Jeremy's Blog

This post was scheduled to be published on the other 09:09:09 9/9/09 for the day. Cause I’m corny like that.

As some of you may or may not know, I’ve been off and on working on a MUD called Journey of Souls. I wanted to take a moment to go over what my plans are for the game for the benefit of those of you who don’t read what I write on Anfiniti. Dutch and I’ve been more inspired to work on the game lately, and we’ve even decided to book club a selection of chapters from a game development book which closely relate to what we’ll be doing. The plan is for this book club to actually start this weekend, so we’ll see how that goes.

At the moment, I’m right on the edge of finally choosing the language we will be developing the MUD in. We originally started in PHP, but there are some things that it can’t do (without some highly unsupported extensions) that some languages (say, Python) can do by default. And then there’s that whole we plan to run this on a server for months at a time thing. I originally started with PHP for two reasons, one of which was to prove it could be done in PHP (and done well). So, we’re still surveying that landscape to figure out what we’ll finally be settling on. I’d like to make a decision by the weekend, because I’d like for us to do any examples from our book club in the language we’ll actually be writing the code for the game in. Anyway, onto my goals for the game …

My goals are a bit lofty. It’ll be a long time before the game is available to the public, but I’ve been slowly gathering together ideas over the years for different things to incorporate into the game and different ways to get it out to the masses, once it’s ready. I want to try to summarize my goal for JoS into this post and give you guys all an idea of the type of game I’m going for. If I could just get the cat to stop sticking hair to my monitor.

First of all, it’s going to be a medieval-fantasy setting. For races, there will be your typical humans, elves, dwarves, etc. We also have a few races we want to add that aren’t necessarily unique, but aren’t commonly found in this setting. Things like “Avions” or winged-races, Bonewalkers (skeletal-races), and a few other things. As well as branching races to allow a sort of “metamorphosis” between two similar races. For example, any race can become a “Bonewalker” and keep a portion of the original race’s strengths/weaknesses while adopting the Bonewalker’s strengths/weaknesses.

We want the game to be extremely player-oriented. With most things eventually becoming entirely player-run. We will be providing NPCs in the short-term to fill the gaps in the player base, but we want the world to be significantly impacted by player actions. The goal is for it to be possible to have entire cities rise and fall around players and the decisions that they make.

Rather than be “just another” medieval-fantasy game, we’re looking at ways to put a unique spin on different aspects of the gameplay. Our plans for the combat system, for example, are extremely detailed and will offer what we hope to be the most realistic experience possible, without sacrificing any “fun” value for the sake of realism. Bones will break, limbs will detach, blood will spill. Everything matters, from the type and weight of the equipment you wear, to your fatigue, your stats and skills, as well as how hungry and thirsty you are.

While on the subject of stats and skills, the game will be completely class-less and level-less. Everything will be “learn by doing” and your stats will be completely based on what you do. Physical activities will increase your strength like mental activities will increase your intelligence, and so forth. Your character is yours to mold and evolve and we don’t want to restrict you to any one play style. Decide you don’t like the route you’re taking? You’re free to change it up at any time.

The NPCs will be more intelligent and more realistic than your average RPG. Nothing “materializes” out of thin air. If there are no guards around when someone shouts for them, none will come running. Shopkeepers keep hours of business. They enjoy their off-hours. You’ll find them in taverns, in their homes, visiting with friends and family. NPCs will gossip with one another just like real players. Each NPC will remember you and actions you take that they either see or hear about from other NPCs for extended periods of time. They’ll like you or dislike you based on their own traits, moods, and the things that they know about you and what you do.

Economics and trade will have a huge impact on the game. As I said before, nothing materializes out of thin air. Game state will be forever and there is no “reset” button. Food must be grown, harvested, hunted. Materials for crafts must be acquired through conventional means. NPCs will mine, hunt, fish, farm, and all of the other actions required to keep materials flowing in and out of cities. Equipment must be crafted before it can be sold. No shopkeeper will ever just “have” inventory. Caravans will bring materials to and from cities. Losing those caravans for whatever reason (Bandits, Natural Disasters, etc.) will cause shortages of whatever material that caravan was carrying. Shortages will lead to prices increasing due to demand with a lower supply. Just like a surplus would lead to lower prices.

Death is not the end. The Journey of your Soul will take you to the spirit realm whenever your physical body is no longer able to carry your soul. At which point you will need to make your way to one of many points of resurrection in order to get back to the physical realm. The penalty for dying alone is small. The spirit realm is not safe, though. Mystical creatures that you’ll run into on your way to the resurrection points will hunt you and be capable of draining the essence of your soul, thus reducing your abilities, both stats and skills. But there will be ways to avoid them, and even ways to use the spirit realm to your advantage.

There are so many aspects to this game that I just can’t cover in a single post. This is already become one heck of a wall of text, as it is. I really do want to create a world that will truly be alive. Something that people can join and be apart of something special. It’s not going to happen overnight, but I will bring it to light someday, and we’re already starting to make progress. Any ideas and help you guys can offer will be greatly appreciated, and hopefully you will all enjoy playing the game at some point in the future.