Recruitment Call for MMORPG Development!

Gurm · Jul 9, 2002, 01:19 AM

Folks,

I'm the chief game architect at Burning Designs.

http://www.burningdesigns.com

We're working on an engine to power online games, as well as a game universe to run on top of it. The tentative title is "Shattered Reality", powered by the "Persistence Engine".

We are actively recruiting people at this time. We especially need programmers and artists, but anyone who can help in a substantive way (web design, level design, etc.) is welcome to apply.

Private message me here, or contact me in one of the following ways...

E-mail: gurm@burningdesigns.com
MSN Msgr: gurm42@hotmail.com
Yahoo: gurm42
AIM: gurm42
ICQ: 4503460

Or, come to the forums (linked from the homepage) and check things out.

- Gurm

Malus · Jul 9, 2002, 03:14 AM

Why can't we just post here?

Digital Oracle · Jul 9, 2002, 04:14 AM

Besides Persistence Engine, a prettu empty home page, is there anymore u can say about you business and what u plan on having on your site?

Gurm · Jul 9, 2002, 04:22 AM

Malus,

You certainly can post here. Sorry, I should have included that.

Digital Oracle,

Well, the web site is empty due to a near-catastrophic database crash a couple weeks back (not ENTIRELY my fault, or so my database guru tells me). As for what we intend to have for content, it will be MOSTLY game-related. Sure, it doesn't look like much now, but it will very soon (hopefully we will attract some artists soon).

Most of our energies are being focused now on a couple of different web clients as well as Shattered Reality (working title, don't hold us to it - our desired title, "Fractured Reality", has been taken by several different groups) and a few minor utilities.

One of the things missing from the site is the absurdly long diatribe (written by yours truly) explaining the vision behind the Persistence Engine, why it's a great idea, and what will make it kick ass over current MMORPG's. However, the short answer is that we have designed a server topography that will allow us to run our engine on a variety of physically disparate servers, instead of one or two big server farms/clusters. In fact, the proof of concept will be run entirely on volunteer systems in realtime, just to prove that it works... after which we hope to get some dedicated servers.

...

As for "content" other than game-related materials and promo stuff, there will in fact be some interesting content to keep people coming to the site. We're working out what our niche will be, there are lots of hardware and software sites already but we hope to exploit a couple of heretofore unexplored areas.

- Gurm

Malus · Jul 9, 2002, 06:53 AM

I might be interested in making textures. However, I must finish some websites first, but that shouldn't take too long.

***Zardon*** · Jul 9, 2002, 07:14 AM

well its certainly an interesting concept, is this along the lines of other companies work such as active worlds etc, or is this something new you have planned for the virtual world, engine?

Gurm · Jul 9, 2002, 08:10 AM

Some of the ideas behind it come from MUDs (dynamic objects, on-the-fly game modifications and bugfixes, extreme extendibility) but some of them are brand new. Nobody else is, to the best of my knowledge, attempting a REAL persistent world. Once our world goes online it will NEVER be reset. Monsters don't have spawn points - they roam freely. Characters can be online 24/7 - although they'll eventually need some sleep. And nobody is doing discrete servers, afaik.

- Gurm

Malus · Jul 9, 2002, 11:17 AM

I presume it is based of medieval times?

Gurm · Jul 9, 2002, 06:38 PM

Err... yeah, kinda. That's a long story, but we decided that too many people were doing post-apocalyptic settings. So ours is medeival, at least nominally. Sort of steam-age. If I were forced to make a comparison, I'd say... sort of like Final Fantasy 3/4.

- Gurm

***Zardon*** · Jul 9, 2002, 08:20 PM

well good luck with it, and keep us posted as you progress with it.