Modular Real Life Simulator - Follow my progress!

Hey All!

Before I begin, let me introduce myself in order to give you a little back story:

I’m new to UE, but not software development. I’ve always wanted to start building games from the time I picked up a Sega Genesis controller, and have dabbled with game development along the way (briefly). I have extensive experience with web development and am fluent in many languages (C++ is not one of them). I love and am passionate about great feeling physics games, with much of my time being spent playing racing, military and flight sims. I’m a developer, not a designer or animator which means I will be using lots of model assets in the marketplace! I plan to write code, rather than use the blueprints. Although I already know lots of things will be done with blueprints. I enjoy long walks on the beach, though the nearest beach is over 100 miles away…

Also, you all should know that I am really bad at finishing things. Hopefully this thread helps!

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My path to UE started like this (chronological order, and reason why I abandoned it):

Note: Don’t see the following list as me bashing the following game engines. They all are awesome, and great games have been produced from them! They just haven’t been my “cup of tea.”

  1. Game Maker: This was my first taste with game building. I had no idea what I was doing, didn’t like building 2D games and quickly gave up.
  2. Cocos2D & Box2D: Again, 2D games. Cool physics, just not my thing though.
  3. Cry Engine: Fast forward several years and I’m well on my way to being done with college and decide that I am going to build the game that I am about to talk about. I had caught wind that you could start developing for free, had played Crysis, and loved the realism that the engine brought immediately. My excitement quickly turned to anguish as I tried to digest the difficult concepts and structures without proper documentation. I got busy with other things and after about 5 months I gave up.
  4. Unity: I soon moved to Unity because it was free and so much easier to learn. I had much experience with Javascript as well as C# so scripting came easy for me. I was apprehensive the whole time I messed with Unity because I place such a high value on realism. In Unity you have to build your game up to the level of realism you desire, as opposed to Cry Engine where IMO you get ultimate realism out of the box. Every Unity game has this cheap feeling that bugs me. Not sure exactly how to describe it. In the end I couldn’t get past that fact.

… so fast forward to a month or two ago when I download myself a copy of Unreal Engine (it’s free-ish, yay!). The first thing I noticed about UE was the open-source mentality. As an open-source minded person I can definitely appreciate the community and the willingness to change. The second thing is that I’ve also thoroughly enjoyed writing in C++ again. I love the structure and strictness that it forces on you (…I’ve spent a lot of time with Javascript). The third thing is the documentation, which so far is great. I just discovered the community tutorials pages (https://wiki.unrealengine.com/Category:Tutorials) last night; nice work all! And the fourth thing is the engine’s power. I feel like I can do whatever I want with this engine without it being extremely difficult (think Cry Engine), and that is a good feeling.

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The Game

…ok so my idea isn’t fully baked, I have no idea what I’m doing and I’m going to use the phrase “I want to build an MMORPG” in a second, so bear with me. :cool:

I want to build an MMORPG.

Have any of you seen this game: http://identityrpg.com/? It was on Kickstarter last year. Well, my concept is similar-ish to theirs. The basic idea is this:

You have a world (think Earth) that is very big, but broken into sections/regions/states/counties/parishes/whatev, with each section being a new map. The game is built around the economy and player driven advancement such that each section can have many player governed zones. So a faction could come into power somewhere and impose taxes, laws and restrictions on the populace.

The major differentiation from other games is that this concept, like Eve, is built around the economy (supply/demand) bringing the fun factor to the game, not gun-play. Guns will almost be an afterthought.

As I said previously, this is not a fully baked plan. Just more of a roadmap for me to follow. The following are major aspects to the concept:

Modularity

The game is built in a way that makes future functionality bolt-on and infinitely scaleable. Given the MMORPG-ness, being able to scale is extremely important for the success of the game. Like in Eve, if we need to expand the universe to accommodate the player base, we should be able to. I would like to have the idea of space, spacecraft and planets in the game. But not in the sense of fantasy spacecraft flying at warp speed across the galaxy. It will be extremely difficult to gain the skills and resources needed to get out of the atmosphere, but extremely satisfying when you do.

Economy

Supply and demand is what brings players back to the game, just like in real life. If you want to build a building, you will need resources like wood. To get wood you need to either go cut down a tree or buy it from somewhere. To buy it you need money. This also introduces the idea of production of resources. You should be able to buy and sell everything. Are you seeing a demand for wood? You should be able to build a lumber yard. Are you Richard Branson and trying to sell space travel? You can do that. Do you operate a transportation company? Possible. Do you sell real estate? Possible.

Government

Players should have the tools to build local and regional governments. This introduces a power struggle because governments have hierarchy and can impose taxes, laws and restrictions. Players have freedom to manage their area how they choose.

Realism

Walking/running/driving/flying/etc should all feel authentic. Real life has gravity. We have real-life equations to predict movements. Let’s utilize them. However, games like Arma are really cool, but they don’t feel good. Movement is clunky and not fluid. Not ok.

Crafting

Players should be able to build buildings and in-game items. More on that later.

Player skills and advancement

Characters need to learn skills to be able to do more advanced things, like in real life. More on that later. I anticipate lots of questions about this.

Polish

Releases should be often, they should be tested, and they should be polished.

Customer Driven

The community should be heavily involved in the formulation of the game. There are no closed doors.

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So I can see the comment section now:

You want to build a MMORPG that does everything, and you have no game dev experience… You’re an idiot.

Yes and yes and yes. This is a hobby for now and a great learning experience. I want to learn game dev and I mise-well be building something I’m passionate about. I’m more focused on build something awesome than I am a business right now.

There are so many holes in this concept that is boggles my mind. You’re an idiot.

Yes and yes. This is just a general roadmap to guide my concrete thinking way. The story will continue to develop.

You’re awesome.

Why thank you. I agree completely.

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I will be using this thread as a place to post updates on my progress. These updates will include screen shots, videos, major things I’ve learned, and other random ramblings. I’m hoping to post one every two weeks.

Let me know what you think. I’m excited to get started!

  • rlfrahm

An amazing idea taken before it rolled off of my tongue, i like you, have little to no experience creating games but this needs to be done.

Agreed. This is something that I have been thinking about for a long time and feel like the gaming industry is slowly creeping towards!