[biggerUniverse]

You all probably remember The Mana World (may change names?), and lately I've been watching it with interest. Here is a project with a user following, and new users daily. It's interesting to see a vibrant, alive project get regular releases and plenty of hours of developer, artist, and designer work. What's everyone have to say about it?

http://themanaworld.org
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We are on the outer reaches of someone else's universe.

[carbon]

I'm pretty sure the webmaster of RPGDX is plays a crucial role in that project.
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Current Project: Destrike

[biggerUniverse]

And so you'd be correct. But I'm looking at it objectively as a fledgling, semi-successful indie MMORPG.
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We are on the outer reaches of someone else's universe.

[Nephilim]

I downloaded the Mac client and tried it out.

Seemed to work pretty smoothly. The UI elements were somewhat difficult to use, I found, but that's something that can be fixed in the future as development continues, I expect.

Seems pretty fleshed out already for an indie MMORPG. It had all the elements necessary - character development, combat, equipment, walking around and talking to characters, shops, etc. That's good, because it means that you're reaching that tipping point where the effort goes from being focused on getting a working engine to being focused on defining the content that makes your engine and game world truly unique, which is what allows you to connect with the players and start building a following.
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Visit the Sacraments web site to play the game and read articles about its development.

[Bjorn]

I'm one of the primary programmers on the team. The coolest about working in a team is that a lot of things can get done faster, and the quality of the whole can exceed whatever each individual could have done. I had been thinking about starting a MMORPG project, as have more people here I think, and joining this project, already more than half a year into development, has undoubtedly turned out better than I could have done myself.

Still I feel TMW is moving too slowly and that I can't invest enough time in it myself. But then I have to realize TMW is a hobby project and not something that I can earn money with or something that will help me finish university.

It's true that it seems pretty fleshed out currently, but keep in mind that we're still running the eAthena RO server emulator instead of our own server. There is still a huge job to be done there before we can finally start building up a uniqueness or a player base that rises above 2-20 online people. But I have good hopes that it'll get there eventually. :-)

I think being free software really helps this project. There are a lot of people interested in contributing to free software in all fields, from programming and drawing to hosting a server. Also, mostly for this reason I don't think increased popularity (an undeniable goal) will necessarily make running a free to play server impossible, as in this case there would be many people interested in helping to keep it free.

Can't help but to end with a bit of recruiting: If TMW slightly resembles the MMORPG project you would like to be working on, don't hesitate to jump aboard to see what you can mean for this project.

[carbon]

I'd really like to join a project, ANY project, that is built with C++ and SDL, which I've heard TMW is. However, I'm afraid that I might be inadequate in my programming skills to accomplish any tasks given to me.

I came across TMW even before you were a part of the team, Bjorn, and even now I hesitate to join development teams. I know that experience is the best way to learn, but I have a personal issue where I'm deathly afraid of being a disappointment to anyone, even strangers on the internet.

As soon as I can overcome that fear, maybe I'll join a project. TMW perhaps? :)
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Current Project: Destrike

[Bjorn]

Whatever your area is, you can always start by showing some work and see what the response is. There is no need to join the team right away, and the other developers won't really be disappointed unless you made big promises about your work before. :-)

I joined the project mainly because I wanted to help them with using Tiled as their level editor, as their map editor was severely lacking. Then I went on to do a lot of other things, meaning Tiled development nearly came to a halt, meaning the map editor is still quite lacking, heh.

[biggerUniverse]

[Ren]

TMW is a lot of fun. It still has one or two design issues though. For example, you could make the game immediately more fun for leveling and such by just having your character automatically walk up to an enemy (or NPC, can't remember if they have the same problem) and *then* attack, instead of just swiping the air like they do now. Then stick some enemies in, a few more working maps, some cursory missions, and we can actually start playing this thing while you guys work out the details and such. I also seem to remember things like NPC discussion not flowing smoothely because the dialogue boxes were an odd shape and required scrolling, so someone should look at the interface. In summary, TMW is promising, and i'm impatient to start really playing.
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Previous nicks: MidnightDreamer, The_Anarchist, Shroomasta.

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