Things to consider when starting a game
By Zeggy (
webmaster@zegghq.com)
Copyright (c) 2006, ZeggHQ
NOTE: This 'checklist' is mainly for creating an online web game, a game that's played in a browser (text based games), although I guess it could be used for other purposes.
Before starting off with making a game, you'll need to know a few things first, and have a plan.
A Name
This is important for the game. You MUST have a good name. Something that will attract players, and it must have something to do with the game. Don't call it 'Bob's Strategy Game' or 'Chuck's RPG'. From there on, you can start building a storyline if your game needs it. Or you could do it the other way around, starting with a story to get the name.
Genre
What kind of game is it? RPG, strategy, pet game?
Type of time
Is the game going to be real-time, turn-based or tick-based? Turn based would mean each person is limited by the amount of turns they have. Tick based means that each player would be limited by each time the world 'ticks'. It could be every 5 minutes or 5 hours. Real-time means the player wouldn't be limited by anything, so you will have to imagine something else to limit player activity, otherwise whoever plays the longest becomes the best.
Other limitations
Are there are going to be any limits to stop the player from making actions? It could be energy to limit the player from fighting too many monsters. It could be money to stop the player from getting every item available. It could be minerals to stop the player from creating too many buildings. It could be mana to stop the player from casting billions of spells. Think about it. This is quite important. Sometimes limits can make the game funner and more strategic or make the game boring and drive away players. If you choose money, make sure to choose a currency. It could be Gold, Cash, Rocks, Potatoes, whatever. You could even name it after your game. If your game is called Dark Nova, you could call it Nova Points or something like that.
Can you create it?
Can you or your coder create the game? Is it possible to code something like what you have in mind? This is important as well. Sometimes I get great ideas but later when I've created everything else and I get to this part, I find that it's impossible to create. After that I basically stop making the game, disappoint all my players and close it down.
Think of the database structure
How is your database structure going to look like? Are you going to have one table for player info, or do you need two tables to store different kinds of information, such as character data? How will your scripts interact with the database to make the game work properly? This is pretty important as well because this step is what usually makes my own games go down. Maybe other people don't have difficulty with this though
I hope this gives you enough to think about.
And then of course, you should have an idea in your mind
