I've got some big questions, need all kinds of advice.

[GreenShepherdess]

Hello

I'm not a programmer or artist, I've never been involved in creating a game, app or anything computer or web based (except one website in basic html a few years ago, gave me a headache, lol.) I'm not familiar with any computer or programmer speak. My field of expertise is in animals, primarily genetics and nutrition.
That being said, for the past 2 years or so I've been storyboarding a game that focuses on canine genetics/breeding and showing/sports competition. I know my game is a lot better than what is currently out there.
I'm working on putting together a presentation that I can put on Kickstarter to raise the funds to hire the artists, programmers and web developer that I need to help me put this together (and other basic website costs too.) But, before I launch my presentation I need more information about the programming and web development side of my game.

First off, do I label my game as a SIM, RPG or ? Consider my game to be sort of like a cross between ShowDog.com and NeoPets.com (but without the battle stuff in NeoPets.) Currently I'm only planning on 2D graphics, but leaving it open to expand to 3D graphics in the future.

Speaking of Showdog.com and Neopets.com, what kind of programming languages are those written in? What is the best kind of language(s) for my game to be? Also, I would like ipad/iphone/smartphone/whatever users to be able to play on my game website from their devices as well as those who are on computers....so how do I find a programmer and web developer to make sure my game site is friendly to all users? (just for the record, i'm in the dinosaur age of technology, I only own a basic cellphone and a desktop that is 4 yrs old now, I've never owned a laptop/ipad/iphone/ smartphone or whatever, heck I don't even have a tv.)

Which are the best companies to host a server for an online website game? I'm using 1and1 as the registrar for websites I already have, are they good for servers too?

I really want to have all my ducks in a row before I decide what my funding goal is and before posting a presentation on Kickstarter. So I really need to learn more stuff about the technological side. Please ask me questions about my plans because I'm sure there are things out there that I don't know about and I don't know to ask about.

Thank you!

[Nutter2000]

First off, welcome to the forum.

Secondly, please don't be put off if you get what seems like an overly-aggressive response, there are a lot of very experienced people here who live and breath game development but they don't tend to hold back with their views.

Thirdly, ideas are cheap it's implementation that counts, so don't be afraid to share.

Labels: You seem to be aware of this but be careful with your labels, especially when pitching to the kickstarter crowd, you want make sure you give the right impression.
Without knowing all the details of your game it's hard to say, I would suggest Tamagotchi-style could be a reasonable label (i.e. virtual pet), RPG would imply some sort of adventure element to me, which may or may not be accurate I've no idea!


Languages: You're talking websites I presume? The basic anatomy of a website is web language + database. So you'll need something like PHP or ASP.Net or Ruby for the website (in simple terms these are server side languages that produce HTML for the user's web browser), the database you'll be looking at MySQL or MSSQL primarily, there are other options such as a NOSQL database which are often used with cloud-based services (like Amazon or Google) but unless you have a solid business case why you'd need to scale to millions of players then I wouldn't worry about them, it's added complexity and development costs.

For dealing with smartphones, you want to make sure your website design follows reactive web design principles so that it can handle all sorts of screen aspects.

You need to find a good web designer to make sure it appeals so I would start by looking for one of those, they can normally handle the front end programming for your site (i.e. graphics and layout), which will leave the heavy lifting on the backend to your programmer.

I do suggest though that if you have no experience at all in this sort of thing then you've really got an uphill battle all the way.
In which case I would say to find a web design studio that can do everything for you, they can also help source the hosting.

There are 4 different types of server:
Shared hosting, which is best for small websites as it hosts many different websites on a server. This is best for small websites really as the host will often have hundreds if not thousands of websites on the one server so resources will be tight.
Dedicated hosting, where you basically rent an entire server. This is probably over kill for what you need.
Virtual hosting, which is like a cross between a shared and a dedicated. The server is split up into several shards so you get complete access to smaller amount of the total resources (like memory, cpu and disk space) however, these are dedicated to your site so no other application on the server can interfere with it.
Cloud computing, essentially every resource like CPU time, disk space, database is split up and you're billed for the amount you use rather than paying a monthly fee. You don't exactly get a specific server but you're allocated the resources across a vast network of servers as and when you need it.

I would suggest renting a small virtual server for your needs.

As a rule of thumb, I never use the same registrar for your hosting and always use a reputable registrar I think 1and1 are ok, I use 123-reg for uk domains and godaddy for international but that's just personal preference/experience.
If you start having trouble with the host you may find it difficult to redirect to a different server if it's all on one isp.

Hope that's a good start for you

Iain

[GreenShepherdess]

Hi Iain,

No worries here about aggressive responses, I've got thick skin. Besides, I may not live and breathe game development, but there are other things that I am extremely passionate about, so I do understand passion for a subject.
I absolutely do want to give the correct impression to the Kickstarter crowd, that's why I came here first

Thank you for info on which languages may be used for my game/website, when it comes time for me to hire a programmer(s) then I want to make sure I'm hiring one who knows the languages I need. There used to be a website game out there called DogRealm.com, they were pretty decent compared to the other similar types out there now, and very similar to what I want. I know that DogRealm was in mainly PHP and MySQL.

Here is some info about my game. The primary goal of the game is to breed a dog that is "perfect." I've made different classes of "genes." Coat type, Color, Patterns 1, Patterns 2, Structure, Temperament, Health. Some of these classes the player will be able to see the whole genotype of a characteristic, some they will only see phenotype and will have to figure out what the genotype is through show/competition scores or breeding. I've come up with 3 "inheritance" systems: System A: (poor) aa, (good) aA or Aa and (excellent) AA; System B (i'm not listing all variations, you get the point): (poor) a/a/a/a, (fair) a/a/a/A, (normal) a/a/A/A, (good) a/A/A/A, (excellent) A/A/A/A; System C deals with colors and would be too big for me to post here.
I've storyboarded my game to allow for expansions, the beta version is pretty simple. No action or moving characters, just nice, still graphics. Players will get a kennel page (lists the dogs they own and they can buy more kennel runs to have more dogs) and they can click on each dog to go to that dog's page. The dog's page will show an image of the dog that shows it's gender and visual phenotype (coat, color, patterns.) The dog's health, structure and temperament will affect it's scores in competitions (conformation, agility, lure-coursing, tracking, obedience, etc...)
The more money I can raise, the more I'll be able to pay programmers and web developer to get more stuff included in the beta version. A section of my storyboard does include characters in motion for the competitions, if I can get these things included then that would be lovely; such as, if a player races their dogs in lure-coursing then they can watch the race with each dog performing according to it's "genetic" capabilities.

I hope this gives you a good idea about what my game is, let me know if you need more info. What would you call my type of game?

Thank you for the info on servers, what are your recommendations for hosts? When I get a web developer/designer I will let them make the decision on host and server, but I just want to find out enough so I can talk to them about it. With the other websites I have, 1and1 is my registrar and weebly is my host, which is working out very well for me. But I know weebly can't be my host for my game (or at least I think I know? perhaps someone here has experience that says otherwise?)

Don't be afraid to throw big programming words at me, if I'm really confused about something then I can ask my mother about it, she knows a bit about computer programming and website languages (she the web content manager at OCLC) she isn't well versed in the programming that I need to make my game work, but she'll be helping me where she can too.

Courtney

[James Coote]

I wouldn't be concerned about what 'genre' your game is. If you're pitching it to someone who is not your customer, then it's a pet simulator. Concentrate on having a good name for the game that sums up what it is about. "Dog Breeder Pro" "Doggie Paws" "Kennel Champion" etc

Another technology option to consider is HTML 5. That will run on both web and also on mobile. However, it is a fairly new technology, and performance can vary on mobile devices (not so much web browsers).

[dunipan]

Courtney - sounds like an interesting project. I am curious why you are approaching it from building a website first with a mobile supplement? There are countless studies that are showing people using desktops/ laptops less and less these days with the rising popularity of tablets and people generally on-the-go. Just another suggestion but with multi-platform development programs available (e.g. Unity 3D) you could approach your project trying to build for a Facebook audience online and "connecting" that same game for mobile users as well. Your game may be suited to a more mobile audience then a traditional website. Anyways something to think about

[EmadY]

well, GreenShepherdess to answer one of your questions, is your game going to be flash based or text based with a few basic pictures?
if you don't know what that means, I'm asking whether, for example you interact with your dog and let him walk around and you see him moving etc, or you just click a button like 'walk' and your dog is good to go?

the language shouldn't be a hindrance, any programming language can make anything, but if it's not flash, and you have a big idea (probably going to need objects and stuff, which are pretty 'deep' programming knowledge but make the job ever so easier) I'd suggest webmatrix. along with it comes the Razor syntax where you can insert C#, which is part of .NET, and a OO-programming language (object oriented).

also, if it's flash, then your production budget just grew. A lot. not to mention if you decide to make it 3D...
but of course, some games just can't work without flash, so maybe yours is one that needs it?

also, (and I dunno if it's right to place it here) but since I'm actually looking forward to a 'goal' of my own, I'd like to offer you my programming services, free of charge. I just finished school today (finally!) and I developed a webpage (for my dad's block, he's managing it, so in it are incomes expenditures etc...) and I know a lot about OO-programming and Razor. and by free, I really mean free, and I'm not a newbie, I know my stuff... pm me if you want to talk more about it

and whatever you eventually pick :

-best of luck!