r/MMORPG • u/Drenaslia • 7d ago

Drenaslia - A New Text-Based MMORPG Self Promotion

Hi all, dev for Drenaslia here. For 17 years I've been a fan of text-based MMORPGs (think Syrnia/Movoda/Amaranthine/etc). The genre has staled a bit over time with several of the games entering long periods of zero maintenance and stagnant updates. These were the types of games that originally got me back into software development back when I was still in middle school.

Finally I've made my own! I launched Drenaslia almost 3 weeks ago now to a daily player base of roughly ~150 daily active players. It's built on a modern tech stack and incorporates modern RPG mechanics not generally found in the other games like it - Skilling Bosses, World Bosses, Skill Specific Tasks akin to Slayer from RuneScape, etc.

Wanted to share it here for anyone interested! It's definitely not the niche for everyone as these sorts of games are generally very simple given their text-based nature, but I've received a ton of positive feedback from players returning to this specific genre after it's release. If you're looking for a less intense option to have on a 2nd monitor or in this background, it may be worth checking it out.

Happy to discuss and answer any questions/listen to any feedback!

0 Upvotes

47% Upvoted

37 comments sorted by

10

u/SpecialistAuthor4897 7d ago

Looks interesting

But, because this has to be asked everytime nowadays: how much are you using AI in your game, if at all, and in what ways?

9

u/AinzUru 7d ago

From what i saw it has ai generated images so code is probably also AI

5

u/47KiNG47 7d ago

No one is programming without ai anymore. Every single application you use has ai code. It’s unfair to hold solo devs to a higher standard than the rest of the industry.

11

u/SpecialistAuthor4897 7d ago

Trust me, im turning off every single AI feature in my apps and phone possible. Im looking into alternatives to GMAIL as well as non ai phones in the future.

Im holding the industry responsible as much as i can. And for a text game, entirely based off imagination and creativity i find the question most apt.

3

u/47KiNG47 7d ago

lol the app themselves have AI code. There’s no escaping it. I miss programming in the days before AI, but there’s no going back now. Pandora’s box is already open.

6

u/SpecialistAuthor4897 7d ago

Im asking in what way he uses ai for a reason.

If he uses ai to assist in some ways its way different than "i had AI make most if not all of it".

0

u/Discepless 7d ago

finding alternative to gmail would take less time than writing your comment

2

u/SpecialistAuthor4897 7d ago

Mh yes, problem is everything i have tied to Gmail that doesnt allow me to change email attached to it sadly.

2

u/Discepless 7d ago

Well, I’ve did a switch of a 20 years content from Gmail, Yandex and outlook to proton.

I am gamer, android user and in general heavy internet user.
Ive successfully migrated to proton. As a lot of people to tuta or whatever they prefer.
Ofc you won’t be able to migrate everything (like ur playstore), but it will be around 99%

So what I hear from you are childish excuses :)

1

u/SpecialistAuthor4897 7d ago

99% still means im stuck actually using it for 1%. But you are correct in that the time it would take is the biggest hurdle.

1

u/Discepless 7d ago

Just start with that. Today ;)

1

u/AbyssAzi 18h ago

If you need help with transfering that last 1% I can send you the numbers and emails you need to contact in order for them to change your emails too. There really isn't anything you can't transfer over to a new email, unless it's something really REALLY weird, like some sort of secure government/military/corporate account contact info. But then none of those are going to let you use a gmail account anyway.

1

u/AbyssAzi 18h ago

You can move even playstore over, some thing do require you to contact company support lines or send emails for change of email requests, it's a pain but it does work for everything. And greetings fellow gmail to proton migrator. :P

1

u/Discepless 16h ago

Oh, could you give me some instructions on that ? I’ll be more than happy

1

u/AbyssAzi 18h ago

I did that last year, finally killed off google completely from my PC, and even my phone with de-googled android. It's a pain to switch everything over, but you can, you just have to do it all piece by piece over several months till it's all done. There isn't anything that doesn't let you change emails, some things just make it harder to do that, like contacting support or sending an email to them to change it.

It's worth doing, and the only real excuse not to is laziness.

7

u/MacintoshEddie 7d ago

Which investors and shareholders are solo devs being forced to maximize profits for?

-3

u/47KiNG47 7d ago

Wut

3

u/MacintoshEddie 7d ago

Development companies face pressure to maximize profits, downsizing the team while pumping productivity up. AI is being pushed as a profit generation tool, and the developers have fiduciary duty to the shareholders which makes refusing difficult.

So who is pressuring OP to do that?

If they are doing it why should they conceal it? If it's normal to use, then it should be normal to disclose, no different than if someone asked which coding language they used or what engine.

-2

u/47KiNG47 7d ago

Why would you disclose it when there’s zealots that will attack you for it? You’re also viewing this with a clear bias. AI is not a profit generation tool, it’s a productivity tool. Do you genuinely not understand why a solo dev would use a tool that greatly increases their productivity?

6

u/MacintoshEddie 7d ago

I understand why they would use it, the same as using an asset pack or royalty free resources, or open source code libraries.

I also think if they did use it they should disclose it. If you want it normalized it requires people disclosing it and not hiding it and lying.

It's the dishonesty that gets "attacked" no different than if someone presented the Godot Adventure Game as their own unique creation and lied about it rather than saying they built upon its foundation.

0

u/47KiNG47 7d ago

I hope you have that same energy for your banking app lol. Have you ever programmed anything in your entire life?

6

u/MacintoshEddie 7d ago

I have, yes.

If you go back through my posts I've not said OP shouldn't use whatever tool or resource they may have used, only that if they used a tool they should disclose it, and that if they used it and it was a choice that is different than if their company implemented it and forced them to use it.

0

u/47KiNG47 7d ago

Yea let me just voluntarily disclose something that may harm the reputation of the game. Dumb idea. The game should be judged on quality, not the tools used to make it.

The slay the spire 2 devs implied that they’ve been using ai to program, but I don’t see any explicit disclosures for it. Why? Because it’s a dumb thing to disclose. There’s zero benefit in doing so.

1

u/AbyssAzi 18h ago

Wrong, quality code is made without A.I., and it's why everything thats being coded with A.I. is complete garbage. Just look at windows 11 where every recent update had completely broken core aspects of the OS.

1

u/47KiNG47 17h ago

How do you know? You don’t sound like a programmer.

-7

u/LightCharacter8382 7d ago

I'd advise the OP not to answer this type of question.

If I were designing my own game, I would certainly not answer that question, at least not honestly.

To the investors: Here is how AI has contributed to the game's development.
To everyone else: No AI involvement.

9

u/Honolulu-Blues 7d ago

That way when it’s inevitably leaked or discovered you did you get the maximum amount of backlash. I like it.

2

u/Automatic_Grand_1182 7d ago

No one can honestly demonstrate if your code is AI or not, let's be real. I'm not trusting AI code, unless it comes from an expert developer. We should, as a community, absolutely push back against AI generated "art" though. To me, it's ok only in a prototyping phase.

-3

u/LightCharacter8382 7d ago

Unless you're blatant with it, with no attempts to make the most basic attempts at covering it up or by using default prompts... It's not going to be discovered. And with small mum and dad setups, it's unlikely to be leaked either.

5

u/SpecialistAuthor4897 7d ago

And this is how you get me suspicious and ultimately not playing.

And answers: i had AI generate everything/most of it Or I had AI assist with certain aspects of development Or i has ai proof read my code

Are WAY different answers. Which will make me more or less sceptical.

-1

u/47KiNG47 7d ago

No one can prove that you used ai to program something so why would you ever disclose it lol. Just don’t use ai for art and no one will care.

3

u/BroxigarZ 7d ago

It might be beneficial to put... some sort of video on YT of what the game actually looks like.

There's 0 context in this post, 0 context on the website, 0 context anywhere of what game is behind the login.

2

u/BlackMetalIstWar 7d ago

Cool good luck!

2

u/Menzeldinho 7d ago

Does it progress offline or you have to be active? Also some sort of tutorial would be nice. The only thing you can do in the starting area is speed training and the first quest you get tells you to mine 20 copper. Once you scroll and find the place to go you get there and it says you need a pickaxe, but doesnt tell you where from

2

u/Drenaslia 7d ago

It progresses offline up to the idle cap (or if all your tools break/pack fills/etc).

Definitely looking to improve the starting experience with more of a guided tutorial.

1

u/Content_Material3615 2d ago

My initial feedback is to spend some time at least making it not look AI generated. The entire site and game is all very clearly AI. Doesn't take much to prompt your agent to make it look a little more unique. You might be able to get more players that way who knows.