Long-term question....

Hi all,

Posting this to ask a question about MMF...

Some years back, I'd bought TGF (not ver 2) and was starting to learn to make games with it. For some reason, I became something of a "3D snob" and dismissed 2D graphics as a legitimate way to create games. Dunno why, since I still greatly enjoy *playing* 2D games... Wierd. I also got hooked on MMORPGs... which is a time-consuming activity in itself.

Anyway...

I've recently "rediscovered" 2D as a still-viable and even, in many cases, superior platform for game making; esp. as 3D becomes more and more difficult, expensive and involved to work with... and still manages to look aged over time as technology improves. It's my general philosophy that, while technology (pixel shaders, etc) become obsolete and "dated-looking" over time, good artwork never looks bad, whether 2D raster graphics or texture maps.

I'm becoming jaded by MMORPGs as well, I think. Not the games themselves, but the fact that though they're supposed to encourage a sense of "community", they mostly seem to encourage, elitism, cliques and competition.

I've also come to miss the old days of playing Neverwinter Nights 1 on some custom servers. They only supported, maybe 50 players a time... but had that sense of community that I've almost always found lacking in MMORPGs.

So... I decided to take a project I've been designing for some as a 3D MMO and instead create it as a smaller-scale 2D/isometric MORPG; multiplayer without the "massive".

This isn't my immediate plan as
A: I'm still working on its design and
B: I need to find and learn the technology I'll be using. Which ever it is, I'll be starting small, making Arkanoid clones and the like. Then I can move on to a few small-ish single-player games I've got some design work done for. This way I'm getting ample experience and still being creative in the process. By then, or at some point along the way, I think I might be ready to begin work in earnest on the multiplayer game.

While Googling around for options, I remembered MMF and decided to come here and check it out again; see how it was doing, etc. Glad to see it's alive and kickin'!

I'm really keen on using MMF for my smaller projects; I'm sure it'll handle them beautifully. However, I'm wondering how capable MMF is for that isometric multiplayer project I was talking about?

Can it handle a large online world (not seamless; there would be zones, of course) with maybe 50-60 people logged in at the same time? I'm sure much of that is determined by server hardware, etc...

But, as far as the networking functions available in or for MMF (I've seen there's a powerful extension kit which seems to handle this; the name eludes me atm), is it a feasible project to work toward with this tech? Or should I seek out a different option for that project?


Thanks!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Wolfsong73

Some years back, I'd bought TGF (not ver 2) and was starting to learn to make games with it. For some reason, I became something of a "3D snob" and dismissed 2D graphics as a legitimate way to create games.

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You can make 3D games in The Games Factory?
since when?
and 1000times more importantly... how?

I thought only MMF2 could make 3D Games and it's not really that good for it.


Answer to your question: Moogame is designed for network games and it can probably handle MMO with some lagg (Moogame has dead reckoning what ever that is), I have never used Moogame due to not knowing how to use it.

lol...

Guess I didn't explain that well enough.. My bad...

I wasn't trying to make a 3D game in Games Factory... I never actually got to creating the game itself... I'm still in the design stages.

It was intended to be a 3D game, but I wouldn't have been using TGF to create it. I was learning TGF to make 2D games before I became a "3D Snob" and dismissed 2D as a viable option.

Sorry for the confusion. :)

Currently MooGame and MooClick are your options for an online multiplayer game. Have a search for those and you should be able to find plenty of info.

Also, there is a new online extension in the works called OINC (being created by Jamie I think) which should be a big improvement on the current options

The OINC beta is coming increasingly soon ;)