Putting It All Together - Wizards and Warriors: Massively Multiplayer Online Game Creation - page 271

point where they have enough content and are bug free for the majority of
players. Unfortunately, in the commercial world a lot of these players may have
already moved on to another game and you may not be able to get them back.
It s important to consider getting a small group of testers or friends to play an

early zone first and get it as content complete as possible before moving onto the
next area.

'

All of this information should be contained in your scope document, which is a
basic plan for how you intend to make the game and finance it. This will be
useful for anyone who you get to help with your MMO, as it shows that you
have an idea of how you intend to make it successful.

Budget and Time Frame
Making a game can cost a lot of money. If you are making a game in your spare
time, you might consider the time and effort, the late nights, and weekends to be
free. Some people consider this the of making a game. Some people look

at the cost of making a game only in terms of what money they spend on it; for
example, paying a friend to make a logo for your website, or money used to
purchase some sound effects.

“ cost �

In some cases, you can make a game for the PC-based platform, especially if you
can program, as you can use free programs such as Visual Studio to make your
game. If you want to make something more specialized or for a particular
platform, you might want to use middleware and there are obvious costs to
that

— buying the tool to make the game, for example.

So when considering your budget, take into account the following:

n Assets: Art (2D and 3D), sound, and music.
n Website: Website hosting and domain costs.

Servers and other equipment: What will you run the server on; how
will other users access it.

n

Staff: This might be your friends working on it for free or you might be
paying people based on the success of your game.

n

These items would probably be detailed in your scope document or at least
noted so you have an idea of your costs. This also gives you a good indication of