Mobotropolis

What are you looking for, Event-wise? 

I took a look at the site and ... the design and especially the art are okay, but it seems hard to navigate (figure out what to do). 

Have to admit; getting stuck in the Decision Fatigue of the Framework Wars is part of the reason I'm dragging my feet on my own project. 

I've tried both PGF and Mysdia from the existing frameworks. 
I think people are looking for something closer to Mysdia, but newer. 
For something a bit less niche -- think of something like Wordpress. 

Money isn't really a problem for me. I have enough to fund my project, but my inability to make a decision over the Framework is what's causing nothing to happen now. 

Ability-wise, I know both Front (HTML, CSS, JavaScript) and Back-End (PHP and a bit of Java and Python) and know enough about servers, versioning and hosting to be able to set it up myself with a bit of instruction and/or trial and error. I'm stronger on the Front-End ... and the part that bothers me is communicating back and forth with the database. I know how to set up and even manually add data to quite a few types of databases, but writing the script chokes me. 

I am confident enough that I can learn a framework if I pick one ... but that's a big if. 

Thinking a pricing scheme like this might work for a hosted solution; 

• Trial of Premium Service (14-30 days)
• Free Service with limited features/ads 
• Premium Service as either a monthly (slightly higher) or annual (slightly lower) plan 

If you offer the script for free or even for cheap you'll probably have to find another way to monetize it -- like selling plugins or dedicated hosting space. 

Like @KingOfCrows says there are several genres of Pet Game. 

Your framework would either have to fill a niche well or be flexible enough (perhaps with plugins) to fill a variety of roles. 

I have nothing to hide and everything to gain by talking a bit, so I'll talk a bit about what I'm looking for specifically game feature-wise: 

• A way to set, keep, and check time when running scripts (like a Cron-Jobber?)
• A Pet/Creature Creator with the Ability to set a number of Stats (pets have 16 stats in my concept) 
• An Item Creator that lets you set Item Image, Description and Attributes (items have about eight attributes) 
• A Daily Creator (click a button a certain number of times a day and receive a list of items, effects, or perks) 
• Map Editor (you can either have a text list and/or upload an image map and set the links) 
• News/Blogging System (if you seen a modern blog you know what this is)
• Quest Creator/Editor (you set up a quest and the steps/flags a user needs to preform in order to complete)
• Dialogue System (actually made a very basic one in JSFiddle and JQuery with faces and a click for next button) 
• Collections System (You collect a certain number of objects and receive a prize)
• Achievement System (Unlock a prize when you meet a certain criteria) 
• Admin/Moderation (able to view a players status, activities, and change statistics/ban the player if needed) 
• Random Event Creator (be able to set, enable/disable, determine frequency and effects of Random Events on refresh and click of an object)
• Themes (It is relatively straightforward to either create or install an existing theme for your Game and Admin Panel) 
• Page Creator (and perhaps having customer Header/Footer code within those pages)
• Widget Maker/Creator (just being able to insert HTML in certain places would be enough for me) 
• A way to hook your Framework up to a Forum or Chat (think you shouldn't re-invent the wheel and make your own, and many modern softwares allow this)
• A Games Manager (I've already built some JavaScript based games in Construct 3. If I can load them into an "Arcade" relatively easily that may be a boon. Being able to pull some data from the framework into construct can also enhance the gameplay experience. I may be able to change point ratios, item pools or even do multiplayer)
• Plugin Manager (being able to install and enable/disable plugins) 
• Lookups for Users, Pets, and Stores 

That's not everything for me, but having even half of that would be a move in the right direction. 

Opening Up Shop again. Times no-so-tough now! 

Hit me up in PM if you're looking for some semi-fast cash this holiday weekend. 

I got an error when I clicked on your link (Game Not Found), but found it with a Google Search. 

I'm pretty much a novice in PHP, but maybe this can help. 

Conditionally Checking the Session

if (isset($_SESSION['loggedin']) && $_SESSION['loggedin'] == true) {
    echo "Welcome to the member's area, " . $_SESSION['username'] . "!";
} else {
    echo "Please log in first to see this page.";
}

Here's another more complete example from Github.  

This is a very vague question.

The general idea is that you have a check on every page that searches for your user's account data, and then if no data is found or an error occurs you conditionally show a div that has a "You are not logged in" message and the links to log in or register. 

How you accomplish that will depend on what you're building your site in (PHP, JavaScript, ect.) 

Your coding to declare your font is incorrect. 

Try font-face and font-family.

<style> 
@font-face {
  font-family: myCustomFont;
  src: url(8bitwonder.ttf);
}

body {
background:url("http://nutrijardim.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/cuidados-b%C3%A1sicos-com-a-grama-esmeralda-1080x675.jpg") center; repeat:round; #91C7F5;
font-family: myCustomFont;
font-size:12px;
color:#333;
}
</style>

Looks like they're down to me. 

Seems a similar site to what you described exists here. 

At the bottom they seem to offer a chance to retrieve your data, but I'm also seeing that the copyright is for 2014 so it seems like this place has been abandoned for some time. 

It is technically possible to have music in your HTML5 game, yes. 

Here's the HTML5 Tag for doing that

I feel like music is fine as long as you offer the option to turn it off since the user may not want music playing/auto-playing for a number of reasons.

That said, music when used appropriately can make a game and experience within a game memorable. 

Howdy. Again! 

How about it, Freelancers? Want to PM me a category below and some quotes? 

I pay with Paypal and will pay when I see your sketches. Then finish and send me the PSDs. 

Current Status: Closed. 

Last Updated: October 11th 2019

Closing the shop for now. Have some things to sort out, first. 

I am also looking for -

1. A Map Artist. Need 5 Maps drawn for the general areas. Have Budget for all of them this pay period (through October 11th). Have some samples of what I'm looking for. 

2. A Character Artist to do Shopkeepers/NPCs. I'm looking for someone with or who can emulate a certain retro style. The Right Person(TM) can take the entire set of about 30 ShopKeepers for a rate that we will negotiate via PM/DM. I have some samples of what I am looking for artistically that I can PM/DM. 

Categories I'm Looking For: I made a Google Doc for Tracking Purposes

If it's in Red it's more of a priority. If it's Black it's nice to have. 

• Toys - 24 (have a list to work from)
• Gifts - 24 (have a list to work from)
• Books - 24
• Physical Games - 12
• Video Games - 12
• Electronics - 24 (have a list to work from)
• Fall Themed Items (Falling Leaves and Apple-things) - 12 (have examples)
• Pumpkin Themed Items (Pumpkin-Spice as well) - 12
• Burger Shop Food - 12 (have a list to work from)
• Tex-Mex Food - 12 (have a list to work from) 
• Scratchcard Art - 6
• Lottery Art - Keeper and a Ticket 
• Treasure Map Art - Four Illustrations. Will Describe in the PM. 
• Shopkeepers (If I like your style, I'll let you do them all) - 23
• Signage (If I like your style, I'll let you do them all) - 24 

Shoot me a PM. Let's make a deal. 

Howdy. 

I'm fiddling away on my little learning project and have reached the point where I can commission some more art. Mainly for the map. 

I'll need six different map areas:

• Main Entrance - It's going to be like a Splash Page 
• 4 Wings (Four Separate Maps) - Some concepts are below for this one. There are going to be six storefronts in each wing (24 stores total)
• Central Food Court - There are going to be six storefronts in the Food Court

Here's a feel for what I am looking for - 

• https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PLkuSLSEvaJxg5UwGlJOqL_mLkbDQEYB/view?usp=sharing
• https://drive.google.com/file/d/14PuUKkCJOT7nUpEShVE3icGElKF_AiCy/view?usp=sharing
• https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bUubyzpjH8OUpSgZIfqfE3yHDKDHwL9G/view?usp=sharing
• https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xHo2fe6cfNjYWeRkJuGuBIP94TYFnIAV/view?usp=sharing
• https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ou5MQzPolz30Y_kIsdg0uFbX6f94EMXV/view?usp=sharing
• https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Kr9YDlOzLwj2AWaLQAYgsRSzHteKN5jQ/view?usp=sharing

Alternative Perspective - 

• https://drive.google.com/file/d/1t9j8s9Vo3UkEgTGm8hFzRYd9OgoUNDQQ/view?usp=sharing
• https://drive.google.com/file/d/1TlqRp8buNnPKeSyymYAnfTQVDycJEuEH/view?usp=sharing
• https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cD9wFSm-rHcSFOUaep7Ev-sD5pdHcJv_/view?usp=sharing

These areas are going to be editable PSDs since the look and makeup of the maps is going to change seasonally. 

So the storefronts should be empty for now. If you do a great job, I'll pay extra for you to design the storefronts. 

I already have money budgeted for this and will pay by Paypal. 

PM Me with a quote and your portfolio.

Thanks. 

Edit: Found an Artist. I think I'll let them do the entire set if they're up for it, so I'm going to close this one. 

Ah, I never do anything like that, no. I usually just look at what's trending when I go to Twitter. 

The only browser game I remember trending in recently was Club Penguin which met its maker last year. 

And I only have a Twitter Account in the first place because I did #NeoCreationWeek. 

I almost never see games in general trending on Twitter, let alone browser games/sims. 

Edit: When it comes to looking for new games which I mainly do for the internal audit project I started and should probably finish now that a year has passed, I looked two places: 

1. Here

2. The list of Browser Games on Wikipedia 

I was able to find that there are a surprising number of active browser games just by doing that alone. First audit turned up about 50. If I dug a little deeper I think I can find over 100 active games. 

Ah, you mean Hashtags? 

Hashtags are the way that people find information quickly on Twitter. When you click on a Hashtag you are sent to a page that has all of the posts related to that hashtag so you can see all comments about it, starting with the latest. If a Hashtag gets a high number of posts within a certain time period it will appear in the Top 10 of Twitter and be "trending", which greatly increases its exposure.

That said, it is rare (but not impossible) for a game to get that type of exposure. Super Smash Brothers, Pokemon, Call of Duty, and Animal Crossing are a few of the games I remember trending in the last few months. Club Penguin, more a game our speed, trended a while ago when its demise was announced. 

Well, let's dive in, anyway. 

First thing's first; you have to make Hashtags for your own products, features and events. 

So you have to make a #WildSouls or #FoodBabs tag so people can find your product. You don't and shouldn't use your custom Hashtag on every post but you should on important posts (major features, events, promotions, updates, ect.). 

Next, you have to work on getting some more exposure by using other tags. 

To that, I say you must be extremely careful. 

One ill-advised strategy that I often see Twitter Accounts using is commenting on whatever's trending in the Top 10 to increase their exposure even if they (1) are not sure why something is trending or (2) have nothing relevant to say about the trending topic. Unfortunately, events of tragedy (someone's death, a disaster, mass causality event or scandal) trend often on Twitter and making a promotional comment on such a tag may make you seem insensitive and/or out of touch. Don't be one of these people. 

Instead, you should be looking for Recurring Hashtags (Google it) and why they trend and try to throw your weigh into there. 

Here are some examples that I'm hiding in the Spoiler Thread -

If you just have to host some HTML/CSS/JavaScript I have two to recommend. 

NeoCities is a throwback to the Geocities/Angelfire era of web hosting. You can get signed up in about a minute and have your site up in less than five minutes if your HTML Files are already ready. They have a generous free tier. If you pay $5 a month you can use a custom domain and make multiple basic sites. 

Netifly is something I've come across recently while trying to modernize my approach to development. The magic here is that you can connect it to your GitHub account and push updates live as you push things to your repositories. Free Tier comes with SSL and the ability to use a Custom Domain. 

If you need something for PHP and don't want to deal with a DigitalOcean setup, I'll review the host I just left - 

Hostwinds will allow you to buy a domain and some hosting with CPanel for about $100 a year. They sometimes have sales on their hosting and I've gotten it as low as $50 a year before. The one thing I will say is that even when I did have a problem with their technical setup (linking domains, updating PHP, one click scripts) their support center was very responsive and friendly. Think this is more than enough for most people who want to host a site. I only left because for the amount of stuff I have to host and the amount of traffic I get I'm sure I can get it cheaper. 

When I say activities I mean Games, Dailies, Competitions, Quests, Puzzles, Events and whatnot. 

Things that the players are going to be invested it and what brings them back to the site every day. 

People who may be looking for a game might be curious about what there is to do at your game, and why it might be different from the 50-some plus active and/or in development games around. 

I re-read your opening post and thing the idea might be interesting. 

What types of activities would the player be able to get involved in?

Community could be interesting. Will there be something like groups, factions or alliances? 

A game that has community might need social features. Do you have any in mind? 

I commend you for your honesty about the state of your project and applaud you for your courage posting. Good luck!

One good thing about getting everything out in the open is that there are people here who can and will be willing to help you.

So, what do you think your next steps are? 

Getting that artwork? Of what and in what format? 

Or maybe some people to bounce ideas and features off of? 

Can you provide some examples of what you're looking for? 

Possibly of what's already in there so we know how to do this stylistically? 

Semi-related, but if they're not checking age they may not be COPPA compliant which can also put them into another round of legal trouble. 

COPPA requires sites that market to children (either primarily or as one of their general audiences) to check age and restrict certain types of content for users who claim to be under 13. COPPA is more directed towards protecting the privacy of children than protecting them from offensive content, however. 

Since laws on offensive online content can vary by country and in the United States by state, most sites that cater to the 18+ crowd outright ban minors from viewing or joining to cover their bases. 

What an interesting style. 

I think people are looking more for items than pets. Items tend to be cheaper and more adaptable than pets. 

Can you possibly update your post with Pricing and Payment methods? 

Actually had the same problem. Upgrading my server was the end of my promising Mysidia adventure. 

There's an effort to update Mysidia called Mysidia Deluxe, but I'm not sure how far along they are. 

I guess the question to ask yourself now is what you might want your site built in. There are no shortages of CMS and Frameworks that a Pet Site could potentially be built in. Even Wordpress can do it, technically. 

As someone who's played the Perfect Framework Game for far too long, let me say this; There is none. 

A push-button solution doesn't really exist. Especially for Pet Sites in particular. You'll have to choose a solution, learn how to work with it, and shape it into that thing that you want. One thing I will say is the process of doing that is probably easier now than it was 5-10 years ago. There are more places you can ask for help. There are video tutorials. Many Frameworks have a support line you can ask questions. 

If you are completely new to this website-making thing, I'd suggest working on the Front-End first. Front-End is easier to learn and more forgiving than Back-End. Choose a Front-End Framework to work with and design the look and feel of your site. You can either learn or get someone to hook your site up to the Back-End later. 

Some Popular Front-End Frameworks: 

Bootstrap - The most popular Front-End Framework. Developed by Twitter.

Foundation - Competitor for Bootstrap used by Facebook. 

Pure - CSS Framework developed by Yahoo.  

Materialize - A Framework with many ready-to-use components. 

Semantic UI - Framework designed for Beginners to Front-End Development. 

Choose one and get buildin'.

Oh, and you might need an HTML Editor if you're building Front-End. 

I just made the switch to Visual Studio Code and am quite happy with it. 

Howdy. 

I've been busy the last few days, but I think I can squeeze out a little time today to take a look around.

Let's see what's changed by looking at the News. 

Okay. Let's take a look around elsewhere. 

Good work. It seems like things are starting to come together. 

The two "big" pet game specific frameworks are Pet Game Framework for $300 and Mysidia Adoptables for Free. 
Personally I tried both and believe they each have their own strengths and weaknesses. 

I think the question of "where to start" is not one we can answer. 

You must ask yourself; what do you want to do? 

A good exercise is one that I've read from a business book. I don't remember the name, however. 
Anyway, the exercise; 

Grab a Sheet of Paper and make three columns; 

1.  What You Know How to Do 
2. What You Don't Know How to Do, But Are Interested In Learning
3. What You Don't Want to Do 

People who run Pet Games and Online Sims wear a number of hats. What I'm mentioning in Spoilers isn't all of the hats, but the usual suspects for a game that is available for free and does not seek to earn money (yet). Since you're just getting started and likely doing this as a hobby I won't include any of the positions you usually find in a small business: 

A small and/or hobby game will likely have people wearing filling in multiple roles. 

A more robust look of things might be that you have people creating Content (Art, Writing, Designs), people doing Development (Coding, Database Management, Server Maintenance), and people doing Services (Marketing, Social Media, Moderation, Support Tickets). If you decide to turn your game into a business you may have someone doing Accounting and Legal work and whatnot. 

The general idea is to get a feeling of what you may be comfortable with versus things you may want to get hired help to do. 

As you get into the meat of creating and managing your game you may find what you are and are not comfortable with doing changing. You may become overwhelmed by all of the development work. You may not have time to draw everything anymore. Or you may feel like leaving support and moderation up to someone else while you're actually working on your game. 

Opinion/General Advice Time: You're not going to know for sure what you're comfortable with unless you try it. 

I don't recommend spending a great deal of money off the bat. It's like buying an expensive Gym Membership and never going. 
If you are absolutely new to managing a game you may want to just buy some hosting and try out some stuff out with Mysidia. 

I did not want to spend too much time on something that may not be important, so I came up with three rules.

1. The Pets and Items that are important or exclusive to the In-Game Universe are anagrams of common words used to describe those items. The only exception to the rule so far is the player name's species, but that may change as I continue working. 

I'd call them Rahmice (Ruh-my-ice) based on my naming convention. 

Other Takes: Charmei (Cu-ha-arm-may, or Charmy) and Iremach (Eye-er-mack)

2. Names are Randomly Generated. I don't have a great many characters fleshed out beyond the shopkeepers at this point, but due to the mechanics of the world this is taking place in I'm aiming for as many gender-neutral names as possible. 

3. Fitting the central theme of the game, all locations are parodies of real world locations. The general idea being to both spark a hint of nostalgia for the player and to make them aware of what can be done there just by reading the name. 

Ah. My favorite part of User Experience Testing; breaking stuff. 

Sure. Let's give it a whirl. 

Spoiler'd because it's a Wall -