by Jeromy Walsh
28. March 2009 08:43
After yesterday's post about needing 70 quests for LGO, the community members and I were discussing storylines and possible themes we could use to make writing quests more entertaining for the general population. The theme we've decided upon is "The Worst Quest Ever..."
Basically, all the quests in LGO will be pulled from the list of the worst things we can imagine doing, and then divided up between the "good side" and "bad side", with the good side having quests that take advantage of them, while the bad side has quests that take advantage of other NPC's.
Some example quests include:
* "My dog and I took a walk and I forgot my plastic bag at home, can you go around town and scoop up the poo?"
* "I've lost my chicken and would like you to find him. He was last seen trying to cross the road back into town."
* "Last night at dinner I somehow left my purse on the table and I'm afraid it was thrown out with the trash...can you go dig through the trash behind the pub and find my purse."
* "Every day those geeks come into the school yard and think they're so much better than everyone else. Go beat up X geeks and take their lunch money as proof."
Or the quest chain...
* "I've gotten pregnant and don't know how to tell my boyfriend he's not the father. Can you do it for me?"
followed by:
"Oh really...go kill the father..."
Which ends in:
"Sorry dear, your boyfriend left you."
As stated yesterday, you can find the Quest Posting Format here. Make sure to use that format when submitting quests to the Quest Forum. Ok, let's see what you can come up with!
Discuss this news item Here!
by Jeromy Walsh
23. March 2009 12:19
After re-focusing our efforts to allow easier customization for Programming an MMORPG in C# with XNA we decided to ditch our previously defined classes, or rather, re-use them in Chronicles of the Five Kingdoms, and so we needed to come up with new ones instead. We decided to go with the standard four archetypes of Warrior, Wizard, Cleric, and Rogue.
Below is Tang's concept of the LGO Rogue. Feel free to join the forums and post your feedback Here.
by Jeromy Walsh
20. March 2009 22:29
Hi Everyone,
Introduction
Over the past few weeks the
designers, story writers, artists, and sound engineers have been
working almost around the clock to put together an amazing project. The
quality of contributors and the dedication can be seen in the concept
art and audio samples which have been submitted and the number of
people who are online during the wee hours of the morning discussing
story and design on IRC.
With that in mind, I sat down with the
project leads and had a talk with them. While I envision LGO to be a
fun little MMO which people can spend 10-20 hours of time playing, the
real point of this project is to develop a code-base and framework
which people can use to develop their own MMO's. As a result, any
effort we put towards the game is going to be discarded by the majority
of people who pick up the book, in favor of integrating their own
story, assets, and design.
In truth, I feel like the story
that is being worked on and the people who are contributing to it
deserve more than that. So having concluded my discussion with the
project leads I've decided to take LGO in a new direction, and spawn a
concurrent project instead.
Level-Grind Online/XNA Starter Kit
In
contrast to our previous work, Level-Grind Online is now going to be
pursued as a disposable, cookie-cutter MMO. It will have the usual
features and functionality found in most MMO's, along with a collection
of quests, items, spells, class, races, etc... It will also have
between 10 and 20 levels of content, including a dungeon or two and a
few zones to explore. The primary difference is that LGO will no longer
have a deeply fleshed out story, and I no longer intend to host the
game after completion of the XNA Starter Kit.
As a result, I
will still be needing concept art, models, and audio to accompany the
book and the MMO. However, the artwork will not be based on a rich
story, and will hover around a more traditional RPG setting of
Sorcerers, Warrior, Rogues, and Clerics. So if you're an artist, sound
engineer, or writer wanting to get your name into the book, there is
still a need and way for you to do so.
Chronicles of the Five Kingdoms
In
addition to Level-Grind Online we will be spawning a new, concurrent
project which I at this precise moment temporarily named the Chronicles
of the Five Kingdoms as it most closely describes the project.
We
will be using the story, art, and music which has been contributed so
far and we will be putting them towards the development of a few
single-player RPG's. This will be done in order to flesh out the story,
give people an opportunity to become familiar with our game mechanics,
and develop an IP which people recognize. These RPG's are going to be
commercially available both for the PC via a website, as well as for
the Xbox 360 via the Xbox Live Community Games portal.
After
the completion of these RPG's and the establishment of a stable
following, we plan to develop another MMO, using the base code from
Cot5K and LGO.
At
present I am not setting up a separate website, as our primary focus is
still on finishing LGO. However the website may undergo some changes to
reflect the new, dual nature of our community. This is being done in
order to keep the team together, and to continue to fuel the team's
creative synergy. After the completion of LGO, we will move the
relevant forums, etc.. to a new website dedicated solely to Cot5K.
I
look forward to working with all of you both on the development and
completion of LGO, as well as on the new commercial project (final name
pending).
by Jeromy Walsh
12. March 2009 21:58
Meg Maloney, our Lead Story Writer is looking for some additional team members. There's lots to be written still in terms of history, lore, quests, and NPC dialog. She posted this on the forums but I wanted to post it here as well.
-------------------------------
I'm currently looking for dedicated writers interested in joining our
team. If you would like to lend your talent to our project, please read
the requirements below and submit your application as directed.
Step
one: Briefly familiarize yourself with the 3 possible backstories
located in the Backstory & Lore forum. (Entitled "Russ' Backstory,
Aaron's Backstory, and Meg's Backstory, respectively).
Step
two: Develop a piece which includes some ORIGINAL lore for 1 place of
interest within in the game world, 1 person of interest who influences
the game world, and 1 item of interest located somewhere inside the
game world. They do not all need to be related to one another (for
example you may write about a small frontier town, a Cleric of note,
and an item of power held by the Sorcerers) nor do they need to be epic
in nature (feel free to write about a locally famous inventor) but they
do need to exhibit your talent and familiarity with the world being
developed. By "original" I mean developed entirely by you - please do
not write about places, items or people already described in any of the
backstories.
Step three: Submit your piece (maximum of 1500
words-- but we're looking for quality over quantity) in the stickied
Submissions thread located in the Backstory & Lore forum. Do not
reply to the Help Wanted thread with your submission. Do not create a new thread
for your submission.
Step three: please remain active on the
forums and/or IRC for one week following your submission. We need to be
assured that you will be available and willing to develop adequate time
to the project. We're not expecting 40 hours a week, but an average of
2-3 hours per day will probably be necessary (it's fine if you only
want to do weekends). Any availability between the hours of 11am - 11pm
EST is preferred -- since this is generally when I am active and able
to work with you.
Credit will be given for any contributions
used, and your contact information will be made available both here on
the website as well as within Jeromy's book, Programming an MMORPG in C# with XNA, as a form of free advertising for your talent.
I
realize this may sound like a lot, especially for a volunteer project.
I'm doing this for free because I truly love to write, and I'm getting
great experience and enjoyment from this project. If you think you will
too, please consider coming aboard!
by Jeromy Walsh
11. March 2009 09:50
Over the weekend I held a writing competition to see who would be the
Lead Story Writer, three people submitted back stories of the potential
kingdoms.
Ultimately Meg (aka Wimble) was chosen as the Lead Story Writer. Her story, and the stories of the other writers can be found On Our Forums.
Additionally, we've now settled on 5 Unique Civilizations based on
biome and adaptations. As with most games, your chosen "race" or
starting civilization will provide your character small stat bonuses
and racial abilities. For PvP there will be two factions, each made up
of two civilizations, and a neutral civilization who can either abstain
from PvP or play both sides as desired.
There's also been further concept art submitted. Below is early concept
art for the Druid class and the Witch-Hunter Prestige class.
by Jeromy Walsh
8. March 2009 10:05
Here's some artwork from Tang Chan
showing early ideas for two of our classes. The first is our Cleric, a
ranged offensive and healing class who uses spoken language to invoke
divine wrath.
The second is our Sorceress. She uses the blood of ancients to tattoo
glyphs of the divine language onto her person and then uses them as a
twisted version of the Cleric's spells. She's a melee caster that uses
debuffs and DoT spells to bring the pain.
by Jeromy Walsh
5. March 2009 14:54
We are looking for concept artists to work on visuals for Level-Grind Online. Any artist who contributes concept art for the
book and demo will have their names, portfolio, and contact information provided
inside the book as a form of advertisement for their services.
In specific, I am looking for concept art of the various classes,
races, locales, temples, crypts, dungeons, armor, weapons, buildings,
cities, and other places of interest contained within the world being
built as a companion to the accompanying book.
So if you're a creative artist looking to provide artwork for a wide
circulation, and are interested in being involved in the development of
a community project, please use the Contact Form above or come to the Forums and post your information.
by Jeromy Walsh
5. March 2009 09:49
Hail All!
Just wanted to post an update. The community members of Level-Grind
Online have established a working backstory and have defined histories
and game-play for the three spell-casting base classes. In addition, we
have defined the mechanics for class customization which will be used
by all base classes.
We feel we've made great progress and are looking forward to presenting
more information shortly. At present, we are moving on to the remaining
three base classes and are turning our attention to the histories and
places of interest within our World's borders. We are always looking
for talented and imaginative writers and designers but are especially looking for a Concept Artist to take over Lead and begin creating comps for the various classes, races, and locales.
If you're interested in more info, check out our forums at:
LGO Forums
In the mean time, I wanted to announce the addition of a new team member, Bryan Roessel.
Bryan Roessel - Lead Designer (Gameplay Mechanics). Bryan is a
science teacher with an undergraduate degree in physics who's life-long
passion for games had him writing text-based RPG's and board games as
early as the 5th grade. As technology advanced, Bryan joined the
modding community making maps for StarCraft and other games. By his
high school years he was no longer satisfied with the constraints of
other games and took a course in C++ programming which allowed him to
build his own 2D tile-based RPG. Bryan and his friends then moved on to
make elaborate implementations of games such as Risk and Puerto Rico;
adding exploration, combat, and unique game mechanics. Since then,
Bryan's been teaching himself PHP, hacking together web-based
multi-user environments.
by Jeromy Walsh
27. February 2009 09:30
Welcome All!
Level-Grind online is a 3D open-source,
"Sword & Sorcery" style MMORPG being developed in combination with
the book Programming an MMORPG in C# with XNA. It has been in
development for approximately 6 months, and aims to accommodate many of
the same features present in modern MMORPG's. This is being done in an
attempt to demonstrate the process of developing a complete MMO using contemporary languages and tools.
Among the planned and available
features are:
- Chat Channels
-
Classes
- Special Abilities
- Tech Trees
- Skills
- Races
- Combat System
- Trade
- Professions & Crafting
- Equipable Items
- Inventory
- Banks
- Auction House
- Instanced Dungeons
- Arenas
- Dueling
The Client, Server, and Networking code are currently in development and are limited to a select number of individuals. However, upon the release of Programming an MMORPG in C# with XNA, updated client/server binaries along with the complete source code and all assets for the game will be made available under the Microsoft Permissive License.
Technology:
Client Platform(s): Windows XP/Vista
Server Platform(s): Windows XP/Vista/Server
Client/Server development will be done using Visual C#
2008 Express Edition/XNA Game Studio 3.0
Client Input, Audio, and Graphics: XNA 3.0
Networking: Custom message protocol delivered over UDP via the Lidgren Networking Library.
Database/FileIO: SQL Server 2008 Express Edition
Scripting: Run-Time bound C# using .NET 3.5 CodeDOM & Reflection
Current Team Members & Responsibilities:
Jeromy Walsh - Lead Programmer & Producer. Jeromy has been a hobby
game programmer for almost 15 years now and an industry professional
for almost 8. He's got credits on 4 published titles including games
from Vivendi, Atari, and Lucas Arts. In addition to his game
programming experience he is currently acting as the President of a
software company.
Bryan Roessel - Lead Designer (Gameplay Mechanics). Bryan is a
science teacher with an undergraduate degree in physics who's life-long
passion for games had him writing text-based RPG's and board games as
early as the 5th grade. As technology advanced, Bryan joined the
modding community making maps for StarCraft and other games. By his
high school years he was no longer satisfied with the constraints of
other games and took a course in C++ programming which allowed him to
build his own 2D tile-based RPG. Bryan and his friends then moved on to
make elaborate implementations of games such as Risk and Puerto Rico;
adding exploration, combat, and unique game mechanics. Since then,
Bryan's been teaching himself PHP, hacking together web-based
multi-user environments.
Meg Maloney - Lead Designer (Story). Meg is an experienced
writer and an avid gamer. She has been DMing tabletop RPG games since
she was introduced to them as a teenager. She has won several awards
for her writing, including the Level I Gold award for Poetry from the
National Foundation for the Arts in 2003. In addition to her current
work for Level-Grind Online, Meg is also assisting team member Bryan
Roessel with his current browser-based game project.
Cameron Degraw - Gameplay Designer. Cameron has been an avid,
life-long gamer since his early childhood. He has spent countless hours
both playing and modifying games. While he's a fan of nearly every
genre his past experience is in modding and scripting Half-Life,
Starcraft, and various RPG's. He has spent his free time over the last
few years working as a game designer on various community projects.
Previous Work by Team Members:
Dungeons & Dragons: Dragonshard, 2005 Atari, Inc
Mercenaries, 2005 Lucas Arts
Star Wars Battlefront, 2004 Lucas Arts
Lord of The Rings: War of the Ring, 2003 Sierra Entertainment
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