Mobotropolis

To help people believe in you and your change you must come with more than the promise. Some people work on games to refine their writing and artistic abilities. Some people work on games to become better programmers. It sounds like you're picking up a game to learn how to become a better Manager and learn how to run a business. That doesn't seem to be a reason given around here often. Still, I believe that being a good owner/manager/leader is one of the most important skills to have. Many-a project with many-a talented person behind has gone down in flames because of poor management. Incidentally, I started out in Business. Well, I think I'm intrigued enough to see what you've got and will look forward to your thread. One more question What inspired you to get into creating a Pet Game? I can wager a guess, but I believe it's more important to hear it. When answering that question and thinking ahead to the thread for your game that you're about to make you may want to put empathizes on the ways that you wish (or maybe already have) pursue such a vision.

Wasn't around when -- whatever this was went down. I read the entire thing, anyway. Now, I do have some questions which may be helpful in attempting to establish trust; 1. What have you done to become a better Game/Business Owner? Seems like the gist of what happened was you managed the money you raised poorly and were legally advised to vanish when things went South. While stepping forward and taking responsibility for what transpired is a good sign that you have grown as a person since then, people need assurance that you will not just up and vanish should something go wrong on your new project. And not just your players. As the Game Owner you are not just the "ideas person" guiding people who choose to work with you (artists, programmers, moderators, ect.) towards your vision. You must be a leader, and leaders possess certain skills to lead their successful Game/Business. If you haven't already, I'd suggest that you take a class in Business, Entrepreneurship, or even Personal Finance. Such things will help you get a better grasp on how and when to invest revenue in your business, make more accurate estimates for cost, and how to price your eventual products and services. 2. How committed are you to your new project? Though it appears like you've conceded that you don't have the resources to take on a project with the scope of Evocality it also looks like you're not willing to give it up, either. Do you think you have the time and resources to manage two games in addition to whatever other personal or family obligations you may have? Another question that may be worth answering is whether you believe that people will commit to playing and supporting a game that has burned them before? Would people even want to play Evocality if you manage to get it off the ground? I feel like you might want to do some leg-work to field interest for your projects before committing too much time and effort into them. Now would be a good time to show us what you have for Figment since it seems further in development. Perhaps in a thread of its own so the drama from your previous fallout doesn't overshadow it. 3. What do you need help with now? This might be something better reserved for your formal thread for Figment than here since that seems to be where you're putting most of your effort into. I can figure a guess based on your statement. That does make me wonder, though, what you bring to the table besides your ideas. Many people who work up to managing games do so you learn or refine a skill they already possess. Have or would you be able to pick up a new skill to further your ambitions? It seems like you have a lot to learn either way, and I wish you luck in that.

Don't be Evil Neopets. Be Pokemon. Here is what Pokemon looked like 10 years ago, in 2008. Here's a shot from last year's Pokemon Let's go Eevee. Pokemon is one of the most successful franchises ever, and it's no surprise why. A new game of some sort has come out every year since 2000. An expansion (also known as a Generation) comes about every 3-5 years. And with that comes a new opportunity to introduce new players to the series and returning players to what has changed since last time. Pokemon feels fresh every time we dip our toes in it because it is. They've made improvements to virtually every feature since the original games and rebuilt the engine from the ground-up several times over the years. Pokemon isn't the only game that does this. Super Mario, Final Fantasy, Madden, Call of Duty, and Grand Theft Auto are some of the bestselling video game franchises out there. They've managed to find the not-so-secret sauce that makes their games feel fresh to newcomers while still embracing attributes that make them nostalgic for returning fans. Your game a Hit? Great. Now put out a sequel. And improve on almost every aspect. Browser Games are treated as a different type of beast than their Console Game counterparts. Usually, a Browser Game is built once and every feature that comes after it launches is built on top of that no matter out outdated or inefficient that becomes. Over time, rebuilding the underlying engine or revamping an outdated feature becomes out of the question for various reasons. You might not have the resources due to declining sales. Your remaining users might resist change. Your to-do list is growing. Or you're overwhelmed by your options and don't want to do what Neopets did and bet on the wrong horse and lose. So the game falls into a rut and your users get bored and leave because you're unwilling, or perhaps unable, to change. I think a Browser Petsim can become a Smash Hit, but only if it breaks the cycle above.

Action 52 is a Videogame Multicart that is infamous for the (poor) quality of its games. I'm not particularly strong in Java or C++ but I do know JavaScript and Programming Theory ... ... so I Threw Something Together in Construct, an HTML5/JavaScript Game Engine I learned. It's rough around the edges, but works from a technical perspective. It took about two hours start-to-finish yesterday. Bonus Round: The Hardest Parts were ... Odd Results with attempting to flip a coin. It either always won or always lost. I got around it by rolling a six sided dice in the background and assigning Even to Heads/Win and Odd to Tails/Lose. Score Misadventures. At first, it was rewarding plays an infinite amount of points in a matter of seconds for winning. After I resolved that I had to figure out how to calculate the score. I made a variable and event that looks up the old score and passes through the new score with a simple calculation. While I have the paid version I didn't use any of the Premium Features building this. Construct 3 is free with restriction for personal use and this has under 100 Events so I can send you the CAPX/source if you're interested in learning how this works.

@Martyn Everything on my list is a recommendation. If I listed all of the bad anime I watched I'd be here all night. Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood is pretty consistently called out as being one of the greatest animes ever. I think it's earned that distinction but admit that it is not perfect. Like most long-runners it has pacing problems and things slow down considerably, but they pick right back up and really shine heading into the Final Battle. Sailor Moon Crystal was one of many 90s revival animes that Toei put out in the last few years. I think it's one of the better ones compared to Digimon Tri and Dragonball Super. Crystal is pretty to look at, closer to the manga, and does more with the supporting characters than the 90s anime did at the expense of some of the jokes and filler from the original anime. "Monster of the Week" is not are prevalent in Crystal as it was in the original Sailor Moon which causes the story to move faster. I'm more a fan of short-form (less than 26 episode) anime than long-runners. They can all be binged in a night. FMA and SM are the only two on that list that are not short form.

Since this is an incident involving Real World money why not give the game's name? That might prevent other unsuspecting users/players from potentially being scammed. As far as legal action goes, you might want to check your Terms and Conditions. Many-a-game has protections in place that do not fault them in case something goes wrong during a transaction. Essentially, they wouldn't be on the hook if you paid for a product and you never received it, they decided to take it back, they terminated your account, and whatnot. Even so, you might not be completely up the creek. If you paid for something with your debit or credit card and never received it you may be able to file a dispute with your credit or debit card company to attempt to get your money back.

The Survey or the Concept? I think I can see how the Concept can seem complex, but would need context on what you are concerned with.

Thank you. Every response helps. I'm going to wait until the poll closes to share my findings, but it's helped me decide on a few things: The Initial Shop-List and Items Offered How things the user can buy will work Starter Species (obtaining pets is a bit different, however) How I'll shape and keep track of decisions the player makes How the Shop Mechanic will work and compare/contrast to the Raising Mechanic There is one response that surprised me; What type of pet that users like? I was planning to offer a variety of pets but see that tastes do run across the spectrum. That may call for a runoff poll further along in the progress to get some feedback on some of the designs.

Thanks. I'm working on art/interface while this poll is going on so not to use the fact that I'm doing a poll as an excuse not to work. I've gotten a pretty good response so far and think one or two things might already be decided, but will leave the poll open until Friday evening to get a larger sampling of data. Thanks again.

Howdy. A few days ago I mentioned a concept that seemed to get a warm reception here, so I decided to have at it. I've reached the point where I need to make some tough decisions on concept/design, so I decided to field a survey. Here's the Survey. There are just 8 questions and I feel it shouldn't take much longer than 5 minutes to complete. The main things I'm fishing for here are - An advertising/word of mouth concept If there's an audience for the time period that I'm basing the game in What type of in-game virtual items people might be interested in buying When I say "Your Store" how much customization you'd be willing to put in to make it yours Let me know if you have any questions, and thanks.

I think Pet Game Framework's back-end is PHP so you should learn HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and PHP. A brief rundown of each: HTML is what you use to structure your content, text and images on the page. CSS is what you use to style your content with colors, sizes, borders, and whatnot. JavaScript does many things, but generally makes content on your page change dynamically. PHP is what you use to interact with your web server and the databases where you store player data. Programming is split into Front-End and Back-End Development. Front-End Developers work mainly with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript and on the look and feel of a website. Back-End Developers work with languages like PHP, Python and Ruby on the functionality of a website. If you can do both, you are known as a Full-Stack Developer. Now, where should you go to learn all of this stuff? For an absolutely beginner I'd recommend an oldie but goodie: LissaExplains. Though this site is old and has code that isn't really used anymore, I believe its primer which I linked to is a great place to start. The fundamentals of what Lissa teaches (what HTML is, how CSS works, and how to write code) still apply to modern web development. Also it's free. My other recommendation is also free: W3Schools. This is a good place to learn about different modern technologies and to find and test out various code snippets right on the website. Beyond that? There are plenty of decent places you can go to ask questions should you have them. Just be prepared to either show your coding or provide an example for the people who answer your question to work from. For that I'd recommend JSfiddle.

Looks pretty good. Some questions to help you get bites: - When you say icons you mean the first set of imagery/item-like images? - What file format would you be sending your images in? PSDs? - What method of payment do you accept? Paypal or something else? - How would you handle recolors?

Morning. Think I'm far enough out to actually start the building. I bought a server, domain, and have everything set up and configuration on my server. That was the easy part. Now, I have to figure out how all of this is going to work. Since I don't really have anyone to bounce this off of anymore (long story) I'll do it here. Behind a "You Must Register" Wall, of course There are still some questions I need to answer as far as lore goes, but I think some stuff can be made up as we go along. The concept seems pretty solid, at least. I know what I'm building towards.

I think the question to ask yourself is What do you want to accomplish? Adam was pretty candid about what he wanted to do when creating Neopets. He wanted to make a place where people could go when they're bored and maybe make a little revenue off banner ads. He accomplished both of those things. And he did it without really giving an immense amount of thought into the story or lore or even the mechanics behind how Neopets worked. Years and owners later there still isn't a decent or even a coherent story behind how the world of Neopia works but it still manages to draw a enviable amount of traffic. It seems during the first few years of the site they focused more on gameplay than world building. That came after Adam was bought out. How's it going for me? I'm back to Square One. After spending three years planning out everything from the concept, story, art, lore, pets, and characters and about two months actually building the game ... I decided that this wasn't what I wanted. Like @Dinocanid I thought that the game struggled with being interactive and ultimately fun. I decided to scrap the idea and change my approach. Now, I have a concept. This week, I was working on Theme and Style. I've come up with what I think might be a really good and ... unusual idea when compared to what you might see in a more Traditional Pet Game. There are some elements still there. You still get your dailies. You still get your pets. You are still raising and attempting to create the best ... something ... in a specific way that makes sense with the theme. I ditched the Medevial Fantasy feel from the original concept and decided to work on something set in the not-so-distance past. Research was done to capture that style, those trends, and most importantly that aesthetic since I want it to hit people as soon as they land on the page. Now, I'm going to start building the game. I have a vague idea of how the mechanics of the game will work, but I don't think I'll get a good-enough grasp of it until I actually start building. If there's any advice I could give from my experience -- is that you should start building sooner rather than later. You're not going to know what works or what doesn't on paper. I want to get people in front of it as soon as possible.

This is for Solpets, apparently.

Look at how far this game has come! So, you're using a Custom Solution over Twine now?

It sounds like you're describing two different problems but I'll get to that in a minute. The important thing here is to consider " How much is too much? " Back in the Day(TM) when I ran games I was beginning to learn scripting but didn't have any a server that could run it, so I did everything by hand. Once I had systems and formulas in place it took about 1.5 hours to do the nightly updates on my busiest game on top of the additional two hours in the evenings it took to roll for dailies. Every day 20-30+ people queued up to look around for items and pets. If you knew the extent of what I did to maintain order you'd think I was insane and, quite honestly, I wouldn't blame you -- BUT gave me a great understanding for how things should work in the games. I knew how people earned their money. I knew what pets and items people thought were valuable. I knew which ones they thought were junk. I knew how much things sold and/or traded for. So I could easily adjust prices to account for inflation and dailies tables. These Days(also TM), I would not go that far. I know a bit of scripting, now. There are many solutions out there that do some of this stuff already. I'd choose one and modify it further to do a little Reporting for me. Perhaps to add it into the Dashboard. To see how much people are earning and where. How much items are selling for. What items are trading. What games and/or dailies are being played and which are being ignored. And so on. Especially, my endgame would be to figure out what's working and what's not at a glance so I can plan and prepare balance changes and future updates. Automating many-a-task can make 4-5 hours of maintenance a day into more like 4-5 minutes after the initial setup work is done. Many Game Economies fail because creators are looking for a hands-off solution that will " fix itself ", somehow. Which brings me to the other issue. You as your game's creator, master, and executioner should always be looking for ways to improve your game and its economy. Even in my little manually-run games there were what I call Power Players who committed themselves to getting rich by gaming the system and attempting to outsmart me. I understood quickly that I could not stop them by being idle. I came up with ideas for how to slow their progress. I put limitations in place. I raised prices. I put down money sinks. I did things to encourage them to slow down and take in the experience more like the other players who were fascinated that this was even a thing in the early 2000s. For the most part, it was successful -- but there were and still will be Power Players who take great joy in " winning " your sim. Eventually, I let up on attempting to curb their behavior and focused on bridging the gap between moderately skilled and Power Players so players could progress through the ranks more easily. That caused general enjoyment of the game to increase and seemed to be the sweet-spot. As your game's creator, master, and executioner I think the most important thing to do for your players is make the gaming experience enjoyable for new and average players. This is where I think Reporting would be most helpful. Once you know how much money your average player has, how much they make, and how they create and take care of their pets you can begin making moves to bridge the gap between them and your best players. Found the thing that slows Power Players down the most while keeping them engaged is giving them more competition. Just another challenge. And I think the thing that owners want to avoid is people getting discouraged by the length and speed of The Grind (earning money, items, and competitive pets) and quitting before they go from Newbie to Power or even Average Player. Beyond reporting and finding averages, I think the most important thing Game Owners can do to understand The Grind in their games is actually playing it. You'd be surprised by how many Owners do not actually see things from their players perspectives. Ah, can we take a looksie at the game? Judging by what you said it seems like we manage different types of pet sims, but I believe the basics of what I said can be applied to any sim game. Figure out your averages and aim to make the game enjoyable/winnable for the mere mortal/average player.

Generally speaking, I just wanted to make them darker so they looked less like McDonalds. Instead of doing a reinstall I just went in and fixed the code myself and it seems to be working now. I'll look/play around a bit when I get home tonight. Edit: I decided to do a fresh install and got the following after it was done -

Well, it's too hot to cook (heat index 105) and I'm just waiting to jump into portals so let's give this a spin. 1. Downloaded from Github 2. Logged into my Server 3. Upload + Extract went fine 4. Noticed ... my AddOn domain isn't working. I'll do that later. ONWARD. Ah. I remember this familiar screen. And its aesthetic. If I took longer than 5 minutes and actually edited the source (this was inspect) I can make it look even better -- especially on mobile screens. I took a look at the three warnings here and noticed those folders (/gif, /jpg, and /png) were not in the picuploads folder. I made them and made them writable for a pass. Now, for my least favorite part of the installation; creating the database and users. I'm familiar with this process, but wonder if perhaps the instructions should be made more clear for those that aren't. Installation Complete. Now I deleted my Install folder and changed back the Config file so it's unwritable. And go to my site - http://www.ohnomobo.com/mall/ ... Hmm .. This is probably the worst time of the day for me to figure out why I have an error, so I'll sleep on it!

It's nice to see that some people are doing something with this script. I agree that it is a pretty good framework and it's done wonders for helping me get better at PHP. One of the reasons I stopped using it (besides deciding to change directions creatively) was because it was so old and used so many hacks to get you where you needed to go. It'd be nice if some of the most commonly used hacks worked out of the box. A shortlist of what I used (I think you wrote some of these!) So, what do you need help with? I don't think I'm good enough to write PHP/Backend Code, but I am good with front-end design and can help you test features.

Office Jobs tend to be like that. Most office workers wear a variety of hats and do what is needed of them. I do about 15-20 tasks on a daily basis, but feel its easier to just say " I update the website " since most things fall under that banner. The CEO is usually not the one doing the hiring unless its a very small/startup company. Your resume usually lands in HR's lap first, and they decide to pass it along to whoever may soon be your Manager if it checks most of the marks. Temp job-hunting is similar. They'll call you in for an Interview and ask for your Resume to get an idea of your skillset. Then they'll pass your Resume along to their clients/your possible future Manager if they believe you check most of the boxes. I also live on the East Coast in (fortunately) one of the best places to do this type of work. I want to move out West but not for those prices and/or horror stories. I made more than I made in Retail as a Temp; about $650 a week (after taxes) as the Agency paid weekly. That was a couple of years ago when the market was looser. You might make more now.

I work in an office. My official title is Web Content Analyst - Digital Marketing Manager. What I do at my day-job is actually pretty close to what I want to do for a pet/sim site; update the website. I post new content, update existing content, help plan content, and code/comp out some new concepts to Test and see if they'll make our site more effective/lead to more revenue generated. I don't do much art on the job (we're partnered with a studio that does most of our production art), but I find that advantageous because it allows us to sketch out a concept and do other work while the art team refines it. There's also nothing stopping me from sketching things out at the desk and finishing once I get home. Sometimes I do Customer Service; answering emails that come in through our Contact Us form, but only because I want to and have been trained to by a previous position. I used to work in Retail; from Cashier to Sales Floor to Receptionist. I understand the difficulty of "breaking in". Once I made it my Full-Time job it still took about six months to even get close. Most of that was because I was learning how to look while I was looking. That in itself is a valuable skill. Here's some Tips for Job-Hunting: 1. Be Proactive. Go to the Job. If you wait for the Job to come to you you'll be waiting for a long time. Find the Jobs you want and/or the Companies you want to work for, send in your Applications/Resume, and follow up (once a week, not every day) until you get a "No". And when you get that "No" thank them for their time and ask if they can give you advice to improve your chances. In the heat of it I applied for 5-10 jobs a day every weekday and followed up every Monday. 2. Find Your Job Title. Open up your favorite Job Search Site and find 3-5 jobs that sound like the thing you want to do. For this stage of the process do not take your personal experience or education level into account. That comes later. From there, copy the entire job description and paste it into a Word Cloud. Copy down the 5-7 biggest words that do not include the Company Name for each position. Then compare the positions to see if there's a correlation. Get those skills. Use those Keywords. Now, go to a Salary site and -- you're not looking at how much you'll be paid. You're actually looking for "similar jobs" to show you what else this position might be called professionally. This information will help you tailor your skills and resume template. 3. Find Your Companies. What's one of the best places to look for local work? Google. Not the Search, mind you, but Google Maps. Take a look at the area you want to work in and zoom in until you can see the building and quite possibly the company names. Click on those, and you may be able to find their company website and possible Careers site. Even if you use the Job Sites like Indeed, Monster, or LinkedIn you should use Maps to determine where the job is. 4. Tailor that Resume. Let's say you found some strong matches and want to apply. Great! Just don't Resume-Bomb them or send them over the same generic resume you post everywhere. Take a look at the position again and revamp your resume to match what you're applying for. Use the words they use. Talk about how your previous experience/current skills match what they want. Since you're an artist, send them a couple of samples of work that are similar to what they're trying to hire for. Surely you have a portfolio, yes? 5. Try Temping to Build Skills and Experience. Maybe you can't get a Full Job off the bat, but many companies need an extra set of hands to get their work done. Try signing up with a Temp Agency which will attempt to connect you to people who are looking for folks with your skill-set. I believe The Creative Group is the big Temp Agency for artists. I built experience through Temping before landing my current job. They're not kidding when they say it's a Temp/Gig Economy. It seems a growing number of companies want to Try before they Buy. Most Desk Jobs will try to accommodate your physical limitations. Here, they will install some desk risers so you can stand at your desk if you request it. You can also get up, walk around, and do some work in areas away from your desk if you want.

Admittedly, I'm also in a bit of a rut after watching a few stinkers. Here's some of my favorite anime and how I'd summarize it for newcomers in a sentence: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood Two brothers use Science-Magic to save their country from Demons. Spice and Wolf A man goes into business with a Goddess in a world that no longer believes in her. Wolf's Rain Everybody Dies: The Animation. Death Parade Angels use bar games to judge the souls of humans who have recently departed the mortal world. Sailor Moon Crystal The retelling of the story of a girl who discovers she's the reincarnation of a Space Goddess. Magical Girl Raising Project A group of already suffering individuals are tricked into playing The Magical Hunger Games. School-Live! Turns out, the best way to deal with the apocalypse is pretend that it didn't happen. Bokurano What would you do if you are forced to sacrifice yourself to save your world?

Not yet (aiming for later this week), but Vanilla has a whole showcase full of forums that were built in it.

Yeah. I took a look around your site when I did my audit in May and remember user-submitted content being the concept. In fact, it was one of the few websites I distinctively remember during the audit because it had an unusual concept. Think that's a vital first step. Since I already decided I'm not going to do anything with this idea let me share a bit with you. During one of my Idea Dump/Jams I started comping something called MyVirtualWurld. It combines the the Virtual World concept with a Pet and God Game. 85% of the content (roughly) is User Generated. It would be up to the staff to: Provide Starter-Content so users understand how the mechanics work Provide an over-arching world that explains how something like this exist Provide the Hosting and Functionality so people can manage their own games, called Wurlds. Users are thrust into a Universe and assume the rule of a young God or Goddess who as a show of their power by their God-Parents must shape a healthy world full of little creatures and protect them from harm. They create a little Ant-Farm-like Universe and within one of the titular Wurlds where most of the action in the game will be happening. Within your Wurld everything; from the name of your Wurld to the creatures that live within it, would have been created by you -- or bought from the Marketplace which I'll get to in a minute. You name your Wurld and create/upload an Image Map that has your various areas. Or you can just have a list/series of links for a simple version. After that you create your creatures. You can either upload your images or buy artwork from the Marketplace. Then, you name them and can set the game to generate pretty much any stat, called attributes, at random upon the creature's creation. You decide how many stages the creature has. You decide whether it can be created by a link, discovered in an area, or unlocked through a quest. I actually think the majority of the programming work would be in here; allowing creators to only be limited by their imagination. Then there are the other things you can create: Items, Shops, Dailies, and Quests. You touch not a line of code with any of them but rather go through menus that link up with each other and allow you to get something working in a couple of clicks. I think the aim behind this idea was less about making a super special and unique game and more about the social aspect of creating. I wanted to create a social network-like community of creators who either played each others games or took part in the other major part of this game; the Marketplace where you could sell your work or buy the work of others. That (and selling add ons to the Wurlds) was going to be how the game generated money. You sell extra Wurld and Pet Slots and whatnot. You get a cut of whatever's sold in the Marketplace. Sellers can choose to either sell one-off rights (meaning if someone buys it no one else can) or they can sell unlimited rights (multiple people can buy an artwork). I didn't abandon the idea because it wouldn't work. On contraire; I feared that it would work too well. The question I couldn't easily solve for was how I was going to moderate people loading their own pets and items onto the servers and into the marketplace. Free-Upload will be Chaos when you get up there in User-Count, but getting everyone's stuff up and approved at a reasonable pace would require around-the-clock staffing.