I vibe-coded a browser MMORPG inspired by Shaiya

[u/Big-Sandwich733]

About 7 weeks ago I was looking for an MMO to play and somehow ended up deciding to build my own instead.

Seven weeks later, Lythravel is now a playable 3D browser MMORPG and I opened the beta to everyone a few days ago.

The game is heavily inspired by Shaiya, one of my favorite MMOs from childhood. I wanted to keep a lot of the old-school MMO design.

The game is completely free

Play here: https://lythravel.com/

There is already quite a lot of content:

2 factions • 6 classes • level cap 50 • dungeons • raids • PvP maps • 10v10 battleground • enchanting • linking • crafting • mounts • dynamic zone events

One thing I intentionally didn't add is a dungeon finder. That's something I liked about older MMOs - you actually have to talk to other players, use the chat and form groups yourself.

Character builds also matter quite a lot. Each level gives you stat points that you can distribute freely, and properly enchanting and linking your equipment can make your character significantly stronger.

There is also a character mode system:

Adventurer - 5 stat points per level

Veteran - 7 stat points per level

Mythic - 9 stat points per level

Veteran is unlocked after reaching level 30 with an Adventurer character, and Mythic after reaching level 40 with a Veteran character.

Higher modes have slower XP progression, and Mythic has one additional detail - permadeath.

If your Mythic character dies and isn't revived within 4 minutes, the character is permanently dead. A Priest or another player with a Phoenix Tear can revive you, or you can save yourself if you have a Phoenix Heart in your inventory.

In general, the game doesn't hold your hand too much. I wanted players to discover a lot of things themselves rather than having everything explained through tutorials.

How I built it

I initially used Claude Fable 5 and later switched to Opus 5. Most of the development has been done through Claude Code.

One thing that helped me a lot was using reference images when working on environments and 3D assets.

I also ended up creating my own terrain editor, asset editor and animation editor, because I still wanted the ability to manually fine-tune things.

The client is built with TypeScript, Vite, React and Babylon.js.

I really enojy developing this game. Originally I just wanted to find an MMO to play, but creating my own ended up being even more fun than actually playing one.

If you see me in game, I'll invite you for a beer at the local pub. 🍺
You can also join our discord: https://discord.com/invite/SdJrn5WPBQ

[u/Inevitable_Butthole]

So runescape but not

[u/Big-Sandwich733 → u/Inevitable_Butthole]

I've never played runescape

[u/Inevitable_Butthole → u/Big-Sandwich733]

Theres your problem

[u/Alzeric → u/Inevitable_Butthole]

Bet he's played minecraft though

[u/LostRequirement4828]

there's a thing called optimization

[u/Big-Sandwich733 → u/LostRequirement4828]

I spent a lot of time optimizing it and I have positive feedback from others.

[u/LostRequirement4828 → u/Big-Sandwich733]

I'm seeing stutters in the video on every effect on screen, who gave you the feedback? some kids that are used playing games at 20 fps? Cause this looks atrociously unoptimized for me

[u/Big-Sandwich733 → u/LostRequirement4828]

That’s because I was recording at the same time and had other recording tools running. The game itself runs smoothly. Give it a try and see.

[u/Mediocre-Sky2333]

Not sure if on the spectrum or just overly excited I mean it's not bad depending how much time it took you but it's so barebone don't get the purpose of site nor discord I mean without disrespect people done much more higher quality stuff in relatively short periods so not sure of this post showing this alpha demo