next »

[worldalpha]

Well, I started up my site last week with a DevBlog.  I have 5 DevBlogs thus far, and if there is interest here, I will start reposting them here.  I plan to do at least one DevBlog a week, maybe more, as development progress.  Hope you guys check it out, and let me know what you think.

http://www.worldalpha.com/devblog

[worldalpha]

Day 32 to Day 90 - The Core

Well, my inspiration started to form into a list of tasks, for the programming job ahead.  I started to envision gameplay.  Again, I wanted as much realism as possible, so I started with how a person would spend their time doing what they thought was most important.  I then looked at creating a realistic economy with many different products, having different qualities.  Then I looked at how the politics would work, and how the military would wage war.  Finally aspects like media, and social play.
 
As I was developing all these ideas, I realized that it was getting big, and I would need help programming it.  So, the natural fit would be using the company I was a partner in, Robin Hood Technology Inc. (RHT). We had a good group, that was beginning to understand what I had envisioned.  All my previous work, had been with inline procedural PHP and MySQL.  As the team at RHT thought about it, they were envisioning a system of Object-Oriented PHP with API calls down with AJAX and jQuery.  All three I hadn’t programmed with, so I was a little nervous.  The project was set-up and they started to develop a core for the game.  They started with the lobby, registration, and then moved on to activities (i.e. how a person would spend their time).  It was starting to come together, but the more deeply they got involved, the more I realize I had a lot to learn to start to contribute, as this was all new to me.  It wasn’t long before I knew that I would need to hire at least one person, maybe two, to keep the project moving.

[worldalpha]

Day 91 to Day 135 – Finding Programmers

So, now the search for some programmers begin.   I started by creating want ads for 2 positions: a PHP Developer, and a JS / AJAX Ninja.  I was looking for someone mid-range, not a recent grad, but not a long-time professional, to hopefully keep the costs reasonable, at the same time, hopefully finding someone that would be productive right away.  I also hoped that they would have some sort of interest/passion in gaming. 
In past I had little luck finding programmers for my previous endeavours, so I thought I would make it a little challenging, by having a short survey to fill out, that including a small programming task, as well as evaluating a potential timeline for the development of an established game.   I realized that I was asking for a few hours of work, but thought it would weed out a lot of poor or worse lazy programmers.  Well it certainly weeded out a lot.  I had 33 resumes in my hands within a few weeks.  I asked each one to take the time to do the survey, and only 1 of the 33 did it completely.  A few had issues with it, saying I was asking for them to do “consulting” for free, which surprised me, as there was nothing I was asking them, that I could or would use!
So, this left me with just one candidate, who was unfortunately about 8 hours away by car.  This was not ideal by any stretch, as I wanted someone local, but with few options, and this person showing a keen desire, I had a phone interview with him.  He spoke well, and had all the answers.  So, I decided to take the risk, and hired him on contract.  Soon he was at the office, with a 3 day intensive to share my vision of WorldAlpha with him.

[worldalpha]

Day 136 to Day 243 - My First Programmer

With big anticipation on my part, the programmer went back and started to work on the game.  While he had been at the office, I shared a lot of the vision, and a lot of the overall thoughts regarding the game, but we hadn't dealt with a lot of the details.  There was a basic framework, but not a lot of the specific gameplay details and database structure.  My hope was that he would be able to take that vision and turn it into a functioning game.  What I had hired was a front-end programmer that could do back-end if needed.  Being unsuccessful at finding a back-end programmer, I gave him the green light to work on both aspects.  Initially I did see some progress as the design was converted on the front-end, and the game started to be playable.  I was getting excited, seeing the game in action.  The amount of functionality was limited to doing an activity, as was programmed initially in the core.
 
 Now, we needed more aspects of the economy working.  We needed to have factories, so that meant we needed to be able to build buildings.  To build buildings, we needed to be able to purchase construction materials as well as purchase land.  It was all interconnected, and though I left the programmer with a lot of ideas, I hadn't done a lot of concrete stuff, like setting up the database, giving specific pages with actions, etc.  Unfortunately, it was becoming clear that I was asking way too much of the programmer, and I needed to give him more details.  The project stalled.  It was becoming clear to me, that I needed to give my programmer, really specific instructions, and I just hadn't done that.  I botched the process, and the project suffered.  It wasn't long before there was frustration growing on both sides, and that I really needed to get into the code, and start developing more elements to the game, before a programmer would be able to take over.  So, we decided, that for the time being I would take the project back, and in future when I needed more front-end work done, I would have to give him very detailed instructions on what I needed done.  I had learned my lesson.

[worldalpha]

Day 244 to Day 273 – A New Direction

Well, the game was at a crossroads.  I need to take over the programming to see movement, but the core that had been programmed was based on Objected-Oriented PHP, jQuery, and AJAX.  I had limited experience with all three of them.  It was a daunting task thinking of trying to get up to speed on all the languages, all at once.  So, I had a decision to make, do I continue to use the core as it had been developed, or do I break from the core, and go with procedural PHP, which I was comfortable with. In my desire to see movement, I chose the latter.  Within a couple of weeks, I was seeing real progress, as I was now at the helm, and programming on a daily basis, the parts that needed to come together for the economy module.  The spare database was getting filled with tables, as I was able to layout my vision, and start to bring all the various pieces together.  The Marketplace, real estate, building construction, special items shop, hiring for a job, take a job, refining the activities, all of this became a reality in short order.  I was finally seeing a playable game, and it was exciting to see all the parts finally coming together.

[worldalpha]

Hmmm.  4 Posts, and not a single comment.  Are my DevBlogs boring, or so thorough, that no one needs to ask any questions?  Help me out here guys.  Debating whether I should bother posting updates here or not.

[IzzyReggie]

Looking at your posts and around your website, I can't find much information on what gameplay would actually be like. Is it going to be your general social mmorts fare, like Samurai Dynasty and Illyriad are/were? Does your game have anything that makes it stand out from the rest?

I am enjoying that you're talking about the process of partnering up and finding people to work with, etc. though. It gives some insight that not many other devblogs do.

[Geeze]

Oh someone posted during me writing this. Ah well...

I think why people are not that interested in this because
a) People like a lot more about art and design. Not technical unless you are telling details. Here you are just describing vaguely what tech you use etc.
b) It seems to not be that unique project. There are plenty of browser RTS games. You really should share more of your desing visions.
c) Those walls of text! People like screenshots! Even when they're not pretty.
If you want a great example of a great devlog, look at Gabriel Verdon's the Archer. First of all it's a great game (it's the next Cave Story IMO), he puts lots of screens there and he listens to the crowd, and usually personally reölies to each comment.

[worldalpha]

Looking at your posts and around your website, I can't find much information on what gameplay would actually be like. Is it going to be your general social mmorts fare, like Samurai Dynasty and Illyriad are/were? Does your game have anything that makes it stand out from the rest?

I am enjoying that you're talking about the process of partnering up and finding people to work with, etc. though. It gives some insight that not many other devblogs do.

I actually am going to start to put more of the gameplay on the site.  Thanks for this insight I appreciate it.  In regards to what I have written, I was hoping that it would give more of the whole business of creating a game, and not just the very specific design aspects that most DevBlogs talk about.

[worldalpha]

Oh someone posted during me writing this. Ah well...

I think why people are not that interested in this because
a) People like a lot more about art and design. Not technical unless you are telling details. Here you are just describing vaguely what tech you use etc.
b) It seems to not be that unique project. There are plenty of browser RTS games. You really should share more of your desing visions.
c) Those walls of text! People like screenshots! Even when they're not pretty.
If you want a great example of a great devlog, look at Gabriel Verdon's the Archer. First of all it's a great game (it's the next Cave Story IMO), he puts lots of screens there and he listens to the crowd, and usually personally reölies to each comment.

a) I will get into more of the art/design as I "catch" up my blog to current day including the concept art, etc.
b) I think in terms of Social Strategy MMOs, there are only a handful, and the way mine will play out will be quite different from what is out there.
c) Yes, I will have more graphics in my upcoming DevBlog posts.  I too want to listen to the crowd, and respond to each post (Until you two, there were none to respond to!)

Thanks for the insight.

[worldalpha]

While I was continuing to plug away at the programming, and starting to see pieces come together, I found out about Digifest, and signed up for a booth at the show.  This put real pressure to have something to show.  While, I was getting some gameplay, I realized that I didn't have the visuals to go along with it.  So, off to polycount.com I went to try to get someone to do some Concept Art for me, so that I could have some visuals on my dev site.  I got talking with a few artists, and finally was able to get Rodrigo from Brazil, to do some artwork for me.  It didn’t take him long to come up with the following sketches.  He made changes with each of my suggestions.







I was pleased with how the sketch looked, so now he started to work on the final product.  I was a little nervous, as I wanted this ultra-modern realistic feel in mind, and hoped what I shared via email,  was communicated effectively.  Well, Rodrigo came through.  He was able to give the “glassy” modern look I was hoping for.  I was thrilled with the final product, and soon it was incorporated into the website.

[davidp]

it's a shame you guys took out those two people watching over the city on a platform, it looks amazing.

[worldalpha]

it's a shame you guys took out those two people watching over the city on a platform, it looks amazing.

As the middle section is going to be where most of the game content is going to be, this unfortunately would have been lost.  So, we decided against it.

[worldalpha]

Day 303 to 343 - Initial Marketing Begins
 
Well, now that I had a website up and running, I need to get some people to it.  In creating an MMO, I’ll need to have a fairly big community at launch, to make it Massively Multiplayer.  So, even though the game is still several months out, I knew I needed to start to garner some interest.  Here are some of the initial marketing efforts I made.
 
Digifest
 
As I already posted here this DevBlog, I went to Digifest, and met up with some other gamers, as well as other gaming companies.  It was good to actually meet people, and talk to them about my game.
 
Forums
 
Next, to get the site out there, I went to a bunch of game development websites and started to get feedback from others about what I had developed in regards to the site.  Here are a few I sent posts to:
 
GameDev - http://www.gamedev.net/topic/613834-worldalpha-website-to-be-launched-feedback-appreciated/
 
TIGSource - http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=22512.0
 
ModDB - http://www.moddb.com/forum/thread/worldalphacom-new-social-strategy-mmo-in-development
 
IndieGamer - http://forums.indiegamer.com/showthread.php?29062-WorldAlpha-website-launched.-Feedback-appreciated.
 
DevMaster - http://devmaster.net/forums/topic/15373-worldalpha-website-to-be-launched-feedback-appreciated/
 
After the game development forums, I also went to some MMO related web-sites and posted it there as well.
 
ONRPG – http://www.onrpg.com/boards/188146.html
 
Kongregate - http://www.kongregate.com/forums/3-general-gaming/topics/226987-worldalpha-com-new-mmorts-in-development
 
MMOSite -http://forum.mmosite.com/thread/2/212/20111104/WorldAlpha_website_to_be_launched_Feedback_appreciated-4eb436e934dd1b813-1.html
 
DevBlogs
 
Along with creating my devblog, I also took the opportunity to post it at a couple of DevBlog sites.  Hoping to get a bit more exposure to the game I was creating as well as some feedback.
 
GameDev - http://www.gamedev.net/blog/1336-worldalphacom-devblog/
 
TIGSource - http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=22656.0
 
Twitter @TweetGamersNow
 
Having a Twitter account for WorldAlpha at @WorldAlphaGame, I started to explore more of what Twitter had to offer.  I started to think about having a separate account, that I could have lots of game related twitter accounts followed as well as gamers.  So, I did a little searching and found TweetGamers.com was available as a domain, but unfortunately @TweetGamers was not at Twitter, but @TweetGamersNow was.  So, I registered the domain, and started a new Twitter account.  I took some time to find and follow lots of games.  I also came across Twiends.com a service that allows you to find friends to follow.   Quickly I was able to grow my Twitter account to over 600 followers.
 
IRC
 
One Saturday morning, I was thinking of other ways to connect with gamers, and I knew a few games that use IRC to allow their community to talk amongst themselves.  I decide to jump on to IRC and join a few of these channels, to see how it worked.  Soon, I was chatting about my game, and an ircer kcirp offered to help me create my own #worldalpha channel.  I jumped at the opportunity, and with the experience he had, it just took ½ hr and I was up and running.  Since then we’ve had up to 10 people chatting, and a lot of good discussion about the game, as I seek input as to what would make the game better.  I’ve gotten some great feedback, and hope to incorporate some of this feedback into my game.
 
Reddit
 
My final bit of marketing I discovered during this time was reddit.  I took some of my DevBlog articles, and posted it them there.  In terms of up votes/down votes I had mild success, but I did get a lot of visitors to the site.  A lot more than any other site that I had posted to, but I also get a lot of bounces.  So, it is an interesting avenue that I hope will yield more success as the game gets closer to completion.
 
Well, those are all the interesting areas of marketing that I explored.  How about you?  Do you have any interesting and creative ways to market an indie game?  Please leave a comment and let me know.

[worldalpha]

To see if this generates any more interest or comments, I'll just point members to our newest DevBlog Day 344 to Day 365 – Graphics, Teaser Trailers, Marketing & More at our site here:

http://www.worldalpha.com/devblog/day-344-to-day-365-graphics-teaser-trailers-marketing--more

[worldalpha]

Newest DevBlog Here:

Day 366 to Day 373 - A Sniper Background Takes Shape
http://www.worldalpha.com/devblog/day-366-to-day-373-a-sniper-background-takes-shape

[worldalpha]

Newest DevBlog Here:
Day 374 to Day 380 - Huge Marketing Boost & Lead Artist Found

http://www.worldalpha.com/devblog/day-374-to-day-380-huge-marketing-boost--lead-artist-found

[worldalpha]

Newest DevBlog Here:
Day 374 to Day 380 - Sniper Assets & Military Takes Shape
http://www.worldalpha.com/devblog/day-374-to-day-380-sniper-assets--military-takes-shape

[worldalpha]

Newest DevBlog Here:
Day 380 to Day 386 - Sniper Game Progresses & More Winners
http://www.worldalpha.com/devblog/day-380-to-day-386-sniper-game-progresses--more-winners

[worldalpha]

Newest DevBlog Here:
Day 381 to Day 387 - Organizing Graphics & Development
http://www.worldalpha.com/devblog/day-381-to-day-387-organizing-graphics--development