Nationstates like game

[Sethanon]

I want to create some cool online games, and i figured the place to start is a game like nationstates . I love this game and ik a lot of people do to. The only problem is, is i dont know what to use. like, ive typed in to google all sorts of things along the lines of 'create your own government simulation game' and 'government simulation game creator', but nothing useful pops up. is there any (free, preferably browser-based) creator that i could use?
THANX!
-Sethanon
P.S. If there is a better forum for this, please move it there

[Wamitoria]

Um... I suggest learning how to code.

[Divair]

Um... I suggest learning how to code.

Both a site and a game. And then learning what it costs to host a site. And maintain it.

[Risottia]

Um... I suggest learning how to code.

Both a site and a game. And then learning what it costs to host a site.

Not a lot, actually.

And maintain it.

That's the trick.

[Sethanon]

so... a website creator?

[Rustika]

so... a website creator?

Templates wont help you'll need to learn how to create one from scratch, and theres more than just that.

[Isointania]

You want to create another NationStates? BLASPHEMEY CHILD, SIMPLE BLASPHEMY!!! REPENT YOUR SINS BEFORE REPLIOD PRODUCTIONS EATS YOU!!

On a serious note, learn coding and take it from there.

[Fontoria]

I don't know. I'll search the net and see how you could make a game, but I doubt I'll find much usefull. But yeah, codeing seems like the answer whether your site's free or not. I'm sure you could find people on the net who would be happy to code for you, free or not!

This sounds like something I'd enjoy being involved with. If you need any help or advice, PM me.

[The House of Petain]

so... a website creator?

You need to learn to program (Java, C++) and then learn to create and maintain a webpage (html, XML, graphics). Also you have to consider how you are going to pay for it, whether through advertising or charging people/players or both.

[Zevassa]

Both a site and a game. And then learning what it costs to host a site.

Not a lot, actually.

And maintain it.

That's the trick.

It depends heavily on how much bandwidth and storage you're using. A small personal website will use like five bucks, but if you start doing things like buying expensive domain names, getting several hundred million hits per week, etc. it starts to get messy. I recently stepped away from running a website and server for a game that gets approximately 24k visits per day; while the game server was obviously much more expensive, sharing that database with the website started to bloat the site's expenses too.

@OP: If you don't have money then find a way to make some otherwise you might as well not bother. Our game survives off of 1-10 dollar donations, and it took us 3 years to get to the point where we were breaking even rather than spending out of pocket.

Edit: fixed wording to accurately represent the number of visitors the site and game receive per day (had typed month for some reason)

[Wamitoria]

so... a website creator?

You need to learn to program (Java, C++) and then learn to create and maintain a webpage (html, XML, graphics). Also you have to consider how you are going to pay for it, whether through advertising or charging people/players or both.

Also, you'll need to learn how to run a server if it's going to be hosted online. And you'll need to purchase a server.

[The House of Petain]

You need to learn to program (Java, C++) and then learn to create and maintain a webpage (html, XML, graphics). Also you have to consider how you are going to pay for it, whether through advertising or charging people/players or both.

Also, you'll need to learn how to run a server if it's going to be hosted online. And you'll need to purchase a server.

That, too.

[Redaya]

Maintaining a site, whilst not costly, is reason enough to rethink. If you decide to create a nation simulator like NS, you first have to think of a way to get the money for the hosting costs, like from putting advertisements in your site, creating a game-store, etc.

Javascript and HTML are languages that you need to know if you want to have your site be even remotely interactive, PHP is an even better choice and I recommend learning this language, and no matter how cool a template looks, it never is going to fit exactly your needs.

At the end of the day, the decision is yours but I still would like you to think about it. Perhaps most important of all these I said, is to consider how you are going to attract people to your nation simulator. NationStates, Project Terra, and CyberNations already exist, so if you want to succeed and attract people, you have to be creative and make some "revolutionary" features for your website that the aforementioned simulators do not have, and not to mention you have to advertise your site.

Anyway, I wish you luck and hope my advise was of use to you.

[Miss Defied]

I think maybe you shouldn't use this forum to devise a plan to compete with it.

[Hardened Pyrokinetics]

You'll also need to be prepared for your project to lay in obscurity for the first year at least, particularly if you make a NationStates clone.

[The BlAAtschApen]

You need to learn to program (Java, C++) and then learn to create and maintain a webpage (html, XML, graphics). Also you have to consider how you are going to pay for it, whether through advertising or charging people/players or both.

Also, you'll need to learn how to run a server if it's going to be hosted online. And you'll need to purchase a server.

Or hire one. Virtual servers and such are not too expensive. It's also safer than purchasing your own server. Then, if your game fails, you can just cancel/stop the contract rather than trying to sell a slightly used server again.

[Sethanon]

ok thanx guys. my dad does a lot of computer programming stuff for GE, so ill probably just ask him tho . thanx!

[L Ron Cupboard]

If any games programmers on NSG want a sure fire game idea I have just the thing. A Fox Tossing game app..

Fox tossing - it could be the new angry birds. For those of you not aware of the sport

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fox_tossing

http://marie-antoinettequeenoffrance.bl ... ssing.html

[The Grand Republic of Hannover]

ok thanx guys. my dad does a lot of computer programming stuff for GE, so ill probably just ask him tho . thanx!

LOL so why you didn't ask your dad before going to a forum...jk

[Luziyca]

A good place to start is to get your own blog. Blogs help, ya know.

[The House of Petain]

A good place to start is to get your own blog. Blogs help, ya know.

They don't. They really, really don't.

[Luziyca]

A good place to start is to get your own blog. Blogs help, ya know.

They don't. They really, really don't.

Well, at least we won't have to listen to claims of a "better game" which will end up like NS2.

[The BlAAtschApen]

They don't. They really, really don't.

Well, at least we won't have to listen to claims of a "better game" which will end up like NS2.

With a cult hatebase?

[Luziyca]

Well, at least we won't have to listen to claims of a "better game" which will end up like NS2.

With a cult hatebase?

Yes. A blog, thereby prevents a cult hatebase from forming.

[Chinese Regions]

I want to create some cool online games, and i figured the place to start is a game like nationstates . I love this game and ik a lot of people do to. The only problem is, is i dont know what to use. like, ive typed in to google all sorts of things along the lines of 'create your own government simulation game' and 'government simulation game creator', but nothing useful pops up. is there any (free, preferably browser-based) creator that i could use?
THANX!
-Sethanon
P.S. If there is a better forum for this, please move it there

It would be expensive to host (though there are free ones with adverts) anyway you need to learn how to program. You can use PHP which is popular or ASP.net (which allows you to program in two languages VB.NET and C#) and of course you need to learn HTML and CSS which are for designing the webpage.