of the bits.

I know I'm not setting the standard for 'How to Write an Application' or 'How to be a Successful Indie', but I'm having fun. And if I can find ways to give back to the community in the process, all the better!

Edit: Forgot D&D Online