I started this project roughly one year ago and built the client around a 3d rendering engine called Ogre3D. The original goal was to construct a proof of concept and demonstrate my abilities across several programming languages including C#, C++ and PHP. With these languages I was able to create the Server, Lobby(Patcher), Client, Website & Account Management system(s). However once this goal was met, the project started to grow on a much larger scale into something I actually wanted to produce. After spending months trying to write custom HLSL & CG Shaders that would really bring the game to life, I fell short. I found that writing these shaders was another project all together and that was something I just didn't have the time to achieve alone.
Then I heard about this community of indie developers that would meet once a month in my area. I signed up and attended my first IndieNomicon event, which was actually their 1 year anniversary for this Orlando, FL based indie game development community. After speaking with other developers and enthusiast I found that most of them used an engine called Unity3D, which I had heard about but strayed away from originally. A few weeks after my first event, I figured I would give the engine a try and see what all the hype was about. I was very surprised with the level of simplicity and overall control that the engine offered out of the box. I quickly began harvesting and putting together all of the components to begin porting my game into this new software environment.
This video demonstrates an early port of the game into the Unity3D development environment.
New (custom) User Interface
Since the development cycle to bring an MMO to the production stage will take several years, I've changed the short term goals for this project. With this new engine I have the ability to develop the online(networked) aspect of the game, right beside a working single player instance. The goal is to have a working, downloadable single player version of the game available via Steam Greenlight around this time next year. The single player version of the game will feature the same game mechanics available in the online version. This includes features such as: crafting, harvesting, combat, AI, etc.
KickStarter
A few weeks ago, i published the project to KickStarter in hopes to raise enough money to really boost this game into full time production. Currently I'm able to commit roughly 10 hours a week towards the production of this game. However if this project gets funded that number would increase to over 50 hours a week with the possibility of a few additional developers. We've also sent out a press release earlier this week which has been attracting a lot of attention.
