A New Beginning

Some time ago, I decided to write a game. It wasn't really a conscious decision, but it has colored everything I've done for many years now. I finally feel ready to start, and most of my prep work has gone towards making a MUD. So I guess that's what I unconsciously decided to build.

I've got a few years of ideas in my head about how my ideal MUD would work, including gameplay and backend mechanics.

I have already started working on this MUD. I've got some basic things done and I'm moving on to more complicated things. I will probably discuss my existing decisions, also.

This blog will be used to describe my experiences coding the MUD, and the decisions I make along the way.

I have some basic must-haves for the MUD. A partial list, in no particular order:

• Skill-based advancement
• Combat system(s)
• Magic system(s)
• Crafting system(s)
• Scalable server architecture
• Access API (to allow many different kinds of clients: Telnet, web, etc.)

Quite a few other things will be decided as they come up, such as how to build rooms and items and NPCs (in-game vs another client), etc.

I don't intend to use this blog to defend my ideas and decisions. I may incorporate any ideas mentioned by commenters, but I may also completely ignore the ideas. No offense intended, but this is my game.

I will be open sourcing the code for the server itself. Other game-specific code, and the art assets, will remain my property. This will allow others to create their own worlds, but also allow me to keep my world somewhat unique.  After I get to a certain point, I'll be looking at accepting code contributions, but I'll be very strict on contributions, even with style considerations.  I'll definitely be requiring that all unit tests pass, and new code is properly tested with new tests.

My intention is to make the open sourced code able to be used for different purposes as well. A MUD is one possibility, of course, but I would like to see it able to make Interactive Fiction and other standalone games, as well as other multiplayer games as well.