Let’s introduce the project that is Wolfery.com
Background
For ages, I’ve roamed IRC, FurryMUCK, and (under different appearances) Tapestries, a greywolf carrying the name of Accipiter (or Acci for short). I’ve always loved the immersion of textual role play which allows you to be and do anything.
But while IRC and MU* were once pioneering massive multi-player interaction, they have long since grown outdated, not easily accessible for the vast majority of players. New generations of games and applications have replaced them - chats such as Discord, or games such as WoW - where none of them facilitates the joy of simple textual roleplay very well.
About 5 years ago I started working on a prototype of a web based game engine. It was crude but operational. I hosted it here on my sandbox domain, Wolfery.com, and invited some friends to try it out. It was fun and it worked. But later I dropped the project as the code structure grew too complex and error prone.
Now, with 5 years of additional experience, and after creating the real-time gateway of Resgate.io, the perfect piece I was missing, I’ve decided to try again.
So I welcome you to Wolfery.com, a modern MUCK style textual RPG engine.
The game
The game is built around some basic ideas, many of them derived straight from the MUCKs of old.
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It is a textual RPG.
Interactions and events are described as text. Graphics are fine as long as they don’t inhibit imagination. Like writing short stories with others. -
Only the character is known
It is a game of characters. Players should be hidden and protected. While players may choose to reveal their identity or which characters they control, the game should not disclose any such information. Not even to moderators. -
Anyone can build the world
Rooms and areas can be created by anyone, to build settings to suit their stories. Even public areas should eventually allow updates and extensions from anyone in a crowd sourced manner. -
Easily accessible
A userfriendly modern web client should make it easy for newcomers to access the game and get started role playing. -
Scaleable
The game should be built in a way that it can scale to handle tens of thousands of concurrent players. Or more.
While old style MUCK games fulfilled many of the ideas above, they mainly lacked in not being very *accessible* or *scalable*. A main feature decided on early in the development was the need for a built in client which is fed information using a real-time API , instead of the text stream found in MU* games.
With structured data, constantly kept up-to-date by the Resgate.io servers, and a web client presenting it all, a lot of possibilities opened up. Features such as encryption, multi-character support, room and character information panels, image support, unicode support, notifications, etc., all became natural effects of the initial choice.
What now?
The game is now ready to be accessed, to be populated and enjoyed. Hopefully it can provide a new generation the opportunity to experience the joy the MUCKs brought to me.
For that I need your help.
I am good at developing.
I am decent at designing interfaces.
I am poor at writing room and area descriptions.
I completely suck at marketing (I get seriously stressed out!).
Of all the things I need help with, the hardest part for me is spreading the word.
Invite a friend, mention it in your online hangouts, or just spend time hanging with us here.
A world like this is only fun when others are around.
Best regards,
Accipiter