Advice on starting quickly

[Togakangar]

Sorry to have a first post be something like this but I need some advice on how to proceed with a couple things.

I'm going to be working with a small independent game company to make an amazing, innovative unlike anything else mmorpg. Yeah right, but what am I supposed to do, not think that about my own game?

Anyways, if things go as planned, come next may, we will have about $100,000 USD (three full time programmers/designers) and six months to make a working prototype which will then be used to evaluate our proposal for further funding. Our programmers are good, and have a decent amount of experience, just never made an MMORPG before. I am looking for recommendations on an engine to use (we could start from scratch but the six months thing is non-negotiable).
Some other considerations:
• * The game has to be 2D
• * The graphics will be sprite-based
• * The game will have large portions that are entirely unlike any MMO, so the engine will have to be open source
• * This is a for-profit project so any engine we use has to allow us to use it for commercial ventures. On the other hand, with a completed prototype, we will have much more flexibility in our time-table so if the engine allows us to create a good prototype quickly we will be able to rewrite our own later.

Thanks a lot, please feel free to post any comments, recommendations or just things that you feel I might not have taken into account.

[Robin]

If you want to be unique, go away. Run away now!

[Togakangar]

yeah yeah, don't worry about that part, we wouldn't have gotten this far if the idea didn't have something to it.
My question is more technical, is there an engine I could use that would help me with the above things. Also, if you are recommending an engine have you yourself looked at the source code, how hard is it to make heads or tails of it. Was it put together but rational coders capable of structured thought or by a million monkeys with half that amount of typewriters, I'm going to be the guy rewriting most of it after all.

[Robin]

If you are looking for a well put together engine, do not use mirage.

Simple as.

It uses timers server side, the gameplay is static, the features are dated and the engine in general leaves a lot to be desired.

I'm not saying it's bad, I'm just saying that if you are actually looking to make a game with more than 10 players online, which include people who can actually code/hack, then this is not the engine for you.

Your best option is to program an engine from scratch, with one purpose in mind, rather than take a cliqué engine which has so many features applied, and done so in a way which makes them hard to remove.

Mirage is best for people who want to create a standard western slash-and-hack ORPG (yes, ORPG, not MMORPG) which they can mess around with their friends.

Everything is blted, if you want to expand on anything you are restricted by the graphics engine.

The packets are buggy and practically open-source and anything you produce from it will be same as every other game here, but with a slightly different feel/genre.

-Kite

[Togakangar]

Hey that was helpful, thanks a lot for your response

[Spodi]

To expand on what Kite said, Mirage is a good "hobby" engine. It is very easy to use and you can get a lot done quickly. You can make a world for your friends to play on in a matter of weeks, or even days. It isn't really aimed towards games that will be supporting more then 50 players on at a time - and that is still stretching it even.

Six months for a MMO... that is a very damn hard task. You can check out vbGORE in my signature, but I doubt you'd want to use it since it isn't finished, and you're going to probably want a finished engine to get it done so quickly.

[Robin]

If it's your first time giving ORPG/MMORPG coding a shot, I would suggest finding a nice online base, (just with all the networking code done/been done) and then add a graphics engine into that.

Your best bet for the graphics engine, if you want to be unique (and because 2D graphics engines are no where near as customisable as 3D), is to create one from scratch, and if you have a few programmers, or even one, working full-time, and if you have the graphics and map/map plans been done with it simultaneously, then 6 months should be an easy target.

Just my £1.50.

(My train fare costs that much each day. £7.50 - £10 a week! (I could buy 2 copies of GMod10 each week for that much!)

-Kite