hey guys, i just registered here because i need a forums where i can come back to in case i need help developing my game. this site seems pretty good.
well i get right to it now. i plan to make a mmorpg browser text based game with some 2d graphics. it should be easy because it will probably just have alot of "if this", "the do this" scripting since its text based, but i wanna hear it from more experienced people, which program should i use for making this game? im not experienced in java, flash, openGL, python.. nothing really, im gunna start looking into it now however and ill come back to this forums if i have other questions i cant find the answers to on my own. i just wanna know on which direction i should be heading.

the only scripting ive used really is batch scripting, its soo simple but because of it i understand the concept of "if this", "then do this" type of scripting. hahah im a game developing noob ^-^ i'd appreciate some help. sorry im such a noob

Welcome to the forums MrCbrl95,

Firstly I should give a bit about myself. I did begin designing a web based game although I am now focusing on Web Development as a whole.
I know I probably shouldn't do this but 'www.makewebgames.com' is another useful forum (to use as well as this one :D).

The first thing you should make sure you know how to do is HTML, CSS, PHP and MySQL. These shall be invaluable when making your game. As it is most likely a Persistent Browser Based Game? You are going to want to make sure you know how to connect to your databases.

I made my game entirely in PHP which did give it a slightly slow feel but you can still do a fair number of complex things including movement (Coordinate based) and you can easily make things like inventories.

Good luck, sorry I couldn't be of more help but I thought I would start the ball rolling!

hey AHarrisGsy, thank you for the reply and ill take a look at the other forums as well. i do not know what you mean by persistent browser based game?? and thank you again, you are gettign the ball rolling. coordinate based movement sounds good for when the players are travelling in the world map, and it will definitely have inventory and stuff. well ive been writing down all of the aspects of the game like equipments, stats, names, and so on so that when i get to make the game ima already know exactly what i want. meanwhile im making up everything i want and writing them down im a be studying the HTML, CSS, PHP and MySQL ^-^

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persistent_browser-based_game
In effect, the game doesn't reset when you close your browser.

OK, so first things first. You're going to want to start small. I'd get either a free web host or a XAMPP installation on your home computer.
The down-side of a free web host is that you have less control over your project.
The down-side of a XAMPP installation is that you can't share with your friends yet until you set up port-forwarding - exposing your PC to the Internet. This can be dangerous.

Next, after you have a "server," start playing with the PHP. Do a <?php phpinfo(); ?> and have a look at what's available.
Write a simple PHP program that prints your name and a random number.

Then get a little deeper. After you've gotten the hang of PHP, write a program that can communicate with a MYSQL database. I'd recommend having PHPMyAdmin installed. It's a life-saver. Set up a small database with a single table. Write to it and display it from a web page.
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=php+mysql+tutorial

Then make a simple guest book program and have a textbox for input. You type in the message and the page reloads.
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=php+mysql+guestbook+tutorial

Modify it to show the last twenty posts so it's a sort of slow-moving chat program.

Why a chat program? Well, effectively, the MMO text adventure game will be a glorified chat program. With orcs. Gotta have orcs.
(Well, that's complete baloney when you consider inventory-management, RegEx-parsing the command-line, battle-systems, guilds, chat channels, etc... but you have to start somewhere.)

Once you have your small chat program, make it work with AJAX. That's when the magic starts happening.
Time prevents me from going any further into detail, but there are excellent resources available to you.
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=php+ajax+chat+room+tutorial

Personally I would learn some java as you can write a .jar file and import it directly into a web page to run. It gives you good functionality and its not too hard to pick up. Definately would recomment getting some books on java though because when you first start it looks mental

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