Metaplace live developer chat today
Raph Koster -- known for being the lead designer on Ultima Online and Star Wars Galaxies -- and his development studio Areae are the masterminds behind a little piece of software you may or may not know as Metaplace. Some also know Raph as that guy who did the MMO thing on Penny Arcade a while back.
Today at 5pm PST, a live developer Q&A is scheduled over at the Metaplace site. We're not entirely sure what to expect from it considering that Areae has said it won't be taking place in IRC, but you can be certain that we're going to be there to report on it for anyone interested.
Metaplace is planned to be a platform which will allow users to create their own online space -- be it a massively chat room or a 32-person puzzle game server -- and then connect all of these games together like the internet. The software itself is not locked to any one platform and is planned to be accessible by anything with an internet connection. The whole idea is to let users create the kind of game they want, in the kind of way they want and in the easiest possible way.
Join us after the jump for coverage of the whole event, live blog style!
Just to keep things simple, we'll be time-stamping this event with the same timezone as the Metaplace developers -- which means everything here is PST.
5:00 Well, apparently we're getting a preview of the alpha version of the Metaplace play client. Which also means that "spectacular explosions" may occur!
5:03 Looks like we're getting started now, Tami "Cuppycake" Baribeau is gonna be our host. Woo!
5:05 Going through introductions. Seems like just about everyone from the development team is here, including Raph Koster of course.
5:07 Cuppycake informs us they're currently in an alpha stage, and are interested in talking with everyone and hearing questions about Metaplace!
Raph: You are the first members of the public to touch Metaplace :)
Us: Oh, we're special!
5:09 First question!
Q: Will Metaplace support Unicode?
A: At the moment, unicode/UTF8 is not supported, but unicode will of course be necessary for any sort of international support. So naturally, it is a very important goal.
Q: When can we expect Metaplace to reach beta phase?
A: The date for beta is dependent on how the testing goes, the goal was to have users logging into a multiplayer world in February. Today is only Jan 31st, so we beat that by a day, except in Europe. Still in alpha, and moving through the stages based on tester feedback. The goal is spring for broader public testing. If testers say no, not yet, well, then, not yet!
Q: How soon can we expect other interviews with major (gaming) publications?
A: Raph believes there is a PC Gamer UK interview pending -- might be on the street now. He doesnt think they have more in the pipe just yet.
Q: Can you tell us about graphics in the 2.5d isometric. How easy will it be to add new anims and clothing for characters/objects?
A: There is a layering system for character customization that lets you setup configurations in data. It is a programmery task to setup new "skeletons", but once done, it's pretty easy to add new items and styles.
Q: While it is simple, how long did this particular chat client take to create? (The one we're using is pretty basic)
A: What you see here is relatively complex actually. We'll be getting a demo of some of the features later in the chat. But the basics of this chat world with the user list, input bar, and chat room list was about 6 hours of work or so (not bad!). Of course, Metaplace exported this chat as a module, which means that any world can use this code, and many do. So now all worlds can have a chat system in them if they want, or they can still make their own.
Q: Will it be possible to switch from isometric to top down views, mid-game? Example: Flying around in a 'ship' is top-down. When you leave the 'ship', the game switches to Isomorphic for walking around an air
A: Each place in a world can define it's own view types, angles, etc. So yes. It's entirely possible to support top-down and isometric within the same world.
5:24 So they've been running a demo, going through some examples of what we can expect to see from Metaplace. Of course, there were some more questions, but the demo seems to have buried them in a mountain of code!
5:25 All right, more questions now.
Q:Can we embed our worlds whereever we want? Can we host them whereever we want?
A: This Flash client will eventually be embeddable anywhere. Metaplace will supply a handy Javascript container that will include the Flash client. Have tested it on Wordpress and on Facebook already.
Q: Are tools, editor or anything else technically limited in the free-version?
A: So, honestly -- we don't know yet. They do have to make money. Where exactly the line will be drawn, Raph is not entirely sure, and anything he says would be subject to change. Of course, Metaplace can't host incredibly expensive worlds for free, for example.
5:30 Some suggestions are being made by people in the chat room. Basically, Raph and the various devs in the chat are telling everyone that there's lot of math and variables to be considered. We can understand their pain on the math thing.
Q: Will there be ways to advertise on the Areae portal, have some kind of favorite games dashboard or maybe show the top 5 games being played?
A: Yep. there sure are. Metaplace is surfacing top worlds by ratings and viewed and populated and such just like a youtube/kongregate type thing.
Q: While aimed primarily at games, is there intention for metaplace to be used for a lot more (e.g. chat, educational, etc)?
A: Yes, definitely. Metaplace already has one graduate class at a major university using Metaplace in their coursework. And they expect there to be many other applications both social and serious.
Q: Is there any sort of protection against scripts running infinate loops, or otherwise rogue scripts?
A: The back-end code (that is written in lua) runs inside a sandbox. This allows Metaplace to monitor and protect user code from users. It is quite possible to write an infinite loop, but the sandbox will detect it and throw an exception. This is a hard line to walk, since some legitimate code may need to run large loops, so there are ways to tune this threshold. Servers each run in their own process, so they are protected from each other. It wont be possible for user code to break other people's worlds.
Q: I have a question about templates, is there going to be away to have a simple interface instead of coding thing like movement and fire?
A: Metaplace actually wrote a whole blog post about that very topic! It's called "modules." Basically, you package up scripts, data and art into a module, and import it into a world wholesale. Modules will be configurable using a non-coder interface. That part isn't done yet, but that is the intention.
Q: What is the ratio that you expect in alpha / beta / release for world builders to people who only play worlds?
A: Alpha: mostly all builders. Beta: half and half. Release: mostly players. Metaplace fully expects that in release, most people will just be players. Maybe people who just set up something really simple, without doing any coding or art, based on a stylesheet.
Q: How do you plan to encourage reusable art, music, and code?
A: You can package all of those things into the modules that were already discussed. Modules will be available in a central directory, with reviews, ratings, all that stuff. Metaplace also expects to have public repositories of art, and already have a growing library of code snippets.
8:41 They're reminding us that it's questions -- not bug reports -- that they're looking for. Apparently some people are getting a little antsy about the alpha/beta process!
Q: Can you have places (instances) and worlds generated by code, down to which building model or part goes where? Conversely, can you generate and 'draw' a world without any code at all?
A: Yes to both of those. Metaplace already has examples of fractal terrain generation - and can source terrain data from anywhere off the web. At the other end, worlds can be crafted completely in the tools without any coding at all.
Q: Can we charge a flat fee for our modules? Can we make modules avaible for free, but demand a % of any profits made with the buyers MetaPlace?
A: Metaplace definitely plans to have a marketplace for modules. Raph doesn't think they have considered a royalty model before. More like a sale. Metaplace definitely do plan to support offering stuff for free, of course.
5:44 Apparently we can expect more demos, which hopefully won't bury questions!
Q: Instead of having a fat 3d client with all available graphics, will it be possible to have a thin client that downloads on demand and caches locally?
A: Yes, and you are looking at it. Different clients can have completely different views into a world. Some might be 3d, some might be 2d, some might be text.
Q: Are the specifics for how a game runs, such as character speed or keybindings, controlled via metascript or lua?
A: Settings are defined in script, but then can be configured through the tools. Once a behavior is setup, it can expose properties such as speed or hit points, and then these can be configured through the tools. So it is a combination of code and data.
Q: At what point do you expect to release documentation of the client/server protocols, so people can start creating their own clients and possibly even servers?
A: Alpha testers currently have access to those specs and some have already started work on their own clients and tools.
Q: Will stylesheets, modules etc have ratings, usage stats etc listed on the portal similar to worlds?
A: They sure will. just like worlds, stylesheets and modules will have ratings, reviews and such. They'll even have a dedicated space to talk about them -- commenting, suggesting improvements, updates -- all kinds of stuff. These ratings and reviews are not mandatory. If your world or stylesheet is not public, then no one can see it to rate it.
5:50 It sounds like just about everything is going to have a rating in Metaplace. Neat.
Q: Other than creating worlds and systems therein, how can we contribute to helping build Metaplace itself?
A: Gosh... you can play worlds. You can help publicize them. You can put a Metaplace presence widget or fave worlds widget or badge on your blog. You can help RUN a world, like be an in-game GM... Make art! Lots of the current testers are coders, and can't draw. They are always looking for art for what they are building. Music and sfx too. And, of course, keep commenting on the forums. We read all the posts, every day! The feedback is incredibly valuable to everyone at Metaplace.
5:53 Hear that all you artists out there? It sounds like -- as usual -- you're needed direly!
Q: Are you expecting a lot of open-source modules/worlds along with closed groups working hard?
A: Raph guesses he expects a lot of closed source stuff and a lot of open source stuff. It all depends on how the user-base starts to trend. In the alpha, most people share everything right now, but of course everyone is ramping up, too.
Q: Physics for games have been mentioned before. What will this mean for the non-programming crowd?
A: Physics is a component of games that can be extremely intensive. Collision detection, object motion simulations, etc. Hopefully physics can be encapsulated for non-programmers. Doing this from LUA would be very slow and cumbersome, so the server/game platform itself contains its own physics system and simulation. Most of it is encapsulated via simple API function calls that give even non-programmers a way to do what would otherwise normally be very complex operations.
5:56 That was definitely one for the coders out in the audience, yeah.
Q: If I'm already a skilled Flash developed creating games featured on shockwave, newgrounds and the like, and can run something like smart fox server to do provide a robust/scalable MP game, what advantages are there for me to develop a MP
6:00 Raph takes this one on personally.
A: Great question! Certainly if you are capable of doing it all yourself, there's a lot to be said for going that route. The benefits MP gives you are:
A) the chance to access all the modules and code that other users of the platform have written
B) the fact that MP is designed to be multiplatform, multiclient
C) the fact that the metaplace network offers stuff like cross-game friends, presence, badges, favorites, etc
D) interconnectability of worlds -- yo ucan literaly teleport from a social world to an aracade game anywhere in the network within the same window with just one click
6:01 Oh boy, so this next demo is apparently going to break everything. We're being told to come back five or ten minutes after this thing. We get characters? Now this is interesting.
6:10 It went really well, actually. No rebooting required, very slick graphics test. All right, some more questions now. Questions galore!
Q: Is there a method for those who make games to make money off of them? And if so, do you profide that capability, or will we have to roll that on our own?
A: Raph: We are getting tons of questions on "how do Metaplace builders make money" Yes, the goal is that you can make money. We have plenty of work left to do on that part yet, though. The platform has to work first. We plan to have built in ways for builders to be able to make money from players. We expect that standard stuff like hooking into Paypal and the ilke will be required. None of it is done yet. So our answers are somewhat vague still. That said, yes, of course. We want non-profits, hobbyists, all that! :)
Q: Obviously this depends on what modules, etc. users make, but how much support do you expect/plan for single user games/shards?
A: There's complete support for single player games. Conceptually, a single player game is just a multiplayer game that instances itself for every user. We already have a number of games up and running that do just this. From the server perspective, there's no difference between an MMO and a single game. And because of this, what might seem "single player" can also provide certain traditionaly multiplayer-only functionality. Like chat between users. It also will gain the benefits of all the server-side checks and security inherent in a multiplayer game, giving you more control over how people play your single player game than you would traditionally have.
Q: Is there going to be an easy way to allow users to find each other like mplayer game rankings/chat rooms/skill matching?
A: Absolutely. afterall playing games together is what mmos are all about, right? We've got an entire account/identity management system complete with fans of yours, people you're fans of, friends, favorite worlds -- all kinds of social linking. It would be like a game-based "social graph" to use a webby term. You can even see their presence online (or on your blog because it's all public xml) and click to jump straight to them.
Q: Will the MP wiki provide help on learning the Lua most useful for games, or will those looking to learn need to look for books and other resources?
A: While Metaplace is not going to be teaching people how to write Lua or how to program, our wiki is going to support a lot of example code. Plus, by looking at public modules that people have written, it's easy to get ideas and see how things can be done. The cool thing about the wiki format is that as people learn, they can help each other implement certain functionality.
Q: Can Metaplace swfs be embedded in other sites?
A: Absolutely. You can stick the client anywhere you want.
Q: What do you do to protect people from being spammed/bullied over MetaPlace? Because this tends to be a massive problem with current online games
Raph: So, people's worlds are THEIRS to run. I want to make that clear -- it's a mixed blessing. It means that you run it as you see fit, no interference from us generally (don't try to hack or anything illegal, duh) But it also means you do your own handling of things like one user harassing another. For worlds we run, and for the network level stuff, we'll handle it
Q: Will there be a way to sell your "modules" that you make ingame to other developers? I guess then you would be a MetaPlace meta developer :)
A: One word answer: "Yes." :)
Q: Are there any plans for Areae to hire more staff outside of technical/programmers?
A: Dear god yes. Please apply right now to jobs@areae.net We need technical writers, content developers, QA Manager, QA Engineer, soon we'll need CS. At this point we're still hiring everyone on site. I think that's about it, we have around 7 openings right now. Come help!
Q: Are there any content restrictions?
A: So: we are planning on being much like any hosting business. We will obey DMCA takedown notices. Metaplace has a legal obligation, in the US, to be proactive about certain things: no child porn, for example; else we are liable. They are not planning on checking over your content, pre-censoring it, manually approving it, etc, but they have to obey the law.
It boils down to this: If you can't put it on your current website host, you probably can't put it on Metaplace.
Looks like the dev chat is over. Well, it certainly was an illuminating chat. Apparently we'll be getting something similar in a couple weeks, we'll be sure to keep you updated here at Massively!
