[2ME] 2D MMORPG Engine

[Underglow]

Hi,

 

I have been an indie game developer for the last 15 years & am a professional software developer. Eclipse / Intersect Engine have inspired me develop a tool to create 2D MMORPGS that's flexible.

 

I'm developing a 2D MMORPG engine that will provide full customisation while delivering full control to the user; this engine is currently unnamed and therefore, I'll be referring to it as "2ME" (2D MMORPG Engine). The current issues I've noticed with the 2D MMORPG Engines available, is they take a lot of control out of the users hands when it comes assets and game play. 2ME strives to give that control back to the user.

 

 

For example, animations:

 

 

Not only can individual animations be named, but each frame can have a different set duration & origin.

 

 

Create play lists for maps:

 

 

 

2ME has been under development for the last 3 months.

Check out my public Trello board for progress.

 

Planned Features:

• Editors
  • Maps
  • Classes
  • Items
  • Quests
  • Shops
  • NPCs
• Resources
  • Sprites / Animations (+ Editor)
  • Tilesets
  • Images
  • Languages / Language Items
  • Sounds
  • Music
  • Music Play Lists
• System
  • Highly scalable reliable UDP network.
  • Customisable folder and resource structure.
  • Triggers (Events -> Conditions -> Actions) - No need to code.
  • Customisable:
    • Player attributes
    • Genders
    • Formulas
    • Player controls (includes point & click movement!)
    • Movement: choose between: grid or pixel based movement.
  • Multiple database back-end support (MSSQL, MySQL etc.).
  • Platformer / Top-down game support.
  • Path Finding (A*)
• Other:
  • Documentation will exist for every editor and system within 2ME. That is a promise.

[boberski]

Any download/git/other?

[Beefy Kasplant]

Cool! Plans to add pixel based movement? 

 

It would be good to have an engine that steps away from the tilebased movement and attacks

[Xeno]

Good luck. And I agree with dashplant pixel based movement would be nice. For action or non-action based games alike. It just kinda covers two playing fields at once. Even the option would be nice.

Some advice: Start with the basics that give the engine an edge. Even things like animated text on screen, fade to black/white transitions, and other small details are almost pivotal for any good title.

[Gibier]

Indeed pixel movement would be a great addition to the engine if the engine is planned to have more than one type of game.

 

Few pixel in a plateformer will make that the player will or will not finish a level.

[Underglow]

@Dashplant suggestion has been added to the list of features due to it's popularity. This will be an option.

 

@Xenogene

Thank you for the advice, I will take this into consideration.

 

@Gibier

Great point.

 

 

Thank you for the feedback everyone. I will keep the thread updated with progress.

[Underglow]

Languages

 

All game originated entities (e.g items, classes, quests, UI elements etc.) will require a "language item" [or number of] to be created for it's textual representation in the game. You will be able to set the default language that's displayed in the editor (rather then just seeing the name of a language item, you will also see the text attached to it too!).

 

This is the language item editor:

Edited February 27, 2019 by Underglow
Fixed screenshot.

[Underglow]

States & Directions

 

Configure all character states (except the defaults). Custom character states can be set via the trigger system (TBA).

[Ainz Ooal Gown]

Very promising, looks great so far

[Weylon Santana]

I like the idea. @jcsnider could use this idea of translation for the intersect, or spritesheet.  [I already know about spritesheet, everyone makes their own when the source comes out in 2077, but who does not cry does not breast. this is just a joke ]

It seems promising if there is a continuous work ... I would use without problems.
I have some doubts @Underglow

 

One is this.

On 2/23/2019 at 6:21 AM, boberski said:

Any download/git/other?

seems unanswered.

 

And...

 

Will it be free to use?
Already own website?
Do you want to do open source?
Are there places to be able to follow you? [I want to follow, for example, facebook, webpage, etc ...]
Are there more people on staff besides you?
Do you work on more than one project?
Do you want to give this engine a long time?
Does streaming or something like that always present the engine and such?
And finally, in how many months [or years] do you think you will have a ready '' functional '' base?

 

And yes, this is an interview. 

[panda]

8 minutes ago, Weylon Santana said:

I like the idea. @jcsnider could use this idea of translation for the intersect, or spritesheet.  [I already know about spritesheet, everyone makes their own when the source comes out in 2077, but who does not cry does not breast. this is just a joke ]

It seems promising if there is a continuous work ... I would use without problems.
I have some doubts @Underglow

 

One is this.

seems unanswered.

 

And...

 

Will it be free to use?
Already own website?
Do you want to do open source?
Are there places to be able to follow you? [I want to follow, for example, facebook, webpage, etc ...]
Are there more people on staff besides you?
Do you work on more than one project?
Do you want to give this engine a long time?
Does streaming or something like that always present the engine and such?
And finally, in how many months [or years] do you think you will have a ready '' functional '' base?

 

And yes, this is an interview. 

+ Where's the client? All that's being shown is the editor, not any of this being shown to have tangible results in a client.

[Underglow]

@Weylon Santana Thank you for your interest. I will happily answer questions about the project.

 

Will it be free to use? The short answer is yes. The long answer is, it depends on:

• Public interest - If a lot of people are interested in this project, I'll happily commit more time on the project.
• Public support - If the above point (public interest) is high, would there be people out there willing to help support me financially developing the tool? As I'm a full-time Software Developer, this tool will unfortunately remain 2nd in priority; unless, as mentioned, there is a public support. If I could dedicate my full-time to this project, support myself & family - I would!
• Or alternatively, would people want a 'comercial' product?

Already own website? Not yet, this will come in the future once the tool has progressed & gained more attention (I hope).
Do you want to do open source? Also not yet, this isn't out of the question. This also heavily comes down to your first question & the projects popularity. The philosophy of this tool is to not require source changes to drastically change core mechanics (more on this soon).
Are there places to be able to follow you? Sadly...again, not yet! But this is coming shortly, that is a promise. I will provide a lot more details soon, including a development timeline & what I'm currently working on.
Are there more people on staff besides you? There is one additional member - graphics artist. I want to be able to ship exclusive 2ME graphics. There will also be more on this shortly.
Do you work on more than one project? I work full-time as a Software Developer to support myself & family. This is my 2nd priority.
Do you want to give this engine a long time? Yes. I want to use this tool for myself also! I was sick of tools not bridging the gap of easy-to-use & customisation without needing to edit the source.
Does streaming or something like that always present the engine and such? I don't quite understand this question. Do you mean will I stream development of the engine, or; does the engine stream it's content to the server?
And finally, in how many months [or years] do you think you will have a ready '' functional '' base? I am aiming for the final last quarter of 2019 (perhaps December) to begin closed alpha testing (whether this be based on additional team members or supports is yet to be determined). I am aiming for the tool to be "ready" by mid next year. 

 

I hope this clears things up.

 

@panda

I have the client & server ready. I worked on the client / server all throughout last year - that is where the bulk of development has been spent so far. As I'm very busy, the least amount of time I've spent is showing progress; there is a lot to show & I'll be happy to show more, just be patient! 

 

Thanks!

[Beefy Kasplant]

Sounds promising! 

 

In the absence of source, will you include a plugin system or something similar so not every project made with 2dME will be the same? 

[Weylon Santana]

11 hours ago, Underglow said:

I don't quite understand this question. Do you mean will I stream development of the engine, or; does the engine stream it's content to the server?

My question is
do you stream on the engine, showing how it works and etc, or does videos show how it works?
For example, a layman like myself did not quite understand how that sprites configuration issue would work, videos would be better explaining how that works in practice than images.

 

I liked all the answers ;-D

 

2 hours ago, Dashplant said:

In the absence of source, will you include a plugin system or something similar so not every project made with 2dME will be the same? 

I am in favor.  It would be like the rpgmaker, where you can write in ruby, or insert plugins into javascript [depending on version]. It would be nice if it was possible to add to the final version of the engine, maybe in a language of its own, or through plugins, which would allow creators to be more personalized without any changes to the program source.

[Underglow]

@Weylon Santana

do you stream on the engine, showing how it works and etc, or does videos show how it works? In future, I will make videos that will help describe the tools features in a visual way.

 

@Dashplant

In the absence of source, will you include a plugin system or something similar so not every project made with 2dME will be the same? Yes! As mentioned, I don't want people having to edit the source to make the engine work for them, I want them to be able to use 2ME's trigger system & advanced customisation; for advanced users, they will be able to create plug-ins - but I don't want it mandatory to make your game "feel" & "look" different to others built in the same engine. More on this in future.

 

@Kibbelz

I've addressed this already. Note for future: I will stop addressing "demanding" (e.g asking me to provide "evidence" like I owe you in some way - it's a free tool!) comments as I believe they do a disservice to not only developers working on free tools, but the community as well.

 

Thanks guys, appreciate the feedback & I'll post more soon.

[panda]

You can choose to stop acknowledging them for whatever reason you choose but...
- It's not a "free tool", only pictures of a few editor panels -- nothing demonstrating progress that would be usable by the people you want to get excited over your work

- You can't reasonably expect your thread to be devoid of skeptics
- Your answers have been rather coy and selective, which feeds more skepticism

- You outright ignored @boberski's question the first time, and again when @Weylon Santana raised it again while specifically noting that it had gone unanswered
- Your response to Kibz is overly defensive, to the point where it becomes a question of "why?"

Your response to my question was unsatisfactory, but I had no vested interest in pursuing it again and it seemed like I wasn't going to get a real answer.

If you're going to begin showcasing your work, you should expect to get questions from the people who are effectively your potential clients, including hard questions.

If you haven't made enough progress on the client to showcase it, admit that. If you haven't finished enough for people to do anything with it so it's not available for download, admit that. There's nothing wrong with doing either, but being evasive isn't really going build trust with your target clientele.

Returning to the part about it not being a free tool, what is here is not a tool, only pictures of one of three needed applications. Tantalizing as that may be, that doesn't provide anything to potential clients. You may not owe anything to them, as you are building a free tool, but it's reasonable for them to ask for evidence because you are receiving attention from them, which is a time investment on their part.

[SkywardRiver]

I agree with most of these points being brought up. I just think they can be presented in a much cleaner and much more humble approach, such as @panda 's post above. 

 

As for @Underglow , I sincerely wish you good luck and advise you to stay focused and continue sharing. Prove skeptics wrong with your *actions* rather than your words. You've got this!

 

 

-Snipped the off topic content after point was made.-

 

 

[Underglow]

@SkywardRiver I appreciate it. I'll continue to post more updates when I can!

[jcsnider]

I, for one, think it's cool that you're tackling the sorts of systems that we have intentionally dodged for various reasons (ie, different animation frames, entire engine localization)

 

I also really really like the concept of the music playlist per map, it's a simple concept but I can see that making the world much more lively.

 

It is very exciting to see other engines sort of develop in this day/age in this genre, it will be interesting to see how you tackle challenges that we have faced and if you come up with different/better solutions.

 

Godspeed Underglow, you have a lot of work ahead, be sure to have fun with it!

 

 

[Xeno]

I might as well say that I wish both the Intersect team AND Underglow the best. Both engines could end up being very unique in the their own right. 

I can just see it now though. 3 years down the road, someone else complaining that Underglow took too long, when he's 1 guy. So before we all get to thinking, oh yea Underglow is gonna save the day... Realize how much pressure this can put on a developer/programmer/artist.

Underglow, I commend your efforts and wish you the best of luck my friend.

[SpiceyWolf]

Ill only say this : The comment about the engine devs taking control away from the people isnt exactly true, every resource available to a game dev in the engine has to be created its not taken. To do any sort of systems as you are suggesting and not have a bigger hit to performance then they are worth is alot of times tricky or not a high enough demanded feature to be worth investing the work into, and most of the engines (Intersect is currently not included in this comment) are open source so if someone really has a problem with it, they can themselves or get someone else to change the systems as needed in the source itself... The control isnt taken away just has a higher skill req in 1 area.... A downside reguardless of the performance hit to having editors for stuff like that is the simpler game developers that alot of eclipse-style engines target, it adds more complexity to what really should be the simpler part of using an engine for those who just want to get in and make some maps so stuff starts happening. Its not a problem if you want to develop a toolset for an audience who isnt afraid of a bit more complexity tho and I wish you good luck on your project! @Underglow

[jcsnider]

Relocated all of the extremely off-topic bs. Please keep this thread focused on Underglow and his 2ME engine.

[Underglow]

@SpiceyWolf I disagree, I'd say it's a design choice (especially if the game is intended for open-source). I agree however that adding more customisation can also have a negative impact: complexity. I will be trying my best to address this in 2ME.

 

@Xenogene I completely agree, while they attempt to reach a similar end-goal, I believe they will both attract different audiences. Thank you for your support!

[MohenjoDaro]

Question about the engine language:

Is there a reason you're not just saving the text to files for users to edit? I made a fairly simple program that saved all the form elements text (which could be expanded to game text as well), and it would load the file at start up. To change a language, you edited the file, then chose that as the default start up.

 

This would allow less work for the dev, and the engine would be easily translatable as well.

 

The biggest issue I see is that the game then has a lot of data supplied to the client, making the game easier to rip off (this still wouldn't apply to the actual engine forms, since who cares if users have the engine text).

[Underglow]

@MohenjoDaro The languages are saved to external files & loaded on startup. I want to stray away from text-editing where I can.

Users would only have access to client data as you would expect with most games; the server data wouldn't be obtainable however, making it incredibly difficult to "rip off".