Originally posted by NMStudio

Originally posted by Kalfer

What's a good game engine thou?

 

People made a big deal out of Biowares Hero Engine and what they said it could do. So far, I am not convinced, but maybe it is impressive under the hood.

Hero Engine is VERY impressive under the hood and on the back end.  BioWare chose not to use many features, as well.  So there's really a lot more potential there.  They also offer very favorable licensing agreements, providing an amazing opportunity for indi teams.  I'm just beginning to learn the in's and outs of the software, but so far I'm very impressed.

I hear that it is....... finally. The problem is that when BW took it, it was incomplete and worse, undocumented. Anyone that has wroked anywhere near a large (actually any) software project knows that is a recipee for unmitigated disaster. 

The other thing is when BW took it, it was for the development tools. Mainly because at that stage it had never been used to actually produce anything real. Turns out those didn't scale and (as you would expect with unfinished software) had issues.

It is no wonder at all that BW are still fighting with it now (which it appears they are).

Hero engine is a AAA engine whit extreme powerfull tools and possiblity's. its also FREEEEE , as in you can start making youre game whit their engine for free and afterwards pay a cut of the income to them. whit Hero engine you reduce startup cost by a few million and only have to put in whatever you need to pay youreself /employees. (excl design programs like Maya/max those also cost a wee bit)

its a fairly ideal engine for a startup dont know what i want to do exsactly and how much i can invest type of indy developer. and considering the big guys also use the engine it gota do someting right eh ?

could someone who has experiences with it tell me pls is HeroEngine supports terraforming? (wurm or xsyon style)

Originally posted by Benedikt

could someone who has experiences with it tell me pls is HeroEngine supports terraforming? (wurm or xsyon style)

Can you add terraforming? Yes.

Is it native to it? No.

He Kevin,

I think it's an "ok" idea provided that you are fine with the risk of losing the money.

What you would essentially do is start some sort of indy studio and most likely with people who are on board with your vision (or whoever is designing the game).

Keep in mind that most mmo's are made for quite a bit of money so this would definitley be an indy project.

My advice (and if I was doing this) would be to interview every person I could regarding what it took to  make such a thing.

I'm not talking about business 101 or anyting like this. But what type of people you need to get the project off the ground, which positions you essentially need, what the steps would along the way, etc.

I would then slowly build a roadmap of how this project would proceed. One good way, believe it or not, is to work backwards from "finished state" to the start. Sometimes going forward allows one to get lost in a project. So you would essentially say "ok, this is the finished project, what happens right before it goes live" then "what happens before that part happens, etc.

After you have your roadmap you can then figure out what resources you would need. If this is an indy project you might have people interested who already have computers but essentially you want to know how much this software is going to cost.

It will partly help to know the scope of your project. So a 2d game might be easier and less costly to make than a 3D game, etc. The type of art design might be simpler, more stylized over extremely realistic art designs.

Then once you have the cost  (which will be a guess) with your road map, the type of people you need, you then need to speak with someone with some actual experience to get an idea of time and things that can go wrong.

You might even be able to get an interview with some people working in the industry. Nothing ventured nothing gained right? "I would like to get into the mmo business as a producer, what do I need to know".

Essentially know every detail about the project BEFORE you invest huge amounts of money. Have everything mapped out before you start working.

You then might rethink whether or not that house is the better idea or if you want to really follow this dream. Just be prepared for loss "just in case".

For those interested in HeroEngine-based indie MMOs, there's a blogger here that appears to be working on one:

http://www.morpg.com/blogs/lynnara/122011/22323_Rebooting-on-a-New-Engine