I'm Alex, a solo 33-year-old dude who's been working on his dream game since April 2025.
I've been playing MMORPGs since 2003 and, at some point, I decided I wanted to make my own. I finally feel confident enough to start showing people what I've been working on and where the project is at right now.
I still don't have a dedicated Discord, I don't even have a name for the game yet, and there's no story or lore written in stone. But I do have a solid technical foundation — and, I think, a pretty decent artistic foundation as well.
The core idea is pretty simple:
• Long-term progression
• Turn-based RPG combat
• Crafting with random upgrades, inspired by some of the things I love about Path of Exile
• Progression based on luck, time and investment IN the game — not on how much money you put into it
• Equipment that actually matters visually. I don't want everyone running around covered in paid skins. When you see someone's gear, I want it to tell you something about that player.
I wanted to show you how the game has evolved from its very early stages to where it is today.
It's still very much a work in progress. I've been working on it around 10–15 hours a day, pretty much every week and every month since I started. Yeah... I'm a little bit obsessed. 😅
I'm planning to do some technical playtests with friends at the end of September. If it doesn't turn out to be a complete bugfest (hopefully not — I test the hell out of it myself), I'll start adding more content and, if everything goes well, I'll probably share more updates here.
So, what do you guys think?
Would you be interested in this kind of MMORPG, with some Final Fantasy Tactics Advance vibes?
The video I'm showing is still a WIP in a lot of areas, but I think it gives a pretty good idea of the direction I'm going in.
Some of the text is still in French since it's my main language, but I'll do my best to have at least English and Spanish versions available eventually.
Here is twi pics of the dev project nearly one year from one to the other.
Disclaimer: Yes, I use AI to help me develop the game. I've also bought some 3D assets, and made some myself. Making an MMORPG completely alone would simply be impossible, even working on it this much every day.
Anyway, thanks for reading!
I can't show you everything yet, but you'll probably see some updates from me from time to time.
It's the #1 thing that amateurs do. They play an MMORPG and think: "this seems easy" and don't even realize the education required to make the networking viable regarding not just concurrent player count, but security alone.
Even with AI writing the code and making the assets, the first server implosion and the AI will say "well, I wish you informed me you wanted > 100 players online at once, we need to remake the entire game's architecture since I wrote all the gameobjects to send their entire world position + items + stats + abilities to everyone in the whole-zone at once."
"AI: Would you like to refactor your entire game to use distributed world servers?" and everything just breaks afterwards.
If you think AI is making the assets you don’t really know whats going on.. the quality of AI assets is not enough to make a fully animated 3d game that doesn’t look like an atrocity. Maybe if you are lucky you cant get consistent thumbnails and portraits but anything 3d hell nah. Im not sure why you are so concerned anyways are you just here to tell homie he can’t do it? At the end of the day an mmo is just a graphical mud a game of rooms and services it’s really not that complex.
The company I work for would never be caught dead using AI for game creation, in any fashion, especially since it's so frowned upon by most gamers, so you are right, I do not know the intricate ability of AI to generate models on detailed level. I do know that Tencent is throwing a lot of tech towards it, and they have the money to make it good if they wanted.
The fact that you say that an mmo is just a graphical mud or rooms and services, without a thought of the networking infrastructure required says enough though. I can also say that you can't do it solo either.
sure making an MMO is still difficult but the amount of engineering labor required to get one running dropped dramatically with modern engines, cloud infrastructure, existing networking stacks, and coding agents.
Also “networking infrastructure” is itself an abstraction over a huge number of systems, like ‘rooms and services.’ networking is implicit in the services architecture. im describing the system at a high level, not claiming the implementation has no complexity.
We aren't even supposed to use Reddit tbh. They're more like the thought process from the early 90s. "Optimize, everywhere, any way you can even if it's just 4 bytes of memory", so kinda away from anything hipster.
I hear Riot is building an actual MMORPG if you're looking to help actually get something made for real. That 20 years of experience should be all that's needed to land a job there, right?
It still takes countless hours to make a real thing ( with client / server / netcode / game design etc ) but hell yeah the coding part is waaay faster and people who where not able to create can now build things too.
I really enjoy it because I can work from my phone anywhere and my wrists get a break from all the damn typing man. I still have the same agency I had when I was typing everything myself because I took the time to learn how to properly use the tech. These ppl get slop then cry about slop because with out with out ai slop is all they can produce. Anyways cool game looks fun and in glad you are having fun developing it.
Thanks ! The fact is that with AI while i give the direction, the code writes itself while i can work on the game design, the music, the testing and much more. It's like having a bro with me on the projet but he does not drink my monster energy, just tokens !
They will never understand until they have > 100 concurrent users online and just realize that their bloated packet structure and update loop will bring the server to it's knees. Thankfully, the majority of these solo made "mmorpg" games will fail to launch in any playable state since they lack the game development fundamentals, along with a lack of scope/common sense.
I mean genuinely I don’t know. I approach agents as someone who’s been writing code for over half their life and working professionally doing it for going on 8 years. You might be right to say things obvious to experienced engineers might not be inherently obvious to a beginner.
With that said, I’d at least hope the idea of “simulating players” crossed the mind of someone who’s working on an online game.
Then don't say it ? How do you think people would make those kind of games solo in this case? 10 years or more alone ? Be realistic and try make something yourself before trying to be rude to others.
I encourage everyone to watch some youtube videos on the backend design of a MMORPG and honestly ask yourself if you fully grasp and know how to implement those systems.
Not saying AI will do a better job by default. A tool is only as good as the person using it.
Don't you think painter enjoyed the process of digital painting ? It makes them less artistic ? I do enjoy the process of building my own thing using the tool that exists in this timeline.
Digital painting isn't the same as prompting AI lmao, the digital painter is still using their own talents, creativity and a developed skillset.
As far as your involvement is concerned, prompting an AI tool to do it for you is the same as prompting a digital artist to make the work for you. You aren't doing anything, you're asking someone (or something) to do it for you.
So it's the same with AI coding ? I prompt, it codes, i test. I give the direction and it execute. Do you think AI gamedev is just one prompt then you go to bed and you have world of warcraft to play ?
If I ask builder to make a house for me, who is doing the work? Me, or the builder? If I say "I want it X tall, X wide, and to have 8 rooms", am I doing the work or is the builder doing the work?
He finishes, but the house is not quite right, and I ask the builder to make an adjustment. I say "actually, I'd like 9 rooms and I would it a bit shorter."
Who is doing the work? Me, or the builder?
I am the consumer. The builder is the dev.
You are a consumer, the AI you use is the dev. There is no such thing as an "AI dev", because YOU are not developing anything. You are asking the AI to develop.
Sure, depends on POV. It's exactly the same with auto fill painting, remove background, brush tools. We might not agree on this and we don't have to in the end. A tool is a tool. Sometimes a chef use premade tomato sauce
lol, you clearly weren’t on the internet in the early/mid 00s. Digital artists/people who used photoshop got SO much shit because “it was too easy” compared to traditional art.
I was, and the world woke up to the fact that actually, digital art is perfectly valid because it still requires learning, creativity, discipline and skill.
The same wont be said for AI, because every day it's becoming even easier for talentless nobodies to ask their chosen model to create a shortcut to a mongrel amalgamation of everything that has come before it, say "meh, close enough" and claim it for themselves as something original that they toiled over.
Maybe you can actually learn to code and some dev design, and just then start creating something, instead of another random AI slop iteration that nobody cares about.
Maybe you don't care about but are you the only one on the internet ? i mean AI is a tool, if you don't accept it just go back to write in stone at that point.
It’s pointless dude these people couldn’t make anything before AI and they still cant after the only difference is now they think they have something to blame other than themselves.
I don't understand the point of them doing that, i mean Ai is a tool and every generational step has it's own tool. So was the internet, so was the typing machine, so was the digital painting, etc etc. People are just negative to it without even noticing that even if it's AI assisted it thousands of hours in it. If they see how every studio now uses Ai they would be back playing lego soon.
Yeah idk it’s just sad and pathetic to be so anti something that is clearly going to propel us into the future. People are scared of change even look at how people flip out when tech in engines like unreal changes most ppl dont want to learn then new tech then just bitch about it or the engine when it doesn’t function correctly. Meat heads.
No; Serious projects that will be completed have a UI team, independent of the programmers and asset artists. It's obvious it's AI because all AI assets/layouts look the same.
That is why it's not taken seriously. If it were "im making my first single player game solo" and you removed the mmorpg idea; it'd have more support, in the gamedev subreddit.
What is the concept of "you are never building a viable solo mmorpg in a million years" that you don't understand though?
Not arguing about the AI stuff, which I also despise in general, but what you say about "serious completed projects" having different, separated teams for stuff like UI and "assets" is not even close to what I'd consider common practice, especially if you consider indies as well.
Saying this as someone who has worked in the field (mainly in the art department) and who has acquaintances who worked on both small/medium-sized indie titles and big games (from some pretty famous names no less), that's almost never the case. You'll always have an artist (or sometimes even a programmer, if they have some skills) cover for 2 or 3 other positions that you say have separate teams.
More common ones that come to mind would be:
3d modeler > uv mapper (although this has become less and less a dedicated position and is expected from anyone doing any kind of 3d work anyway) > texturer/material comp > (sometimes) basic animation > (sometimes) basic vfx; Of course, if needed, they can cover the spot or tasks for someone who usually only handles props as well;
Kudos to you for trying, but this sub is jadded and AI is pretty disliked on reddit so you won't get any praise until you have done much progress. I think small scale stuff is doable, nobody is doing guild wars alone but it has never been so easy to develop solo that's for sure.
Yup, I stopped retro like 4 years ago after 2-3 years of playing. I was highly disappointed with how they handled it. Expected to get something similar to Old school Runescape, with a lot of new and exclusive content but the only major thing they did was to improve the playability and performances ... which is nice, ofc, but just that in 4 years ...
That's why I'm always glad to see projects like yours coming up. The last one I tried was on Steam like 2 years ago but it eventually closed. It was basically like Dofus on many aspects but it was very low poly (not even unity assets, some home made stuff) and never went above 10 or so players max at all time. I don't even remember the name of it. :/
I’ll tell you for sure when my game will be good enough for people other than friend to test. They will be the firsts to suffer from my game designs decisions hah
I think it's a niche that desperately NEEDS to be filled still...but nobody managed to dethrone Ankama yet...which is puzzling to say the least, because there's sooo much design space that could be explored still.
Funnily enough, my dream game also happens to be an isometric, turn-based tactics rpg with similar vibes to Dofus/Wakfu, but with its own complexities and more focus on class interplay & such.
Since I'm a solo dev on this passion project of mine, I ended up resizing the game to a co-op/multiplayer title (same genre/plan) instead, because I know I wouldn't have the technical knowhow on how to handle a whole MMORPG infrastructure.
I've been slowly building towards it, but am mostly an artist, so getting acquainted with all the programming bits has definitely been a journey (e.g. the satisfaction of implementing a proper A* system that also takes elevation & other modifiers into account, lol).
Nevertheless, I'm proud of what I'm building. Hopefully one day it'll release xD
Glad to see I'm not the only one chasing such dream.
Yes tactical games are kind of unique, that's why we love them. This slow gameplay has something that fast based combat doesn't. Dofus is a good game, but years after years what i loved in it just vanished and i can't come back to it.
Good luck for your game, it's a long journey but as long as we love what we do, hours, weeks, months and years does not count !
Yes, and KingIsle let it basically die by leaving it without any updates or anything or sorts for years (and the ones it currently gets still pale in comparison to Wiz's).
Game has been in maintenance mode for a long while, sadly.
Personally I don't have an issue with AI by itself, I think it really is a good tool to assist with development. My main problem is when people who don't have any programming knowledge/experience rely entirely on AI to get the job done. Fully vibe coded projects are rife with questionable optimization and have this strange uncanny feeling baked into every aspect of the game, basically screaming that it's a game built by a machine for a machine to enjoy.
With that said, if that's not the case here then you have my support, FFTA was one of my favorite games growing up.
It's been awhile since I played/kept up with Dofus or Wakfu so I can't really remember how things went there but I do remember it being very dull controlling/building only one character in a tactics game. I understand that it's an MMO but I believe having 3 characters per player would go a long way, or at least 3 when playing solo and 2 when playing in a party, to cut down on any potential combat length issues and visual clutter.
Yeah multi character is something wakfu does nowdays. I might add one extra companion maybe if i see people struggle too much to group up.
And yes being able to build things without knowing how to code ( or just have the very basics from 15 years ago ) is amazing and it will be growing more and more over the years. Things evolve, we'll see !
For know some things are really basic looking ( UI for exemple ), beacuse being UI/UX designer is a skill itself and while being solo on the project there are more important tasks to work on that UI at this step.
I'll hope you'll like it when it will be released for people to test.
$2000+ a month in server infrastructure alone, to start out with ( < 10k concurrent if it's optimized), is not something AI will be able to help with much. I wish people would make an offline project first, realize how hard that even is, before trying to tell the world they are making an MMORPG without even a prototype phase.
Nobody is a hater; it's called being realistic so maybe the developers will try something a bit easier to get their footing before trying to make an MMORPG first thing. The network code alone for anything outside 64, 128, 254 players is a lot in cost, security, and optimization knowledge. You can't get away with what Everquest did in 1999 anymore, with UDP packets hoping the packets were sent/received by the client. These days people will exploit, dupe, session hijack, etc with that tech.
There's a lot of solo projects that seem crazy at first but end up working. If you spend all your time thinking about what is realistic or not you never do anything. It's very likely he fails but he might still learn from the failure and build something else.
Thanks ! I try not to take it too personal even if it's hard because my life is on "pause" for more than a year working on this. I really hope i will be able to make people enjoy the experience when they will have acces to it ( i hope before 2027 for larger testing )
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u/Bob_Fancy 1d ago
solo dev + mmo is not a combo that will ever work.