Hello everyone, I’m GoodGus! Today, I’m excited to share my journey of creating not one, but two MMORPGs using Construct. While these games aren’t traditional MMORPGs, they are online games with role-playing elements where players can chat and interact. Let’s dive into the story!
My fascination with creating an MMO began when I was just 13 years old. I was inspired by a game called Stick Online, a simple game where players controlled stick figures to battle blob characters and collect rare hats. Despite its simplicity, I was captivated by it and dreamed of creating my own version.
For several years, I attempted to develop an online game. Each year, I dedicated a week to research and experimentation. If I couldn’t make progress, I would pause and try again the following year. It was a challenging endeavor, especially for a teenager trying to grasp networking concepts using Game Maker.
Eventually, I discovered Construct 2, a game development platform with robust multiplayer capabilities. This discovery reignited my enthusiasm, and I purchased the software. However, it took a couple of years before I seriously started working on a project.
During a winter break in college, I decided to dedicate time to learning Construct. Within three days, I had a working prototype! As a graphic design student with limited programming experience, this was a significant achievement for me.
My first MMO was themed around winter, featuring penguins battling snowmen and reindeer while collecting hats. Over the month-long break, I gradually built the game, incorporating multiplayer functionality, a chat system, and an inventory. I even managed to connect player stats with Firebase for account creation and progress saving.
To my surprise, the game attracted a community of players who even donated to support it. However, over time, I encountered limitations with Construct’s multiplayer features, which hindered further development. Eventually, the game, known as Fantasy World, faded away along with its community.
Feeling a bit disheartened after Fantasy World, I continued researching and discovered Photon, a cloud-based server solution. This discovery allowed me to overcome the previous limitations, and I quickly recreated Fantasy World, resulting in a new game called WhizBirds.
WhizBirds was an improvement in every aspect, featuring larger maps, diverse rooms, a chat system, and parkour elements. The community grew, and we still have an active Discord group for WhizBirds enthusiasts eagerly awaiting updates.
Creating these games has been an incredible learning experience, connecting me with amazing people worldwide. My passion for game development remains strong, and I’m currently learning Godot and C++ to build a proper game engine from scratch.
For all the WhizBirds fans, rest assured that the game is not dead. It remains a work in progress, and my goal is to eventually create a spiritual successor from scratch. The timeline is uncertain, but my dedication is unwavering.
To anyone aspiring to create their own games, I encourage you to pursue your dreams. Don’t let challenges or doubts deter you. Even if your creations aren’t perfect, they are valuable experiences that many never achieve.
If you have questions about WhizBirds or want to follow my current project, Dewdrop Dynasty, feel free to connect with me on Twitter or leave a comment. Thank you for your support, and stay tuned for more updates and content. Have a fantastic day!
Join a hands-on workshop where you’ll use Construct to create a simple online game. This activity will help you understand the basics of game development and multiplayer functionality. By the end, you’ll have a prototype similar to what GoodGus achieved in his early days.
Attend a seminar focused on networking concepts crucial for developing online games. This session will cover the challenges GoodGus faced and how understanding these concepts can enhance your game development skills.
Participate in a group activity where you’ll brainstorm strategies to build and maintain a community around a game. Reflect on GoodGus’s experience with Fantasy World and WhizBirds to understand the importance of community engagement.
Explore different game engines like Construct, Godot, and others through guided tutorials. Compare their features and discuss which might be best suited for various types of games, inspired by GoodGus’s journey from Construct to learning Godot and C++.
Present your game development project to peers and receive constructive feedback. This activity encourages you to share your progress, similar to how GoodGus shared his journey, and helps you refine your project based on community input.
Here’s a sanitized version of the YouTube transcript:
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Hey everyone, it’s GoodGus here! Today, I want to talk about how I created not one, but two MMORPGs in Construct. Before we begin, I should mention that these aren’t traditional MMORPGs; I would describe them more as online games with role-playing mechanics where you can chat and interact with others. So, let’s get started!
I was very young when I started my research on creating an MMO; I think I was 13 at the time, and I was eager to create a game like Stick Online. Now, I’m sure many of you out there haven’t heard of Stick Online. It was a little game maker game, I think made in Game Maker 7, where you played as stick figures and fought little blob characters to collect rare hats. There wasn’t a lot of content, but I was completely obsessed with it growing up.
My dream was to create my own version of Stick Online. Every year for six or seven years, I attempted to make an online game. I would spend a week researching and reading, and if I couldn’t figure it out by the end of the week, I would give up and try again the next year. This might sound like a terrible idea, but when you’re a 14-year-old trying to understand networking using Game Maker, it’s not always the easiest thing to pick up.
After doing some research, I found that Construct 2 had great multiplayer functionality. I experimented with it and got really excited; it felt like my opportunity to finally make an online game. So, I bought the software and then did nothing for a good year or two.
A couple of years passed, and during winter break in college, I was sitting around thinking about what to do with my month off. I pulled out Construct and decided to give myself a week to read the manual and follow the multiplayer tutorial. Within three days, I had my first working prototype!
Let me remind you that I was pursuing a bachelor’s degree in graphic design, so I am not a programmer. I’ve become more of one over the past year, but at that point, I didn’t know much, so this was a huge accomplishment for me. I was so excited because I was one step closer to pursuing my dream.
For the first MMO I created, there were a lot of winter themes because I like to theme my games based on the seasons. It was winter at the time, so I thought it fitting to make a game where you play as a penguin, fighting snowmen and reindeer while collecting hats. Over the span of that month, I started piecing the game together little by little.
As winter break was coming to an end, I was figuring out what to do with the project. I had multiplayer, a chat system, an inventory, and I even figured out how to connect all the stats with Firebase so players could create accounts and save their progress. I created a rough but working MMO, and we decided to release it. I didn’t expect much response; I made the game for me and my friends, not to prove anything or make money.
Surprisingly, people started joining our community and even donating. It was a fun time, and I learned a lot about game making and programming logic using Construct. However, over the course of a year, I noticed limitations with the software. It became a struggle to add multiplayer features, and we were never able to implement online enemies. The enemies you saw on your screen were just on your local machine, which took away from the experience. After a year, we realized that further development of the game just wasn’t sustainable anymore, so Fantasy World kind of phased out, and the community slowly faded away.
The next summer, I was out of school and toying around with project ideas. After Fantasy World, I felt a bit like I had failed because it was such a cool project with so many people involved, but it was impossible to pursue further due to physics and networking issues. I did some more research on Construct and discovered a software called Photon, which is a cloud-based server. I experimented with it in Construct, and there were no issues with lag or precision of jumps. I could do room changes and all the things I wasn’t able to do with Construct’s native multiplayer.
This discovery blew my mind! I recreated Fantasy World in just two or three days, and WhizBirds became the spiritual successor to Fantasy World. It was better in every way—bigger maps, awesome views, different rooms, a chat system, parkour, and a larger community. We still have a fantastic and engaged community on our Discord for WhizBirds supporters who are patiently waiting for updates.
Ultimately, I’m happy that I created both games. It was an amazing learning experience, and we interacted with so many awesome people from all over the world. It’s something I’m still passionate about, and I want to continue working on it. My goal for the future is to create a proper engine from scratch. I’ve been learning Godot and C++, trying to become a better programmer.
For all you WhizBirds fans out there, WhizBirds is not dead; it’s still alive! It may take a while for it to truly become what it’s meant to be. Our goal is to eventually recreate or make a spiritual successor to WhizBirds from scratch. I don’t know how long it will take—could be soon, could be later—but it is my passion and goal.
So, have hope, WhizBirds friends! It’s amazing to see what you can achieve when you put in the effort. I guarantee that if there’s a type of game you want to create, don’t give up. Don’t let anyone tell you it’s too hard or overwhelming—just do it and have fun with it. Even though I made two games that aren’t as solid as I’d like them to be, that’s more than most people can say.
If you have any questions about how I coded WhizBirds or if you want to follow along with my current project, Dewdrop Dynasty, make sure to follow me on Twitter or leave a comment below. I appreciate everyone who watched this video. Stay tuned for more devlogs and other programming or art-related content. Thank you so much, and have a wonderful day!
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This version removes any informal language, filler words, and maintains a more polished tone while keeping the essence of the original content.
Game – A structured form of play, often undertaken for entertainment or fun, and sometimes used as an educational tool, especially in the context of computer science and software development. – The students developed a new game as part of their final project in the computer science course.
Development – The process of creating, designing, and programming software applications, including games, by writing and maintaining source code. – The development of the new software took several months and involved a team of skilled programmers.
Programming – The act of writing computer code to create a program, which is a set of instructions that a computer can execute. – She spent the weekend programming a new feature for her mobile app.
Multiplayer – A type of video game mode where multiple players can participate simultaneously, often over a network. – The multiplayer mode of the game allows students to collaborate and compete with each other online.
Community – A group of people with a common interest in a particular area of technology, such as a programming language or software development platform. – The open-source community contributed significantly to the development of the new software tool.
Design – The process of envisioning and planning the creation of objects, systems, or interactions, particularly in software and user interfaces. – The design phase of the project focused on creating an intuitive user interface.
Engine – A software framework used for the development and creation of video games, providing a suite of tools and features to streamline the process. – The team chose a popular game engine to simplify the development process and enhance graphics.
Research – The systematic investigation into and study of materials and sources to establish facts and reach new conclusions, often used in the context of developing new technologies or software. – Her research on machine learning algorithms contributed to the advancement of artificial intelligence applications.
Coding – The process of writing instructions for a computer to perform specific tasks, typically using a programming language. – Coding is an essential skill for computer science students, enabling them to create software applications.
Project – A planned set of tasks or activities undertaken to achieve a specific goal, often involving research, design, and development in the field of technology. – The final project for the course required students to develop a fully functional web application.
