How to create a graphical chatsite?

B

banshee

Artist
I was fortunate to find a programmer through here and though he was talented and got far, he dipped out of the project and got away with the money in 2020.

Now that Chatlands / Wolfhome has closed indefinitely, I really want to bring up the discussion of graphical chatsites. For a long time graphical chats were sidelined in the virtual pet world regardless of how fourth wall breaking they are. The two could have a harmonious relationship if treated right. I would love to see a serious competitor arise as now CL has closed it's doors.

The point of this topic is simply asking for suggestions, opinions and any other discussion concerning graphical chats. How can you create one and what steps can be done? Whether or not they are financially worth it is besides the point as there are ways to suitably fund these types of sites due to their cult following. At this point the problem doesn't seem monetary as much as it is based on commitment to such a project.

I would love to create a chatsite but as an artist I can only do so much. But I'd love to see pet game programmers take the idea seriously and please entertain the idea for a second on how one might accomplish it.

And if you are interested in creating a graphical chatsite, as any type of creator, pls feel free to contact me.

 
That's terrible that the programmer did that to you :( I hear that story way too often.  @banshee what is a graphical chat site? I've never really heard of anything named this before.

 
Thats interesting though telling of how they never adapted for mainstream media in some ways. Club Penguin was one, The Palace, Habbo Hotel. "Virtual worlds" is another name people use for it but that has become more prevalent for virtual reality worlds rather than the original graphical chats.

You enter a room with an avatar and you are able to interact with the room and poses as well as chat with others in the same location.

Chatlands/wolfhome, worlize, wolfing all took it to another level where users could upload their own art as the avatar. This is what recently closed down and now I believe there is no standing graphical chatsite to show an example.

You could easily see screenshots of chatlands on Google but it's really something to experience first hand.

Thank you for your response

 
They sounds interesting - the people on discord helped me to understand the concept a bit more.  I guess my question to you is what would make the thing you want to build different than the rest that are shutting down most likely due to funding?

 
Unfortunately they are shutting down due to the politics of the site, though the programmer is attempting to resolve the issues it is looking rather bleak right now. The website easily gathered funding back in 2020. I am inquiring about what programming languages could be used as well as hoping to give programmers ideas for their own virtual worlds 

Graphical chatsite are unique and could do well with healthier environments. Many people loved to use these sites up until the political systems failed. It's sad that they are successful until the system degrades.

 
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You should be able to use any programming language really to make it.  You would either want to have JavaScript or WebAssembly on the front end (JavaScript being easier).  And the backend would be a fairly simple API.

 
Thank you for your suggestions. I didn't have a very strong idea of how to approach this thread. I am apart of a project with a couple of programmers currently but there is something I'm curious of knowing. The programmer who created the project I started did something really interesting with the "bodyshop". For reference the bodyshop is where you are capable of adjusting your characters colors, species, etc. He took it the extra step and had it so you could upload a .psd and it would manually take from each layer. It was possible to change your colors via hex and it looked gorgeous compared to many bodyshops I've seen in the past. I'm curious if anyone knows how this is done and how it could be implemented.

Another question I have is how could someone create the environment where the avatars move around? How do you manage updating everything in real time? I know minimal amount of coding so bare with me my specific questions, I know there are many ways it could possibly be done but I'm clueless and would appreciate a run down.

I hope graphical chats don't live their short life. I know 3d games and technology like virtual reality makes this content seem obsolete, but there is an audience for graphical chats and I hope this inspires people to attempt to create their own.

 
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I've never heard of "bodyshop" at all.

As for the moving them around and updating in realtime, that's where JavaScript/WebAssembly can help.  You can capture where the user clicks and then send an "update" saying they moved to whatever the position is.  And then other constantly poll, or use websockets to communicate between all of the active clients of the changes (i.e. moving, or new text).

 
I apologize, I thought this topic would be interesting to programmers but didn't think it through. I should have known better than to post. You are welcome to lock the thread. I don't know why graphical chats and virtual pet sites never merged in media. It's unfortunate because graphical chatsites were so unique despite drama.

 
I think it is a very interesting conversation, I found out more about it and it’s definitely something I’m interested in looking into a little more. 

 
I miss the days of graphical chats! I've always been curious on how the creation of one actually works, but sadly I wouldn't really know where to begin either. It would be awesome to see them emerge again!

 
@banshee @skellri I'd be interested in building one of these and have a few ideas of how to build it, but I always struggle with growing the community surrounding it.

 
Tbh this is something I would love for my game ? I'll have to look into what it would cost to host something of this caliber.

 
Tbh this is something I would love for my game ? I'll have to look into what it would cost to host something of this caliber.

 
There are two programmers right now who may be interested in extra help. If you're interested in the project, feel free to DM me and I can set up an arrangement to join the developer discord group! I think it would be great to have additional hands, thank you guys for your interest

 
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