Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[MrGimp]

So Im a programmer.  I started out as C++ but Ive ended up in web programming.  I know XHTML/HTML5, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, and MySQL.  After becoming proficient in all those languages I have realized something, multiplayer support for simple games is actually...well....simple.  Games like civilization 1 and 2, master of orion 1 and 2, master of magic, could be remade and turned into massive multiplayer online games.  Basically I had the idea that these classic games are actually reproducable by one or two programmers given modern frameworks.  A small developer may not be able to replicate big modern day multimillion dollar titles, but HTML5 is being supported more and more now and it allows much better support for game development inside of web browsers.  So earlier era games are much more feasible, and if you slap in a multiplayer component, dont you have something interesting?

Imagine a 4X game like master of orion, but with a galaxy that grows as more players join the game, and with all of the other empires being real live people.  It would not be turned based, it would be run on the server and keep a persistent galaxy.  Every so often the game refreshes your unit movement points and hands out your tax money.  If you go offline, you can still get attacked, but as long as you leave some defenses up and check in once or twice a day you wouldnt be in any more vulnerable of a position than in a single player game.  I guess the technology research element would have to be thrown out, otherwise new players would be at an even worse disadvantage than they already are.  Basically, not all the game mechanics would translate.  It wouldnt be a master of orion 'clone' so much as just taking that genre, and re-envisioning it in a multiplayer framework.  Those older styles of games are not graphics intensive, and compared to modern games are not particularly code intensive.

I think this could be a niche for indie developers.  What do you think?  What other old 90's era games/genres do you think could be remade with simple multiplayer to make something cool?

[nbonaparte]

I love this idea. I don't have any suggestions, but just wanted to show support for the idea.

[MrGimp]

Im actually working on a port of a 4X game into a multiplayer setting.  Its nowhere near done, although I guess it could be mentioned because it has the basic elements there already.  I might be able to get it to semi-playable state pretty soon.

Anyways, it has no name.  Its not so much a Master of Orion spin off and more of a Space Empires III spin off (if anyone knows of the Space Empires series, it may be a commercial title now, but it started out as a shareware game made by some dude as a hobby game).

Heres some screens of what I have at the moment.

Planets are just simple light blue circles.  Other things have some placeholder graphics for now.  I havent re-skinned the UI either, its just black boxes with green outlines.  Eventually everything will look better....Im just building the mechanics right now.




Heres a screenshot of the planet window where you can see planet info and buy ships.  Eventually I want there to be a tile map of the planet, and during invasions units could be moved around.  Thats a long ways off, and so for now its just some random 3d art I stole borrowed.





You can buy units, open warp gates, colonize planets, and start wars and send ship crews to the slaughter glory.  All the very basic elements are there, things just need to be expanded and fleshed out.





I think this same engine that Im building now could be tweaked to build not only a space empires III type of game, but also a civ 1 or 2 type of game, and a master of magic type of game.  I started with this just because I think its a little easier.  For example, new players can be given a star system inside a dynamic mmo galaxy.  It would be harder to have a one map online civilization game, or master of magic game.  I dont know exactly how to work that all out yet.  But this game is coming along pretty good so far, when I get more of it working, anyone want to help beta test it?