Some Thoughts

I have just returned from IMGDC 2008.  It was a very interesting conference.

IMGDC is the Independent MMO Game Developers Conference.  Its held in Minneapolis MN and this is the second year of its exisitence. IMGDC is the brain child of Jonathon Stevens,CEO of Last Straw Productions. He is a really great guy and someone really passionate about the Indie scene.  There were a variety of topics discussed at the conference all pertaining to the different aspects of the Indie game scene. The conference reminds me of what Austin Game Developers Conference use to be like.

It is a great place to bounce ideas off people and to see what fellow developers are doing in a very informal setting.   After attending the conference last year, I wanted to support the effort that this year Duck's Den Productions Inc sponsored the after party.  It was a great time for all and even Dr. Bartle stopped into the party to say hi.   I look forward to 2009 and I highly encourage anyone who has an interest in making their own MMO and can attend to do so. 

Now on to some information that I am sure you all have been waiting for.  We are still working on Valhyre the mmo.  But we shifted gears a bit and let me explain.  

I am a strong believer in a process called fast prototyping.  In short this is a process in which you take an idea and instead of sitting and analyising it for a long time you start throwing a prototype together as fast as possible and prove out concepts.  One of the main concepts I wanted for Valhyre was the aerial combat ability of the bastlur.  Other games have done flying characters, heck, Horizions has flying dragons, but I wanted a game where people could interact and fight while flying and not be just a charcter on invisible stilts.  I needed to make sure this concept would work and was fun.

So the programmers through together a prototype, it was basic.  A single map area, the ability to glide, working crossbows and health meters and networking protocols.  When then started to test the concepts.  For about 10 minutes detailed notes were taken on what was working good and what needed to be changed.  There were no notes taken from 10 minutes till we all logged off 4 hours later, we were having to much fun to worry about stinking notes.  Besides every time I looked away from the screen to type notes on my other console somebody was trying to stick me full of crossbow bolts. 

Now I wondered if we were having this much fun with just this small prototype what would happen if we polished it up and expanded it to make it into a full game. So we shifted focus abit.  We took the bastlur and nilbog race and are working on a multiplayer First person shooter based on the conflict between those two races.  

I want to assure you that the FPS is not going to take the place of Valhyre the mmo. But instead will be used as a marketing opportunity to broaded the Valhyre brand. It is also hoped that the FPS will create some residual revenue to help speed the development of Valhyre.  I also want to point out that I made sure that any content created for the FPS would also work in the mmo.  so any additional models, sounds, music, items could be used in the fps or the mmo versions.  That way no effort would be lost.

I hope to have a lot of detail about I can share with you about the fps but its not ready for prime time but I can say that the drigible and hopper look really neat and give a unique aspect to the nilbogs.

And I promise to keep you up todate better on the development process of the mmo.