Novimundi MMOG-library

1. How the Idea arised

There are many web-based massively multiplayer online games out there. Don't mix this up with massively multiplayer games like Ultima
Online. The most important word is "web-based" which means, that it is a strategy game played in web-browsers over a long period of time.
If you don't know what such a game is like, visit SpaceFed or in german speaking countries ETS or O-Game.

Originally some other guys and me played ETS for quite some time and we wanted to create a much more complex game. Some of us are studying political science and it was our intension to simulate relations between countries more realistic. Unfortunately we are enthusiastic players of pen and paper roleplaying games and a friend of us invented a roleplaying game called "Inhuman", playing in the far future. So the idea was born to write our own MMOG-game "Inhuman".

It was immidiately clear, that PHP ist the way to go (C# would be possible also but is not well behaving in Linux, as far as I know). So I wrote some lines of PHP and JavaScript code and a minimalistic "Inhuman" was born. But after a short time I realized, that a more sophisticated approach would perform better. So I decided to write a class-library which does most of the basic stuff, which is the same in all such games.

2. What Novimundi should do

Novimundi should handle all basic stuff needed in writing such games. This actually are:

• Classes for (secure) user handling, aliances, species, resources, technologies, mail, ingame messenging, fleets, javascript generation (for interactive resource counters, ...) and so on.

Furthermore it should follow the principles:

• Database abstraction: The library should be able to use all well known databases for storing its data. We achieve this by using database abstraction libraries like Pear:DB.
• There should be as much information as possible stored in the database and not in the source-code, to make the library flexible. This includes all informations about species, technologies, ... . This could reach so far, that the game developer can use the same website for different languages (auto detection of prefered language).
• The design should be totally object-oriented using all possibilities of PHP 5 (this would be an advantage of C# whatsoever).
• The game developer should be able to make the game as complex as he wishes (ok, this is a dream), without changing the source code of the library.
• There should be no user limit (limited only by the database).
• The game shouldn't be limited to space simulation games like those mentioned above.

4. What Novimundi should not do

After this, there are quite some things novimundi should not do. This includes:

• Generation of end-user html code (we are only supporting, this is NOT a game).
• Everything which is game specific, like resources or formulas (how much does a green dog level 6 coast?). But we shall write abstract base classes, where concrete classes can easily be derived from.

If Novimundi is in beta stadium, I'll open a new project for "Inhuman". But everybody is encouraged to write his own game with Novimundi at any time he wishes.

3. Where does the name come from

Novimundi actually is one of the species in "Inhuman".

4. How can I participate

There are many ways to participate. In the first stages knowledge of PHP and SQL would be fine. But we're searching for good ideas (could you implement this feature ...) everytime. Later on we need people for documentation and testing. Last could most easily be done by writing your own game with Novimundi.

If you want to participate, contact me via Sourceforge.