With all the many devices to game on, PS3, Xbox 360, smart phones and computers, it’s pretty cool how there’s still a dedicated fan base for simple text based RPGs. That’s right, games with no graphics, noise, or any fancy bells and whistles. So with a little free time I took it upon myself to find out just how popular text based RPGs really were. The result? Simple text only games are alive and well and pretty easy to develop.
With a little knowledge of PHP, creating an online RPG is fairly easy given you put in the required work. After a few months of tinkering around with PHP I was able to create a basic game which I named SphericalX that worked quite well. It added and took aspects from other games I found around the internet to create my own unique gaming website. The goal was simple, get the best character aspects and weapons and battle other characters to see who the top dog is.
Characters had many attributes including strength, dexterity, speed, health, and defense. The algorithm to determine a winner wasn’t all too hard to make and in a lot of cases if characters had similar traits it came down to luck. Similar the casino game roulette, anything could happen if your stats were close to another person’s.
I originally thought marketing the game would be difficult. However, there are a series of websites that offer assistance in the promotion of new games. I also offered existing users in game money to help refer new users. After a couple months I had a couple thousand sign ups and a steady amount of new people signing up daily. Of course a sign up does not equal daily users, but there were quite a few of those as well. Eventually the game had over 100 daily users and many more who logged in occasionally. I added a forum where members could communicate and offer suggestions and new features which daily users greatly appreciated. Interacting with the users helped members appreciate the game even more.
All of this took place at the pinnacle of my webmaster career. I owned a dedicated server which was required to host this game. As my web presence declined I was forced to purchase shared hosting for my websites and SphericalX had to go. I renewed the domain a few more times after the site’s shutdown in hopes of restoring it back to the glory days, but those days never came. Eventually I let the domain go and all hopes of restoring the game faded.
What I learned from my adventures is this: text based games are alive and well. As long as your game has addictive qualities and you closely interact with your members it can still be a success even in 2013. So if you’re thinking it’s out of the realm of possibilities to create your very own game, think again. With a little knowledge of PHP/MySql and some dedication, you too can create a fun and popular online game.