Can I build an MMO If all I know Is Binary?

Development Programming & Scripting C++
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1

I only Know basic Binary, and I would Like to make a MMO. I do not know c++ or understand what it is!

Ok Also Here is a fact. I am Not even 18 yet… I will not share my age though.
So, Is It possible to build a game with A very LOW level of knowledge? Also What Can I use as a platform ?

2

The short answer is “No”.

Here’s a longer answer: http://www.sloperama.com/advice/idea.htm

3

Well, It’s not even close to enough. Most of the programming doesn’t include the knowledge of counting in binary. But don’t be devastated! I think I can give you a few tips since I paddle in the same boat. Well, I know C++, but I’m also older a bit.

You don’t have too much options choosing the engine. I’ve tried Unity3D before, but it relies heavily on C++, but you can find a lot of tutorials to it, because that was the very first free game engine (that I know of). There is maybe a free version of CryEngine, but I don’t know much about it. Then there is this: Unreal Engine. Waaay more user friendly than the other options because of its Blueprint “programming”. It’s a very powerful program and has regular nice updates. The forum is a bit of a mess, but you probably can find every answer you’ll need.

First things first: The best is if you try to learn C++ by yourself from online, but be sure to choose your next school(university/collage) so that you’ll have programming classes. (bonus If you can learn 3Ds Max or SolidWorks, or any other 3d modelling there.) You don’t necessarily need

Second:
The Epic Games staff made some exceptionally good Video Tutorials. https://docs.unrealengine.com/latest/INT/Videos/ Don’t only watch them, DO them. ALL of them. Well, maybe not the car racer one, if you don’t plan in that genre. And if I remember well, the Radial Impact is the easiest.

Third:
If you are done with ALL of the tutorials, just start making your game. Don’t expect any fast improvement. Remember this phase is not for making the game, but for learning new aspects of the engine by trying to create something that you like.

By that time if you really like that idea of yours, your head will be full of this world. You should be thinking about the story, the environments, the important NPCs, the history, etc. Start drawing a few sketches of armors, creatures, buildings, maps, and write down scenes, dialogs, history, anything. Save a few music that would fit in your game. Do whatever you can bring your world out of your head. If you are brave enough show ANYTHING to your friends, your family, anyone, even if they are not interested in games. Ask them what they do/don’t like about it, hear them out whatever they say even if it sounds self-evident. They have to feel that their opinions matter.

Be realistic. An MMO is not a one-person job. It needs a lot of people, time, and resources to make one. You’ll need either professional friends or you’d have to be in a game company. But if that happens, it won’t be you who makes the models, the sounds, maybe even the story. But everything you can show them by that time helps them to create something closer to your ideas.

My advice for creating your game:

  1. Decide what do you want the players to feel. Should they feel powerful/powerless? Nostalgia? Fear? Discomfort? Calmness? Do you want to show them what does it feel like to fly? To fight with swords/magic? These will be the core. Everything you create after this should serve these purposes. If they do not, maybe they are unnecessary and should be taken out.
  2. Imagine a world where the whole #1 could all come true. Your story and game will feel rich, real, and alive only if you have 4-10 times the content that you could actually show. Check out Skyrim, Halo, BioShock but even Star Wars and Lord of the Rings. If you meet a strange looking tree you can learn everything about it online. You have to know what happened a few hundreds of years before the game, how do the common people live their everyday life. How do they feel. Where do they study. What is happening in the politics and why. Everything.
  3. Try to decide how will you Game World will look like. This is NOT the same as the #2. Could you collect the souls of the defeated monsters? Could you revive at your last seen telephone booth? Could you craft a gun from a few scrap metal? In your World, of course not. But in your Game World, you can! It’s the #2 infused with the ideas of the #1 so you will get a game mechanics that can give the players the experience that you wanted.

Don’t stop until you feel it realistic. Until you don’t know everyone in your game as you do your friends. Their feelings, goals, their past, their personality. Don’t give up, work hard and maybe I will se you at the E3 in ten years!

P.s.: Check out the youtube channel “Extra Credits” They have plenty of very useful video for you! They can tell you about this much more than I can in a comment

4

Just to correct you:

Unity 5 relies on C#, not C++.

CryEngine is 100% free if you want.

But agree with you. Someone with no knowledge on programming should go for blueprints.

5

You already received great answers, so I will only do a little comment:

Even for advanced programmers, building a MMO is very complicated.

Also knowing basic binary is almost the same as knowing nothing. To make a game, you need to program. Unreal’s Blueprints is a great choice, as you can easy see all that you are doing. If you are planning to know how to code, then I reccomend you Unity 5 and C#, because Unity and Visual Studio makes C# easy to understand, while Unreal’s C++ is more complex and is harder to find good tutorials for it.

Well, it is never “too soon” to learn how to make games. Start with little projects, create a MMO when you know that you know enough.

“But how do I know that I know enough?” Well, when you know enough, you simply don’t ask. :wink: