Hello All!
I wanted to show off a project I was previously working on a couple hours a week but now taking it up a couple of notches - the reality is, I'm pushing for a full blown release and going all in with several thousand $ saved up for marketing.
Like many of us here, I grew up on McCodes-era text-based mafia games. I love the core gameplay loops (Crimes, Gym, Jail, Hospital, PvP etc), but returning to them in 2026, the UX obviously feels incredibly dated-constant page reloads, messy UI and clunky interactions. That's expected, go back to it's release date - you're going to get that unless you build heavily on it or start scratch.
That's the route I took, a FRESH START.
My goal was to still capture the absolute essence of what made McCodes V2+ so addictive, but completely rewrite the whole underlying architecture so it can eventually feel and compete as a 2026/2027 Modern Browser game(for now or atleast the near future).
Why for now? Because I intend by the end of this year to scale it into a full blown Mobile MMO RPG but with connective database to the Web Game - so they stay as one, that is something I need to learn even more about though and maybe even bring someone onboard.
Coding Methods & Architecture
- Zero Page Reloads (SPA feel) - Instead of header and footer.php, every action is wrapped. The UI is a single dashboard. Clicking a feature like Crime or Casino triggers a Vanilla JS fetch request that loads a PHP-rendered view into a centralized center modal.
- No more if($_GET['action'] == 'do_crime') spaghetti. Actions are sent to AJAX POST to sandboxed action scripts.
- Implemented Live DOM Traversal (To get .livecash/.liveenergy).
- Modern Backend PHP 8+, fully PDO prepared statements. Strictly typed functions and robust CSRF token verification.
- Session-State Tracking in Casino(Blackjack).
UI & Visuals
Currently all CSS. I'm on the search for a graphics designer to bring this to life. I'm open to pay as you go method with said designer but bringing one onboard would be more ideal.
Fully Installed Features
- Crimes, Gym, Fight Club, Upgradable Mansion, City Territories(HUGE for my game concept), Bank, Careers, Casino, Emergency & Comms, Inventory and a real live game chat.
Features to come
- I would be here all day. But the biggest feature to come is a 2.5D map system to properly integrate City Territories on a new level - with territorial buildings, opening times for when that building becomes an occupiable state and the rewards/buffs that building provides. (I have pulled this concept out of Sea of Conquest & Mafia City by Phantix and combined them).
- Mathematical scaling of all features so they're game release ready - that's last.
- Full cinematic look to the game - this eventually will not be classed as text based, but right now that's how we build.
I'd love to hear all your thoughts so far especially from old school McCodes devs. If you have any suggestions on features, any Graphic's Designers you can recommend or even your thoughts on difficulty producing a 2.5D Real-time Map do provide your in-put, it is greatly appreciated.
You can visit my game project testing domain at: https://rs-gaming.com // The plan is to have this project at Lite release level by May 2026. However, large additions such as the 2.5D map will come further along.
🙂
