next »

[CipherJonathan]

Alongside a small group of alpha testers, I've been improving and expanding the alpha version of a game I've been working on for a while now - The Matrix Unplugged (a text-based MMORPG in which you control a redpill who's been freed from the Matrix), and today, I feel that the game has achieved enough balance and stability for me to be comfortable putting it into public beta.

The game has a working missions system, in which you can perform tasks in exchange for money or experience points, a training system, where you can train your core stats (Combat, Coding, Hacking and Tactics), a combat system, where you can initiate combat against other players (PvP), or against one of the 13 in-game NPCs, and gain money or experience if you're successful, a Hovercraft Crew system, similar to a gang/clan system in many games of this type, which allows you to found your own hovercraft crew or join another player's, converse privately with your crew, and be promoted through the ranks of "Driver", "Operator" and ultimately, "Captain". There are also a multitude of other features, including Item Markets and Training Programs, which are currently available, and which have been heavily tested.
As such, I welcome any of you who are interested in playing the beta version of the game to sign up for free here: http://www.matrixunplugged.co.uk !

Here're two screenshots I dug up (the sidebar and design have been altered quite a bit since then, so rest assured that in the current version of the game, the text is a bit more readable ) The first screenshot is of the Explore page, where the majority of the game's features can be accessed, whilst the second is a snapshot of the current version of the combat system (me attacking an NPC - Morpheus):

I hope to update this thread periodically as new features are added to the game. As I said before, it'd be awesome if you could sign up and perhaps give us feedback on how we can make the game better - we welcome and encourage any and all input which you may have!

And, most importantly, have fun!

[biomechanic]

Can you say "copyright infringement"?

[Udderdude]

Uh oh.  You have about 10 seconds to completely change your game so it has nothing to do with the Matrix, before a swarm of copyright lawyers arrives and beats you into the ground. >_>

[CipherJonathan]

The number of games of this type currently in existence which contain little to no original content make me feel relatively confident that copyright infringement should not be an issue.

Besides, look at Hogwarts Live. It's a text-based MMO game, quite similar to this one, built entirely off a copyrighted franchise which is probably a lot more high-profile than The Matrix (at the moment, at least). It's been online for quite some time, has 500,000+ members and not so much as a C&D letter.

If there are any legal problems, I plan to just put the game back up as a parody version. I'm not letting it die without a fight.

[CipherJonathan]

Anyhoo (moving away from any questionable licensing problems ) - I just released a feature which we've been testing for a while now - the Friendship System. Essentially, you can now click "Friendship Lists" in the sidebar menu to bring up the list of friends who you've added. From there, you can add friends, interact with existing friends, see who is most liked and see how many people have added you. Here's a screenshot of the initial friendship list interface:
http://i.imgur.com/8kBsK.png

There's still a lot of work which I plan to do on the friendship system, but this is pretty cool for a first step. The friendship list also allows you to view your friends' profiles, send them money or contact them via in-game message, all in just one-click, which should save a lot of time for the more social players.

If you're interested - I'm also finishing up developing the Enemy List system, so that you can add other players as your enemy and even prevent them from being able to communicate with you (basically a blacklist). That'll be unveiled within the next couple of days, hopefully.

[CipherJonathan]

Oh, also (since I've been working quite a bit today), I finished off the Enemy/Blacklist system, and made some decent progress on a secret feature which I hope to reveal next week

Anyway, the Enemy List system works in practically the same way as the Friends List system: you click a link in the sidebar to bring you to your enemy list, where you can view who you've added as an enemy, how many people have added you as an enemy, and who the most hated players are at that time. When you've added a player to your enemy list, you then have one-click options to mail them or attack them, and you're even given options to blacklist them completely, so that they are unable to contact you (useful if a particular player is spamming/bullying you). Here's a snapshot which I took of the blacklist system at present:
http://i.imgur.com/Jfb9J.png

I plan on adding a couple of new features which should make the game generally more social, and which will hopefully make it more pleasant to interact with other players. It's weird how whenever I release a feature, I always find that there's... like... 3x as much development work to do afterwards

Regardless, have fun playing and testing these new systems. I hope to see you in-game!

[CipherJonathan]

I've spent pretty much the majority of my waking hours working on adding new stuff to the game this week. I've added countless new items, weapons, missions and training programs. Just now, I unveiled a fairly major feature - the Organizations System. Organizations will work in basically the same way as jobs or companies in other games of this type; in that you gain money and stat bonuses by joining an organization, and can be promoted through the organization (hence earning high rewards), the higher your stats are. There are currently 3 organizations in the game (but more will be added soon): Zion Military (mainly combat-based), Machines (mainly intelligence-based) and Merovingian (mainly tactics-based).

To see how the basic interface looks and works, check out this screenshot: http://i.imgur.com/3L56P.png .

I've been working on a ton of other stuff as well, including a massively improved training system, and an AJAX-based chat system, but they're not quite ready to be shown off yet.

There're still a few kinks in the organization system, which will hopefully be resolved in the next day or two. Nevertheless, I hope you have fun using it!