of course they are cutting me in on some of the profit, but where to go next?
We are currently in the planning stage right now and targetting a short 6-12 month program.
Well I am checking out www.worldforge.org which is an Open Source MMO engine and one I am pushing for. There are others out there, some we can pay for, but with not a lot of capital to work with I am suggesting we don't and go with another method.
The market for the game is already established and we have some awesome artists on board. Right now I am the Lead Programmer and it will most likely stay that way, unless someone really good joins in. The target audience fo the game is an already established MMO market, which plays a 8 year old MMO game.... think Ultima Online level graphics and game play... so this niche market is primed for a revealution in graphics and game play, but it isn't like it needs to be WoW or Eve Online or anything, because that is not our target audiences. Since the market is not really looking for the next big thing in tech, I believe we should focus on getting it right, using an established production track and system, hence my desire to use Worldforge.
Having said that, there is a game engine another fellow offered to let us use, which utilizes Lua scripting and RakNet to make a pretty nice game. Rak Net is used for some other MMOs and it is a possibility. Here is one game, which is using it right now and is in Beta:
Link
Problem is we would have to make the game enigne into an MMO and get it working... hence a bit more tech. World Forge has a 2D client (although not in dev right now) and is a way we can go.
Side note, it is a 2D game essentially Iso, similiar to Ultima Online.
So, what do you all say, any thoughts or suggestions?