Plan: Ruin Online (Rant of a Savant Dev)

Tonight I couldn't sleep, the candy canes kept turning into laser katanas and the suger plum fairies into bandit mobs with loot I needed.
I kept seeing one line weapon script fixes, shadow object masks and mouse world coordinates.
I've been doing this way too long. :)
So I got up and started looking for the Plan feature of the website here at GarageGames hoping it would help me sleep.
Either I couldn't find it, or it is gone.
I really liked the plan feature (the few times I used it) because it was specific to the project it was posted for and helped keep track over time in a blogish sort of way.
Now everyone has their own blogs or poject management solution it seems.
It's been a long time since the Ruin Online project started (3-4 years).
I've been thinking about this thread and this thread for the past few days very heavily.
Things have come a long way for BAG and Ruin.
Our team, engine and resources have grown.

We recently migrated most of our resources from our home made server farm sitting in a garage to a commercial colo, completed a new patch to fix some serious bugs preventing some people playing and updated our website and forums.
A decent stream of players from GG came (thank you) and I fear many weren't able to get in during the transitions.
Things are up and running smoothly again.

Ruin Online and BrokeAss Games are basically just the natural results of online gaming , indie software development and development communites.
Our team consists mostly of newbs learning via hardknocks and a few uber-newbs that crack on the newcomers like pwning face in counterstrike.
Recruitment was from our local area, online communities and our own beta testing/developement sites.
We have nearly no money for a budget still and the common indie pitfalls apply as well.
School comes and goes for the mouthbreathing teen prodigy developers that maintain and work various parts of our project.
People move, die, get married, burned out, etc.
Real life can always get in the way of an indie project with no budget.
But, if you build a community and a structure for the project and make it live, sometimes it will survive on it's own for periods when things get shakey.
You can do amazing things with a shoestring, you just have to decide that you are really going to do it and if you are serious, you'll want some backup so it gets done right.
Our team is weak in comparison to so many others in the standard way of looking at a developer team, but what we have is innovation, passion and a commonly visioned goal.
We thrive on out of the box thinking and innovation where lists of certifications, degrees are many times useless to us anyway.
Applications like Doom and ZBrush were born from innovation not a bible thick standards book or a market researched project outline.
While going to add a fresh coat of glow in the dark paint to the end of the tunnel for the newbs on the team, I noticed a tiny opening with a bit of light shining through that was never there before.
This indie thing can work, I promise.

The original plan was to write a real-time MMO FPS Fighter RPG with a "matrix like" web and chat interface to add another element of gameplay.
The "kewlest MMO eva" idea.
I honestly think it's still doable (and yes with TGE and TGEA variations).
Ruin Online is about a 1GB download so far and currently only supports windows.
The initial download is about 700mb and the rest is patches.
We started with TGE, bought every content pack and tool we could get our hands on (and even starved and ate ramen noodles to save up), applied every mod we thought sounded good at the time and seemed stable and smashed it all together.
Basically it's been 3 years of "Featuritis" and we put in alot more than the kitchen sink.
Currently in short terms it is TGE1.5, MK, MySQL, IRC, SMF with an endless list of mods.
We have a few features that we feel are unique (and some are just the logical result) like our BVH based characters and realtime combat system, our Sentinel Global Network (an artificial intelligent network that plays a roll in the game via bots, web, irc and the game database), a grinder's dream of an experience system (lying dormant in the engine waiting to patched out), a realtime web/database driven development interface and a "If you don't stop pointing that rifle at me I'm gonna kill you and everyone within 10 feet..." PVP system where everyone is attackable and friendly fire is a common accident made by newcomers and vehicle and horse theft are commonplace.
We try to remove as many standard gaming rules as we can to open up new possibilities of gameplay.
It's very "griefer" prone and honestly we kind of like that way.
"Players will have to learn to get along and be responsible for their actions".
It is not a finished game and is still early in the game development aspect.
The engine took years, now we are mostly focused on custom artwork and gameplay.

If you read all this and check out Ruin Online, feel free to hang around or contact us.
The download is big but it's worth checking out if you are developing in Torque.
You may be able to check out mods you are considering, how content packs operate in a live environment, dispell a few myths, see your own mod or art in a live game, and see how some broke newbs are trying to do all this.
We are currently trying to recruit new talent, make friends, get testing help and constructive feedback from other developers/gamers.
We have a bit of a free spirit "pwnr" attitude, but try not to let it put you off, it comes purely from our love of gaming and competing online.
The game was made for and by gamers, so every comment is valuable and considered.
Just showing up will help us make a better game.
And I know there are a ton of e-famed and lurker devs out there that would have a snippet or 3 that would make this project so much better if they knew what pieces it was lacking.

Ari (Lead Developer @ BrokeAss Games)