Aakrana: MMO game engine a reality
by Flybynight Studios · 01/24/2007 (6:29 pm) · 6 comments
I know a lot of us have had that dream of achieving the ultimate indie plateau and launching our own MMOs. Few (aside from the renowned and talented Josh Ritter) have come close. It is with alot of excitement and pride that I can finally say the back end engine for Aakrana is finally, after a good few years in the making, ready for plugging into an MMO world.
My game project is called "Aakrana: The Forgotten Lands" and has been around loosely in one form or another since 2001. It has been a hobbiest project and when I started it I admit I was nothing more than a dreamer with stars in his eyes. Smitten with the belief that I could create a better MMO. It's been years of hard work, personal sacrafice and tens of thousands of man hours. I've changed game engines no less than 3 times (and I'm so relieved to say I finally got it right with Torque) I've learned coding, I've learned modelling, I've learned skinning, I've learned scripting. Oh yeah and all the while I ran my own company and managed my family time ;). Ok, maybe "managed" is a bit of a stretch but my wife hasn't left me yet so...
This week marks the succesful launch of our new database structure. All new database connectors and multi-level table structures have blown away standard DB performance bench marks and pushed us into the realm of full MMO scaleability for our backend. This database work is not my own but the efforts and brainchild of Vince Gee of Geeconsulting. Vince's coding and database expertise have pretty much singlehandedly pushed Aakrana into the next phase of development. I can't say enough about his hard work and exceptional dedication to his comitments.
What does this latest milestone mean for Aakrana? At this point we have pretty much got the back end of our engine completed. This means persistant players, NPC spawns, MOB spawns, resource nodes, etc. The next milestone of development will be focussed on 3D assets and actual world building.
At this time I would like to send out a hearty thanks to all of the helpful people in the GG community whose resources and forum activity have made it possible for persons like myself to achieve lofty development goals and shoot even higher in the future.
I think everyone in the community needs to give themselves a pat on the back. And to the guys at GG... I owe you some beers ;)
Cheers all,
Mark
My game project is called "Aakrana: The Forgotten Lands" and has been around loosely in one form or another since 2001. It has been a hobbiest project and when I started it I admit I was nothing more than a dreamer with stars in his eyes. Smitten with the belief that I could create a better MMO. It's been years of hard work, personal sacrafice and tens of thousands of man hours. I've changed game engines no less than 3 times (and I'm so relieved to say I finally got it right with Torque) I've learned coding, I've learned modelling, I've learned skinning, I've learned scripting. Oh yeah and all the while I ran my own company and managed my family time ;). Ok, maybe "managed" is a bit of a stretch but my wife hasn't left me yet so...
This week marks the succesful launch of our new database structure. All new database connectors and multi-level table structures have blown away standard DB performance bench marks and pushed us into the realm of full MMO scaleability for our backend. This database work is not my own but the efforts and brainchild of Vince Gee of Geeconsulting. Vince's coding and database expertise have pretty much singlehandedly pushed Aakrana into the next phase of development. I can't say enough about his hard work and exceptional dedication to his comitments.
What does this latest milestone mean for Aakrana? At this point we have pretty much got the back end of our engine completed. This means persistant players, NPC spawns, MOB spawns, resource nodes, etc. The next milestone of development will be focussed on 3D assets and actual world building.
At this time I would like to send out a hearty thanks to all of the helpful people in the GG community whose resources and forum activity have made it possible for persons like myself to achieve lofty development goals and shoot even higher in the future.
I think everyone in the community needs to give themselves a pat on the back. And to the guys at GG... I owe you some beers ;)
Cheers all,
Mark
About the author
#2
01/24/2007 (11:10 pm)
Fantastic stuff! Looking forward to this getting along, sounds great. 
#3
01/25/2007 (12:10 am)
Sounds great, congrats on making progress, can't wait to hear some more about this in the future :)
#4
Anyways lots of great stuff on teh MMO horizon.
As far as an MMO DB resource kit... yes one is needed.. I dont like doing things unless I can do them right and righ tnow.. I just dont have the time. I think what I will do though perhaps this weekend is an MMO DB blog and get into the knitty gritty. There are a lot of things up and comers dont take into account with MMOs and I can maybe save some people some pitfalls that I've already had to deal with.
Thanks for checking it out =)
01/25/2007 (2:29 am)
Thanks guys. More stuff is coming down the pipe "soon" (tm) ;) Can't believe Josh has all his ducks in a row to license the MoM technology though.. It's very cool in some ways but it has its drawbacks as well.Anyways lots of great stuff on teh MMO horizon.
As far as an MMO DB resource kit... yes one is needed.. I dont like doing things unless I can do them right and righ tnow.. I just dont have the time. I think what I will do though perhaps this weekend is an MMO DB blog and get into the knitty gritty. There are a lot of things up and comers dont take into account with MMOs and I can maybe save some people some pitfalls that I've already had to deal with.
Thanks for checking it out =)
#5
01/29/2007 (10:43 am)
I always like to read about how people pulled off different things for the mmo world. Can't wait for the future blogs
#6
Also, I was just wondering if your game had a website to look at features, plans, etc. I'd be interested in hearing more.
02/13/2007 (6:42 am)
I would appreciate your comments on programming MMO's, things to avoid, etc. I'm just starting adjusting TGEA for MMO gameplay without much experience (lot's of coding experience, but not MMO coding). It would be really neat to hear what things to look out for and really focus on doing right in the future.Also, I was just wondering if your game had a website to look at features, plans, etc. I'd be interested in hearing more.
Torque 3D Owner Jonathon Stevens
Plan on an 'MMO DB' resource? ;)