Interesting Idea about Game Development

Nikkons017

I have an interesting idea about game design from which some developers could be interested in. Normally in the development project or design whether it be fps,rts,mmo or whatever any new idea they have they normally flesh out a level/zone completely with all current "features" in it to test if they will work as intended or not and to judge if its fun or not. Most people when this applied to the MMO genre they think they have to have tons and tons of zones already created for them and tons and tons of glittery features, most of which are bugged, causes more bugs or other bugs, not working as intended or just completely broken. Also this level is usally designed with only the minimal required people usually around 5-8 people.

The idea here is that developers get the basic design elements down pat. They figure out how combat and all the other "features" in the game will work. This you don't need a world for. This is also where you can be innovative and change from the "same 'ol rehash of wow mechanics" K but the key here is that you focus on bringing tons of content to only a couple of zones in the beginning (1-2) to start out. So developing this zones you need to put in tons of deatil and tons of quests, mobs, and just interesting things to do. Get the pvp details of the game out in the open in the beginning and test out whether or not it is fun. Again you don't need a ton of people to test this out or do you need hundreds of zones.

Ok so now you the developer has a beginning world with the basics down and the bulk of the core of the game down pat and as bug proof as you can get it. And to top it off you only paying for 10-20 people at this point so it is very cheap compared to the millions you are paying for in other big named AAA mmo titles.

now that you have the core of game play working and you have quests and pvp system and probably a working crafting system yadda yadda, you can now have enough content to start getting people. At this point you offer your game free for download to get it to the broadest auidence because every likes to try out new things. Next you give them two options, first they can just play for free but they can't craft, or do anything of that nature except for the basic grinding, killing mobs, and some quests. The second option is for them to pay a measly 5 dollars a month for content to everything that you have developed so far. No matter if you pay or not players are encouraged to test out the designed features and give updates on the games mechanics and balance and what they think of quests and what not, along with any improvements that can be made to the game to please the majority of the audience that you have no gotten.

But you main goal here is to basically have a ongoing beta test even though its not the scale of conventional beta tests. You test out features of the game and when they get good enough, players can start paying the small 5 dollars a month and begin feeding your project bank account. This will help the funding and let the community help support your game vision because it is what the community wants. But in return they are paying practically nothing and they are still getting a game that they can play and have fun in but just not as big as other mmo's.

Not only do you gain the valuable info that your player base has, but also the ability to change and teak the main game without running the risk of affecting other systems and keep everything on a small scale. Even if you run the game with only 1k players, think if you had a game good enough that all 1k players starting paying for the game. 1k x 5dollars = 5000dollars per month to help with development costs. But the real benefit here is that if you get that many people paying, you can be assured that they are telling there friends about the game by word of mouth. And all marketing people know that is the most reliable form of marketing and most successful because people are more inclined to give in to their friends and/or family members and get them playing and possibly paying also.

**This cannot be a level based game**

But would the community of gamers be up to participating in this style of game development?

Can play for free but limited in some reguards to content, but for 5 dollars a month you can get access to everything but there is no obligation for you to pay unless you want to support the game's development.

But you can always give the developers feed back and let the community help direct the game development (systems and mechanics) in the way they feel good using to have fun.

What is the minimum amount of content players would accept to start paying for the game? do you need fully functioning worlds with massives zones or just a few really well developed ones.

What would you expect to be functioning before picking up the free download?

Is it better to have 20 rushed zones with some quests in them but everything is more spaced out and seems more empty, or have 1-2 zones that is packed with quests and things to do?

Would you actually pay for a game even though it is good enough but only has a few zones? (remember though we are going for content reusability aka dynamic content that changes and gives more to do)

In development devs will not reset your character data that you created, this is to keep more people playing and testing the game over a period of time.

Do you think this style of development is plausable? or realistic?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

matthewf978

When you say dynamic content I am thinking that you are including functionality for players to upload their own content for inclusion into the online universe. I think that is an exceptional idea. Both for the gamer to make their mark in their world, and also because it relieves some of the stresses of the game developers; players paying for the game are helping to enhance its features. I think it is essential that a review process(whether it be automated or not) be included for uploaded content which will alert travellers that they are drawing near to player-loaded dynamic content; players should have a choice to completely bypass any player-loaded content so that the entire virtual universe is accessible regardless of uploaded content. The warning might include information such as player author, intended level/difficulty, adjacent zones for entering/exiting pathing.