“Hello World!” (I say in the stereotypical WordPress first post tone). Recently we (and be we I mean I) decided to change this page up a bit. Up until this evening this webpage was not a blog in any aspect, other than the fact that our front page ordered all of my posts (which have now been dispersed and moved to other information appropriate pages) in chronological order. Tonight that has changed. For quite some time I’ve been stuck on pondering how I could get more visitors and readers involved directly in the exciting process of our new development without willy-nilly opening the doors to our software to just any old person. While staring at my admin panel, it dawned on me and smacked me in the head like a fresh brick: BLOG you fool!
And so here I am, blogging till my little hearts content. As of this evening, this page will document much of our development process in the hopes of getting some of you readers involved in watching how our game shapes up to ultimately spark some interest in this new(ish) project of ours. So perhaps I should start at the beginning, as it tends to be an excellent place to begin.. erm.. yes.
Ashianae’s Journey is a project started by myself and a few other brave (insane) citizens on a 3D chat program called Active Worlds. For roughly six years now, a few of us have been developing and supporting a game within that client called “AWRPG - The Land of Draeda”. Over the years we’ve had a blast and learned a ton. Years back we were commissioned by some Dutch folk to create a 3D game using the platform for a website called Games.nl. After a few snaffoos that project washed up, and we were left to our own devices back in AWRPG. Years later, here we are: taking what I consider to be a bold step forward. Three months ago we purchased our own license of the software to develop our own game on. This software is not open source and therefore we do not have the rights to change the programming of the engine itself, but we are free to develop on top of it until we drop… And that is what we’re doing!
In the past couple of months we’ve been working feverishly with various groups to bring this little dream together. Magine, of www.turtleflight.com has graciously provided us with a license to use her RPG II software, which is what one might call a “plugin” to the AW software (without being as cool as a true plugin). This software allows us to operate a “Game Master” which in the most basic language controls all user stats. This Game Master is essentially what we in Active Worlds call a Bot… In generic terms, a bot is the equivalent in AW of Artificial Intelligence. These bots can keep track of player records and accounts, and function as all the NPCs players interact with. We’ve also been working with a couple of citizens, Tim and Joel, to get some cool terrain forms within the world that will make things very nice… So far all of that is set.
At this point in the game we are working heavily on setting up the various Game Master settings, testing out its features, and setting up the infrastructure of the game itself. Setting up the physical environment players interact with is also moving along nicely.
I feel as though I’ve blathered on long enough for one evening. As I make my posts and discuss the progress we make in various areas, I will try to give you, the reader, more background on the topic itself. For example, if tomorrow I post about our NPC development (which I just might!), I will do my best to give you a better understanding of where we are in the process, and where we would like to head. In the mean time, if you’re just discovering this blog feel free to look around at the other pages we’ve provided to get some more information, although some of them lack content for the moment.
Thanks for reading!
Jim Rothfork
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