WOTAN PBBGamebook Engine

[fortuente]

Hello! This is my second post.

For the past year I have been working on a PBBRPG that plays like Fighting Fantasy and Lone Wolf gamebooks. Or in other words, single-player text adventure game. I am calling it "Project WOTAN" and the specific version I am working on now I call "MJOLNIR." I suppose I may change the name of the final released version, but I'm not sure yet what I would call it.

From the outset I have planned on writing WOTAN so that it can be reused for multiple different sites/games. It is genre-independent and I have endeavored to make the base rules flexible enough that different sites can play in a sometimes-wildly different way with little-to-know code mods. I am also developing the engine to be very simple to create mods and plugins for, though simple does not necessarily mean "easy."

The past few weeks the project is moving to the point where I want to start telling people about it, though there will not be a playable version until at least sometime July. This has mainly been a learning project for me (learning php, sql and basic software design), which is why it has taken me so long just to get to the basic phase where it does more than log users in and out. I have restarted from the beginning at least twice now, as I realized in my growing technical knowledge that there were more elgant ways of achieving what I wanted. The "first" version was actually almost complete last December.

As I mentioned, I am at the phase now where I would like to build a community around it in anticipation of its release. The release is planned for August, but I have to admit I am unsure about how to handle it. I am torn between three avenues:

 

• Open-sourcing the engine and focus on making my own sites and helping others to do the same. The benefit here of course is that the core engine itself will benefit from multiple contributors.
• Close-sourcing and taking a route similar to the one MCCodes has. I am unsure about taking this route, as I am not sure there is that great of a demand for gamebook websites. Another avenue would be to side develop the engine for iphone/android/etc use and try to exploit that market, but I am not sure I want to do that in the first place.
• Just using the engine to make my own sites and focus on content by promoting online gamebook series (sites). The code would not be available to anyone else beyond myself or potential partners or employees. If I don't open source it, I will probably go this route.
  

What do you guys think? I am leaning toward making it open source. I would like to start a completely different game (strategy builder) after I complete this, but I would also like to add more features beyond the core set and I do not think I will be able to do both at the same time on my own.

WOTAN, at first, will likely not be easy to set up, but once it is going it will be easy to create a highly-customized single-player RPG from a web administration panel. I do not plan on testing this myself on shared web hosting, so I would imagine you will need to have a VPS (Virtual Private Server) or your own dedicated server to run WOTAN. I also develop only with php 5.3+ so I have little personal interest in making it work with lower 5s and no plans at all for it to work with php4.

WOTAN will allow for multiple self-contained adventures called "books" which will be able to be as different from each other in terms of gameplay as one WOTAN site can be different from another site. The primary modules for WOTAN (not including basic site functions) are BOOK and CHARACTER. The book and character are the primary vehicle for gameplay, as you will advance your character while making choices in the book.

The core modules for these two (all together taken as the "core system") are POWER, BACKGROUND, TREASURE and ITEM. These core modules are used by both the book and the character. They are defined on both the global (site-wide) level and further on the book level. Meaning, i.e. in the treasure module you can define one type of gold piece for all books or define a different type of gold piece for each book.

 

• POWERs are the generic term for the basic building blocks of the character. "Attributes," "Skills," "Talents" will all be the same thing. You will be able to define these on the global level and then select which ones you want in which books. These are used on random-number checks on pages, so you could define a lock-picking power, insert it into a book on the site, and then make certain pages only accessible by passing a check against lock-picking. As an example. WOTAN has no experience points by default, but if you want them they could be created as a power. (You could have five separate types of XP!)
  
• BACKGROUNDS are like titles or character flavor and you can collect them by completing certain tasks as set by the book author. So visiting page 320 in a certain book will gain you the background "Smeller of that which should not be smelled." Backgrounds will also come with + or - to a power as chosen by the book author.
• TREASURE is merely currency and, as mentioned, will be able to be defined on a global scale and then inserted into books.
• ITEMS also will be defined on the global level and inserted into books. The main difference between items and treasure is that items can be used and have properties like prerequisites and power modifiers. All potions, equipment, (i.e.) skill books ... these are the items.

So far, I am also planning one more module for the core set, the MOVEMENT or ACTION module. I think I like action better. Each page in a book will come with a point requirement for accessing, and each character will have an alotted number of action points. This is a lot like the traditional concept from LORD. This could be used as a potential point of monetization, or it could be ignored altogether by giving players "unlimited" action points.

I also plan on having weight carried in the game both affecting action points as well as the amount of items which can be carried. There will be only one default power in WOTAN, and it will function both as a marker of weight possible and as hit points. Every other power will be determined by the game master.

Writing in extended modules will be relatively simple. The first ones I will be creating following completion of the core set (and thus earning the beta milestone) this July will be focused heavily on tracking stats. What characters have completed what books and visited what pages and what the average score for the power "Manliness" is and how many have earned the background "Defiler of Corpses", et cetera. Because WOTAN is a single-player game I also plan on focusing heavily on social interaction mechanisms, though I will be putting a lot of that off until later as I can glean a solid direction from player feedback.

If you are still reading and you are interested, you can read more about the project here and here . I am keen to here feedback on what you think about the idea and your opinion on how you think I should handle disseminating the source code. Do you think anyone will even care about a gamebook engine? I am looking forward to your feedback!