Iteration 1: Getting out that first working implementation.

So now the implementations start.

The aim for iteration 1 is to get out a working MMO.
I have to warn against any expectations of it being something someone might actually want to look at. It won't.
It will be a very rough, crude and unappealing implementation of some of the core concepts of the game.

Iteration 1 will consist of the following:
 1.1 - Basic Environment, Moving and Camera system.
 1.2 - Networking (on local LAN)
 1.3 - Menus menus menus and HUD: Game menu (for now just LAN), Game lobby screen, and other player context menu, player Health, maybe even other player health, and action bar with clickable action(s) in.        
 1.4 - Player interactions on another player (My thoughts for now is simple attack actions, creation of a party, and friendly actions). I might just use the MVC pattern here.
 1.5 - Hosting the game server:
I got a nice article on the IBM website: http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/library/ar-powerup1/ on this.
I am not sure that I will implement this for now, I will most probably do away with it for now due to a discussion with bigbadwofl on whether to create an MMO or implement something smaller (player base wise). I agree with his sentiments and decided I will start out with a smaller size, like, say that of Giants: Citizens of Kabuto and Savage. The MMO idea is still there for the end product. I will make sure that the concepts I develop for the game will be convenient for a MMO as well.
This would probably help this game to get to alpha faster.

I will be very busy this week, but I will attempt to complete iteration 1.1 -  Basic Environment, Moving and Camera system.
(I kept this iteration so small due to time constraints).

Update 0: Dawn of a new Game

Thanks to Rylod's blog I got inspiration to start a game (BigBadWofl had a hand in this as well).
This will be a long process as I do not have much free time at all.

Here is the rough ideas so far:
Name: undecided (Lalahland for now).
Influences:
 - Fairy-tail (anime)
 - DBZ mod from half-life

1. MMO
2. Swords / guns / magic
3. Fast paced and contact based playing (think DBZ mod for half-life 1, the melee side)
4. Players can create schools for other players to join (think guilds)
5. Main purpose is to improve schools (upgrades upgrades upgrades, University should be quite common, people should refer to it as universities rather.)
6. Game is PvP oriented, world PvP. (Arenas much later probably)
7. Achievements and Statistics.
8. Fame. (not sure how this will work yet, guess it will be some status for a school and the player)

Schools

1. Player leveling is done through attaining quests from the player's school (most of the players time spent outside PvP should be spent in school, player customization, dummy target practice, duels with fellow school pupils, leveling of professions etc etc.
2. The school and school ground's layout should be customize-able by the Dean/Headmaster/person assigned to do it.
3. Schools have different departments (and professors aka another player) for different professions and fighting styles.
4. Gear can be attained through contribution to your school, the more you contribute in a certain area for the school, the more of a certain type of gear you unlock.
5. Schools can be improved by unlocking purchasable "rewards" like extra building for something / training grounds / departments / etc.
6. Rewards will be unlocked through XP gained for the school, These will be missions completed by the school's pupils and staff. 
7. NPCs for the school is purchasable, for example cleaners, to keep em diseases away from the school :) teaching assistants (quest givers) maybe even make them the only professors, guards.

PvP

1. World PvP: 2 types of realms, PvP and Less PvP
2. PvP realm -> a university can be attacked ( be sure to stack on university defenses ), can't be wiped, benefits from doing this is open for discussion, it should be hard to successfully attack a university.
3. Alliances, schools (notice, schools and university is being used interchangeably) should be able to form or join alliances, this would be especially useful for smaller schools in a PvP realm.
4. Less PvP realm, schools is save from being attacked, outside your alliance area, your PvP will be on, and some time after you leave a PvP area as well.

Servers and Player Accounts

1. Worlds: A world relates to a server, a character is bound to a server, unlocks only attains to the players character, not to his account.

Technologies used to develop the game:

1. C++
2. OpenGL
3. Lua scripting language

In the end, the game will be in 3D.

System requirements to play the game

1. Fairly bad spec'd laptop (Performance will be a big focus in creating this game).
2. Linux, Windows, Mac (possibly others).

Development Process:

Very agile:

Iterations, Iterations, Iterations

I will be getting something working at as fast as time and circumstances allow me (so don't expect 3D at the start, or nice networking, workable is the aim for now, with of course a good framework in place).

At the end of each major iteration, a working product is produced.

An iteration consists of planning (which includes reflecting on the bigger picture, I say this to remind myself to do this) and implementing.

I will attempt to blog about each iteration at the end of each major iteration.

Resources:

A couple of varsity books

This nice baby: Programming Game AI by Example.

These websites:

http://www.ai-junkie.com/
http://www.red3d.com/cwr/steer/

http://www.flipcode.com/archives/Network_Game_Programming-Issue_01_Things_that_make_you_go_hmm.shtml
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/library/ar-powerup1/

(If you know of any nice networking for games book or other resource, please let me know.)

These book seems like cool resources:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1584506806/?tag=stackoverfl08-20

http://www.amazon.com/Mathematics-Programming-Computer-Graphics-Third/dp/1435458869/ref=pd_sim_b_3

http://www.amazon.com/Ultimate-Guide-Video-Writing-Design/dp/158065066X/ref=pd_sim_b_5

http://www.amazon.com/Game-Engine-Architecture-Jason-Gregory/dp/1568814135/ref=pd_sim_b_1

The Team:

Me (just don't expect the art to look like something you actually may want to look at).

Game Architecture
After some research, I decided I didn't like MVC and component-based design.
Here is my own (by own I mean it might exist but that I am not aware of it):
Basic, it will change overtime of course:

Goodbye.

That is it for this blog update. I will discuss my game architecture and choice thereof in the next update, perhaps supply you with a nice UML diagram of the game's Architecture.