Project Roadmap

Milestone 1

Private affairs and job issues carried me away from this project so I had to let it rest for another year. Not too bad if I consider that I carried the idea for this game with me for some decades now (yes, DECADES!). Never mind, here we go again with fresh energy and ideas!

Today I want to sketch the roadmap to this project. Being a "lone wolf developer" with just a little help of my friends (among them great artists and developes) the roadmap will guide the way. I will reveal more of this later but let me introduce you to the first milestone today!






These are the bullet points of the first milestone:

• Create project homepage with user registration system.
• Create game wiki and game forum.
• Release first playable stage of the game!

Project homepage

The project homepage will introduce the game and give an overview of the planned features. It will also provide a system for users to create an account. This registration system will be created before the release of the first game stage so that users can register and will get notified if the game is ready for testing. The homepage will also have a wiki for game instructions & infos and a forum.

The homepage will be programmed in Ruby on Rails while some of its components (Wiki, Forum) will use third party open source projects.

Release of first game stage

The first game stage  of "Nebula" will be already fully playable and multiuser enabled. It will provide a simple star map where the users can navigate between the star systems with their spaceships. The rules of the game will be a quite simple "land grab" game. The player who is able to grab the most star systems in a certain amount of time will win the game. Some kind of spaceship combat might also be implemented. The game will already feature the in-game currency. There will already be a highscore for the best players of the game.

The technology I decided to use for the game server is node.js/JavaScript. The frontend will be written in HTML5 and JavaScript. Node.js is is a powerfull event based server-side implementation of JavaScript for network applications.There are many different technologies to choose from when implementing a game server but I chose node.js mainly for two reasons: first its very good performance which is for certain applications comparable with C++, second because it uses JavaScript which is a very powerful and productive language if handled carefully and also a language I am personally very accustomed with. Though I have knowledge in other languages such as C++ or Java, I am not using it on a regular basis and to achieve that kind of mastership necessary to create a game server would probably take years before I can even start to write any actual code for the game.

Goals of the first milestone

The first milestone has the goal to get the project on its feet and running. By creating a homepage I will have a single point of reference for all game related issues and by actually creating the first stage of the game, I hope to attract some players and start to build a community around the game. I have a vision of where the game will go and the concept is very clear but I hope that the community will play an important part in the development of the game. Not only through testing and feedback but also through giving input and ideas that hopefully lead the development in new, exciting directions.

Game stages & agile methodology

As the development of the game proceeds, new stages of the game with new features will be released. Every major stage of the game will be fully playable and take part in separate game universes. Players will be able to play in different stages at the same time though some assets can only be used in one stage at a certain time (special cards). Once a new major stage of the game is deployed, players can move their characters to the new stage, transferring their achievements to the new game. Or they can start all over again. Of course there will also be updates to the major stages that will add bug fixes and new features without starting a new game universe but major features or rewrites will be made available in major stages releases.

Conclusion

Development is starting now. Exciting times are ahead. Please stand by and check regulary for any news. Or follow my newly created twitter account @NebulaMMO.

Project Bitcoin address: 1NebuLaTZ9DjpERwY9vFgRWv1eAHwyZFnD

[1] Node.js, http://nodejs.org/