Inspiration can present itself in many forms and functions, and I often find it in the smallest, mundane details. But alas, with no channel or outlet to set it to, all the inspiration in the world is doomed to be nothing more than the faint figments of a long forgotten dream… On the other hand, the only constant in the universe is change itself — nothing stays the same forever. On the other hand, the strongest motivation for change is pain — often nothing changes until the pain of staying the same becomes greater than the pain of changing. Add this to the fact that creative impotence is a largely frustrating thing, then it becomes apparent that it was only a matter of time before my imagination demanded freedom.

So with my passion for story-telling, a life time of pent-up inspiration, and a dash of spite for all the cookie-cutter money-farm “free-to-pay” online role-playing games out there, I have set forth to create my own. It will be called, justly enough, “Inspired By” and what I hope to accomplish here is a game where players can take part in a continuing story, where they can develop their characters along side a dynamic world, and where players can branch off and create their own worlds, with their very own stories.

I know what you might think, that sounds like every MMORPG out there. But I’ve found very few games (read: Second Life, and a few others) where your actions as a player have any influence whatsoever on the game’s world, plot or direction. You play in the game’s world, but you’re not really a part of it… and that’s where I hope to be different.

On this blog I will be keeping track of progress as we (GMS) conceive and develop this game. I hope to, in the near future, post my development notes and chart the progress and projections for development… and hopefully get some feed back on our ideas.

Current Task: Conception

Right now we’re still working on figuring out how everything will work in the completed game. Once that’s done we can start implementing early stages of each piece while we figure out how to create the next stage of the game.

Our first incarnation of Inspired By will basically be nothing more than a customized bulletin board system. Each account will have the option to create multiple characters (with stats) for role playing. This early system will make use of setting and non player characters to create an environment for people to create their own worlds and stories.

This version will be very fluid and will in all likeliness change quite often as we refine exactly what we want and how we want to achieve it. Unfortunately, this probably won’t begin until we can get our hands on said bulletin board, which might not be for some time due to time and financial restraints.

However, once it is online and functional, we will begin to implement additional applications such as a paper doll avatar system, an illustrated world for setting, and specific locations for certain aspects, such as the libraries, the battle arena, et cetera.

Development Milestones

Design
• Obtain and customize a bulletin board system
• Basic icons for the navigation, menus, skills, spells, etc…
• Setting (Problem: How do we structure the forums?)
• Defined World
• Vague Plots
• Select Non-Player Characters
• Limited dialogs
• Point-based Character Creation
  (Problem: How do stats interact on a BBS?)
• Traits and Stats
• Merits and Flaws
• Skills and Abilities

Paper-Doll Avatar System
• Human male and female (Average/Lean/Adult)
• Add Short, and Tall heights
• Add Heavy, Muscular builds
• Add Child and Senior faces
• A few types of eyes per age
• A few type of mouths per age
• Curly, wavy, and straight hair types
• Short, medium and long hair styles
• A few styles of facial hair
• Permanent Body Marks
• Clothing, Accessories, Equipment
• Additional Hair Styles
• Additional Races (Fey and Hanyo)

Libraries
• Bestiary
• Handbooks
• Inventory
• Lexicon
• More…

World Development
• Mansion
• Gardens
• Hospital
• Markets
• Residents
• Arena
• Others?
• Museum? (Guest Art)

Mini Games
• Basic Animations
• Animation decals for particle effects
• Simple sound effects
• Battle Arena
• Trainers
• Trade Skills