Putting It All Together - Wizards and Warriors: Massively Multiplayer Online Game Creation - page 278

You must also ensure that your quests take into consideration the areas players
might visit and what level those quests are. Many MMOs color-code the quests
so the players know if they are at the right level, such as red (the player has no
chance of succeeding on their own), yellow (there is a chance they might
succeed), and green (the player should be able to handle this quest).

Testing
What with large areas, many quests, and different factions, testing an MMO is
not an easy prospect. The testing process should start as early as possible in the
game

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s life. If you are working in a small team, you should be looking at
generating only one or two zones at a time. Of course, you will have the designs
for the other areas and how they will be connected, but you should limit the
amount of zones that you have available. Otherwise, you will end up with too
much area to cover and won

' t be able to test them all effectively.

Starter zones are always a good place to begin, because many of the initial quests
are limited to a very small area in the zone, so that you can introduce the players
to the basic concepts. Get this completed as early as possible and you can then
begin to follow the players through further zones to ensure it all works correctly.

Note

When making a game, it is very easy to miss game-breaking issues such as problematic controls
and confusing game-play mechanics. This is because as a developer you get too close to the game;
you are playing it perhaps daily and no longer see any problems. Mainly this is because you know
how the game works and you know how to navigate the issues. It is important to get people who
don t know much about your game to play it, as they will give you much better feedback than

those people who know how the game works.

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Release
Once you have created your game and tested it, you are ready for the game s

release. The size of your potential user base determines what you need to have in
place. If you are making this for a few friends and family, you don

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' t necessarily

need a website or lots of online information about the game.

If you are making a more professional game, you need to consider creating a
website that contains information about your game, its history, and instructions