MUD and the existenance of community projects

Recent Community Blitz FPS project
http://jandscreations.proboards105.com/index.cgi?board=b3dproj&action=display&thread=134&page=3

@Sauer:Do you want to start MUD?

A community project?!?

what is MUD?

and i am part of that project and its kind of slowed down recently due to the holidays but it is still alive never the less. If we can get more people it will start moving faster

It's a song by Primus, it goes "My name is MUD".

What about Wynona's big brown beaver? Can we do a game about that?

Community projects don't seem to work very well - unless by "Community" you mean one (or two if you are very lucky) active developers.

For these things to work properly, you need a design, a project plan (indicating who needs to do what), and possibly of medium importance... participants. :-p

aye most projects like this are started by someone who in the end wants someone else to write their game for them cos they cant ;)

pit falls
design by committy
too many coders not enough artists
or musicians
or anything else for that matter
sure we get the odd exception to the rule
myke-P and anthony flack spring to mind from the old days, gfx artists who found a quick way to make games themselves and not just art for someone elses 'vision'
and ive seen some good progress with moddeling skills over the years, if i looked back at their works im sure i could find some really naff first attempts posted, but 2-3 years later ...

when the community is predominantly programmers perhaps challenges or limited game 'competitions' would be better
or find some royalty free/whatever gfx and say "here are the sprites, make a game"
i dont know bout now, but the b3D cd was full of place holder art (eg ari fieldman, which now looks dated and very rick dangerous-esque)
but if it was art that every user had atleast we wouldnt hve to go hunting online for something to work with

'Jump Around' is the only successful / completed community project I've seen around here. It worked because the concept was simple and fun and didn't require a huge amount of media.

Holy cow someone actually read my idea!

I would love to make a MUD but I have no networking experience, so unless someone can handle that I'd help. No networking and MUD don't go well together, but again, if someone is good at that kind of thing perhaps I could help...

And it would require little media, being text based and all.

And to Nate, a MUD stands for multi-user dungeon and was the precursor to modern MMORPG. Basically you wander around from room to room, where items and enemies are lying around, and you kill things and talk to people. Pretty simple concept. Most of them were more of a social event, and its just good old timey text based fun.

So if anyone's interested I can take some time off my other projects because this is always something I have wanted to do :)

Glad someone liked my idea! Let me know and we can start talking.

Depends if you set it up properly, I would suggest setting up a google code account. You do however need one or preferably two really enthusiastic people to motivate everyone else.

I've got a bit of networking code built up for a MUD. It is based off of the design outlined in the book 'MUD Game Programming' by Ron Penton.

It's old code, not particularly well documented, but it did work. I don't remember the particulars, or even much about it, but if you'd like to take a look I can get it together sometime next week.

I remember MUD as a very time intensive thing. If there wasn't a wizards conference in town/at the university then these guys mostly were invisible.

@ skn3[ac] I can maybe be a motivator, and organizer if there is sufficient community interest. It would have to be done in B+/B3D format, and couldn't I just keep a thread in the Blitz Programming forums? If organized correctly we could keep the thread in the B+ forum... the head post w/ news and updates, and discussion below about how the program can be better and code postings below. Then the thread starter (motivator/organizer) can implement code as necessary?

@SculptureOfSoul: I started reading that book actually, its quite good. I'd like to see that code too if you don't mind.

So do we want do get this off the ground? I will get a thread started w/ a prototype and design document if sufficient community interest. I'll begin work on the prototype in advance.

Let me know if anyone is interested!

I'll post the code I have as soon as I can get it together. I should mention that it's fairly worthless without an understanding of the structure of the code in the book by Ron Penton mentioned, and I also have some additional code implemented to address dealing with a MySQL database along with hashtable code associated with logic modules.

wow looks like we have a project going... b3d bmax, or b+?

im glad i made that comment.. I guess i 'got it off the ground' already
ill help :)

For a community project, I'm thinking BlitzPlus/Blitz 3d 2d stuff. Ideally B+ GUI would be the best, but seeing as we want to include as many people as possible we should just stick to 2D stuff offered in B+ and B3d.

This project will never work unless we get some experienced programmers to take interest and lead. For this to be a success, it needs to truly be a community project. Realistically, I don't believe I have the skills to lead a project like this, especially since it is so network oriented.

We either need to go another direction or find a better suited leader for a MUD.

All the network code I have is BMax code.

Unfortunately I don't have the time to really partake in the project or even delve back into my own code but hopefully it will be clear enough and you'll find it useful in some manner or another.

It's on a machine I don't have access to for a few days though, hence why I haven't posted it yet. :P

Thanks, I'm sure it will be helpful to someone. I have access to the e-book of MUD Programming so that will help. I too am a bit too busy at the moment, as college is intensifying and I have other projects currently going, but I am willing to postpone them (my projects, not school :p ) to help with a MUD.

About that design document, I'll get that done sometime this week so we can begin. It will outline the main features of the game, some tech aspects, how its played, and what needs to be done to complete it.

EDIT: I've decided that taking on this project is just too much at the moment with all that I am currently involved with. Either someone else must take lead or postpone the project till summer. My apologies.