Everheart

by Gambrinus
A text-based MUD with modern MMO elements
ID:2289663
 

I have been spending countless hours building a text-based game. On the surface, I think most people would consider that crazy. However, in my opinion, there are a few very logical reasons to make a text based game.

In the 80s and 90s, when a new monitor came out, it meant more colors, better resolution. These increases were exponential, increasing the colors a monitor could display from 16 to 256. Developers no longer faced difficult design decisions like: higher resolution or greater color palette? Once resolution and color reached a decent level, we started working on GPUs. How many polygons could we render on the screen? Then, frame rate? This game looks great in a screenshot, but how does it look in a video capture? Finally, we reached a point where hardware capabilities exceeded the software capabilities of most games. People were playing games at frame rates higher than what their monitors could actually display. Even worse, people were playing games at frame rates higher than what their eyes can actually perceive. It was at this point, finally, that we stopped to realize how important game play actually is.

Many of us already knew. Game play is the most important tool to a game developer. Everything else is subsequent to game play. Graphics are great and even integral to some games, but I would argue that our obsession with graphics has more to due with the emergence of technology than anything else. Now that technological advances in graphics are starting to slow, it appears, at least to me, that players are starting to focus on game play more. How else could you explain the success of so many indie games with basic, or even intentionally retro-looking graphics? I believe that the natural extension to all of this is inevitably a return to games that are text-based. That is not to say that all games of the future will be text-based (hah!), but that there will be an appreciation for text-based games again.

How often do graphics actually get in the way? The developer wants to portray a situation, but lacks the resources to do so in a visual way. Even in graphically sophisticated games, like World of Warcraft, players are limited in their ability to describe their character.

Every game should have a medium that fits the context of its game play. For some games, 3d graphics are integral. For others, graphics can actually be a hindrance.

That said, how have text-based games evolved? Game design has seen significant improvements over the years. Where do text-based games stand? Well, it seems like they are relatively untouched, in my opinion. While every other kind of game has blossomed and become more interesting, text-based games are still what they were decades ago. MUDs, specifically, are relics of the past. I see a significant opportunity in modernizing this kind of game with elegant game design choices, interface, sound, and ambiance.

I recently logged into 10 MUDs or so and played them for about an hour each. I wrote down in a notebook what I liked and didn't like. I was surprised to find that my main complaints were:
1) No direction of gameplay. Utterly trial and error.
2) Text scrolling by too quickly.
3) Ugliness of text formatting.

#1 was huge for me. I was utterly surprised by how poorly the games were designed, even though I had played them in my childhood. It was as if every MUD developer was impressed enough to just make two computers talk to each other; job done. You see, games were different back then. Players, myself included, were mesmerized by the concept of interacting with other players online. We were easily impressed and under constant bewilderment. Fast forward to 2017 and we have experienced a lot more. Meanwhile, most MUDs are still based on code from the 90s. It's a genre that slipped through the cracks. Nobody went back for them and gave them what they deserved.

How come we don't have MUDs with interesting clients, sound/music, story lines, and interesting game-play mechanics?

Everheart will be a modernized MUD. It will, hopefully, appeal to MUD veterans and newcomers alike. It is designed to feel like a modern game, without being encumbered by graphics. It will take some of the lessons game developers have learned over the years to, ideally, create a game that attracts newcomers to the genre.
Thanks, Yut Put! Maybe we're equally crazy.

I like the suggestions about the videos. I'll work on something soon!

People get turned off from the genre for dozens of reasons, including the ones you observed. The genre is in a time capsule. You shouldn't have to type 12 words to guess an internal variable for the name of, "the quick brown fox." You should be able to type "kill quick", "kill fox" etc. As long as there aren't other objects in the area with the word quick, the game should be able to parse your statement. Everheart's parser is smart enough to keep you from having to guess but doesn't match names inadvertenly very often.

There are better ways to add puzzles to the game than the guessing of command. You are absolutely correct; that is a key trait to those kinds of games. The challenge of guessing the right word is high and the reward is very little. It would better to put actual logical puzzles in the game where the challenge is more abstract. The puzzle should be in the content, not the interface. You usually want the interface to be the opposite of a puzzle. You want it to be intuitive and easy, so that you forget you're even playing a game. MUDs have a lot of great things they bring to the table, but unfortunately, interface is probably the main reason people can't get into them.
In response to Gambrinus
Gambrinus wrote:
MUDs have a lot of great things they bring to the table

I was gonna ask months ago but two hurricanes and a bunch of life changing decisions had to happen. I was here about to ask you but the wife told me we were ready to leave and so we left for a safer place. It's the last thing I remember doing with my PC in Puerto Rico. So here goes...

1. Can you talk more about MUDs, text-based MUDs and what you believe are the great things that they do, have and bring to the table?

2. Also, how do you plan to modernize and evolve it?

3. Where do you think text-based MUD's can go?

4. Anything more detailed about your passion and motivation towards text-based MUDs?

Thank you!
~David
Hey David! Hope things have settled down for you now. Assuming you're staying somewhere in the US mainland for a while?

Going to address your questions in free-form.

I think that MUDs appeal to people with great imaginations and who have a strong preference for story, freedom, player interaction, and game play. In the beginning, we played MUDs because there were no other alternatives in the MMO genre. However, even as GMUDs (graphical MUDs) became popular, they still suffered compared to MUDs in terms of features, freedom, game play. This is due to a simple but true game design philosophy. It is exponentially more expensive to add game play features as the cost of your art assets increase.

Say a game designer wants to add a new race to a game. The new race will have different armor slots, a home city and questing area, and a story line. In the text based world, the cost is low, because the art asset is actually just literature.

Making this addition in a 2D GMUD would be more expensive. Where before, the new armor slot was as simple as just modifying code, we now have to design art assets for the additional armor slot. How do previous art assets fit with the new race? By adding graphics, we added another layer of complexity, and thus we have increased the cost of adding a new feature in an exponential way.

In 3D GMUDs, we have to worry about rigging. 3D models take more time to design than 2D pixel art, so the cost per art asset goes up. We need more art assets than we did in the 2D GMUD. In this way, we have increased the cost of adding a feature by another power.

That is why so many awesome and innovate games are being made in the indy game community. We choose not to compete with big game design companies by keeping the art asset costs low, which allows us to add features and game play that is often lacking in major game studios.

MUDs today can excel by taking advantage of low-cost game features. Some examples of features MUDs can do well that appeal to game play oriented players are:
* open world
* sand box environments
* crafting systems
* player driven politics and economies
* character options and customization
* player self-expression / roleplay
* story and quest lines

Here are some features that are lacking in the current landscape of MUDs.
* Music and sound effects. Text-based games can be made more immersive with audio.
* User interface and HUDs. When text is scrolling by quickly, the player should be able to easily understand the current state of his/her character. This includes ideas like Yut Put's for having hotkeys or action bars to interact with the game world instead of typing everything.
* Reward systems that keep the player interested. Character advancement in most MUDs is very monotonous compared to modern MMOs.
* Story that facilitates in-game character progression. Most MUDs leave the player guessing where to go next. There was a point in time when that was part of their charm. Figuring out where to go next was the challenge. While this can be an interesting mechanic when used sparingly, it infuriates most modern players, as there isn't always a strong community backbone to help guide new players.

All in all, I think MUDs can be made more interesting with some innovative ideas. We can apply modern game design concepts, take advantage of low-cost art resources, and make the genre more immersive and interesting.
In response to Gambrinus
Hey Gambrinus! Thanks for the reply! I came to Florida at the end of October and worked at Walmart for a bit and now currently training for a bilingual customer representative position at a mortgage insurance service company but the wife and kids are still in PR until I can manage more money to rent a place and bring them over.

Considering how the economy is in PR and how the government "benefits" are over there...a minimum wage part-time disqualifies you for SNAP for a family of 4 and having more than $2k disqualifies you also...I plan on staying here, I can make 8.5 times as much money here and still get SNAP, it's insane and a no brainer to get my family over here. I love PR but how the island is treated and maintained like, no good, no growth there. *informational rant over*


After reading everything I still feel an emptiness over something, like yes the economics of it are totally there and I completely understand that I am not the target demographic, I just can't be so descriptive when interacting with a world or with someone to make an action.

And that's where I go next, PvP, human interaction, how do you plan to maintain the imaginative benefits of text with the validation of such actions when it comes to another player? Like, in a text based play by post/forum RPG there's going to be a referee or GM or someone taking the rules and the description of actions and converting it into a validated turn of events. But in a video game of this nature the task seems difficult. Like, I can only see this being done and having some of the essence of it remain by having simultaneous turn system, think rock-paper-scissors.

Not sure I explained it well. Let me know!
I'm pretty disappointed with the lack of support PR is getting from the mainland. Sounds like you are working hard to get your family back on its feet.

Regarding the text based interface, I'm not sure exactly what you mean.

Here's something to consider. I'm in the game right now talking to a blind player who is using a Telnet MUD client, and text based games are the only kind of games he can play. I've encountered a blind person every time I have hosted this game and posted on Reddit.

You should log in and chat!
Yeah, working on it! Oh, I'll do and we talk there then.