Publishing board game online
by Jonathan Jones · in Game Design and Creative Issues · 12/05/2002 (3:57 am) · 2 replies
I've created and made a prototype of a traditional strategy board game intended to be sold in brick-and-mortar stores, however, as an individual the cost of self-producing it en-masse is prohibitive.
Looking for "pre-capital" alternatives I thought I might publish it online. I've taken some programming classes (C++) and I can read code and "tweak" if I absolutely HAVE to (Read: non-programmer), but... uh... I don't want to. At all. So... here's what I have and what I need:
I have the game itself, all the rules worked out etc. and almost all of it in real-life-sweat-and-blood components to work out kinks with. I understand most engines will do at least what I need, and I don't mind shelling out a few hundred to realize baby step 1 for my dream game. But.
What I need is to know what engine to use in order to make the whole shebang. The game mechanics are fairly simple - like online RISK or chess etc. and I want the interactivity to work in the same manner as they do. The game is for two to six players, but I would like to be able to add other "two to six player" modules. That's what I did on the actual game, so I want it to emulate as closely as possible - down to the shape of the pieces and how they are manipulated.
I don't program, so I want to WYSIWYG it, but artwork and music are no problem (including creation of objects for use in the game). Any suggestions? I thought Flash or PHP might do it, but WYSIWYG is super important, even for something that may be relatively simple. Thanks for any suggestions you might have.
2LT Jonathan Jones, US Army
Looking for "pre-capital" alternatives I thought I might publish it online. I've taken some programming classes (C++) and I can read code and "tweak" if I absolutely HAVE to (Read: non-programmer), but... uh... I don't want to. At all. So... here's what I have and what I need:
I have the game itself, all the rules worked out etc. and almost all of it in real-life-sweat-and-blood components to work out kinks with. I understand most engines will do at least what I need, and I don't mind shelling out a few hundred to realize baby step 1 for my dream game. But.
What I need is to know what engine to use in order to make the whole shebang. The game mechanics are fairly simple - like online RISK or chess etc. and I want the interactivity to work in the same manner as they do. The game is for two to six players, but I would like to be able to add other "two to six player" modules. That's what I did on the actual game, so I want it to emulate as closely as possible - down to the shape of the pieces and how they are manipulated.
I don't program, so I want to WYSIWYG it, but artwork and music are no problem (including creation of objects for use in the game). Any suggestions? I thought Flash or PHP might do it, but WYSIWYG is super important, even for something that may be relatively simple. Thanks for any suggestions you might have.
2LT Jonathan Jones, US Army
#2
12/13/2002 (12:30 am)
I think you could use Torque even if the game is 2D. However, adding illustrative third dimension to board game would be interesting IMO. 
Torque 3D Owner Nick "Dig" Koirala
LittleMonkey Ltd.
You could try game maker 4.0 if its going to be a 2d game. The software itself is free and you can sell what you make with it.
BUT multiplayer online might require some coding I haven't tried it myself yet.
I dont' know WYSIWYG 3D software that will do what you want...
Hope that helps,
Nick