How to build Rune Scape ?

[samurai_lassie]

I'm not sure if this is the section for this but it seemed to fall under Tech & Computers then anything else.

 

 

 

I was wondering how beginning a game along the lines of RuneScape would take. RuneScape got off its feet with the classical game really very simplistic and still progressed to what it is now . I have seen many a game grow from hardly anything so what would programming an online RpG take?

 

 

 

I'm asking the money and time to begin such a game,

 

Paul and Andrew apparently started in College as something they played with friends as a fun game now they make $10,000,000 Aus off Memberships per month $120 Million a year.

 

 

 

So what programs are used, could I learn how to do it?

[JoeDaStudd]

First of you would need to learn C/C++ then the relevant language, Java in this case.

 

Then you would need to program the game (you would be best getting a group of programmers to help you here).

 

Then you need to create a site to host and publish the game.

 

You need to beta the game to a select number of people and work out any bugs.

 

Once its ready publish the game.

 

When enough people are playing start charging for membership.

 

Then you need to constantly bug check, moderate and develop the game.

 

 

 

Time wise;

 

Learn and master the programming languages; at least 2 years (might seem a while, but the more you know now the less time the game will take)

 

Creating the game; depends, but I would expect 1 year +

 

Site, beta testing and publishing; 2 to 6 months.

 

Time for the game to become popular; 4 to 12 months.

 

Bug checking, moderating and developing; A lifetime.

 

 

 

So you looking at 4 years + before it becomes profitable.

 

Note this is from scratch and merely an estimate.

 

Note. Note. Once you start charging you can then start hiring staff to lessen the work load.

[pryomancer]

Also take into consideration the costs of advertising.

 

 

 

The game wouldn't take off at all if no-one knew about it.

 

 

 

 

 

You also need to offer something unique that no other game has, or develop something that already exists into something better.

 

For example, RuneScape is web-based, with no downloads and no real registration that requires emails, real names etc. It also follows no storyline directly.

[kelerps]

This quote is from the game dev forums FAQ, hope it answers your questions.

 

 

 

"I am repeatedly barraged with questions from other people, the basic, "I want to make XXXX complicated idea for a game but I don't even know what OOP stands for." Instead of the usual dream dashing speech about the difficulty of OOP and servers and such I just tell them, "OK so what's your idea?" I then get the basic idea of the game. "OK", I say, "What are the player characters? What is the first level? Have you worked out any algorithms for damage or character experience? Drawn any levels? Developed any monsters? What cool skills and equipment will your game have?". 99% of the time I get a confused look back. If you don't know how to program and you want to make a game, the best thing you can possibly bring to the table is a GAME DESIGN. Do you think a bunch of programmers just sat down one day and wrote World of Warcraft? NO! The basic idea of computer programming is taking a complex problem and breaking it down into a bunch of smaller, easier to solve problems. If you have an incredible (and I mean incredible) game design, you may be able to talk people into teaming up with you to program it. STEP #1 is breaking your idea of some grand game into many, many detailed steps. I'm talking monster designs, level designs, characters & NPC, skills, damage and spell algorithms, EXP levels, Bosses, and just about anything else you could imagine. These problems will all have to be worked out eventually and if you aren't reading programming books for the next 3 years and you seriously have dreams of making a game you may want to work all that out before you step to anyone asking for help, otherwise you will probably just get laughed at." -nahholmes

 

 

 

Another great place to look is here: http://www.gamedev.org/wiki/index.php/MMORPG_Anatomy

 

 

 

Also the persons post above is wrong about requiring only 2 years before you can start the game. It will take LOTS of practice before you can make some good games. Also you will need to get good at multiple forms of art and become a decent musician.

[BlueLancer]

To add to the good article above, sadly the MMORPG market is very saturated in the year 2007.

 

 

 

Back in 1998 when Paul and Andrew Gower started developing RS, people didn't really even know about roleplaying games where thousands of players could interact. Diablo was released in 1999, but even that could be only played by a handful of people at once.

 

 

 

After RS was released in January 4th 2001, it gained huge popularity due to the uniqueness of MMORPG's at the time, the 100% free cost of the game, frequent updates, tight-knit community, easy availability by simply opening a java-supported web browser etc.

 

 

 

As Jagex has said multiple times, they spent $0 dollars on advertising to make RuneScape popular. It's all word-of-mouth promotion. A year later in February 2002 they turned their game into a succesful F2P-P2P model.

 

 

 

Had Andrew and Paul started to develop their game now, though, they'd be in for a big disappointment. There are thousands of MMORPG's. Korean gamehouses release new ones every few days. A java MMORPG released today simply couldn't gain the popularity needed to make it succesful.