Welcome, traveller to these forsaken lands…
After spending over five years building on other MUDs, I decided to jump the shark and start my own. I could never quite find one that fully scratched the itch. I’ve always wanted something with a dreamlike, dark fantasy atmosphe, something I haven’t really seen done well in the MUD space.
I know building a MUD is very complex. But for me, it’s not just about the finished product. It’s about the process. Hopefully, my vision will take shape and if you happen to be part of it, all the better..
The basics
To get started, I figured my first two steps would be to set up a codebase and to find hosting. Luckily, there’s a lot of offerings on the market.
The codebase
I picked Dead Souls as a codebase (link). Yeah, I could have made a longer introduction about the intricacies of this codebase, why I chose to not go with evennia, why I didn’t make a Diku… In the end, it all comes down to what you like to play. I rather enjoy LPMuds. A prime example of this is ElephantMUD (www.elephant.org), which I’ve spent countless hours on. I figured, it’d be a good enough base to start with and I figured that the most important step was to get the ball rolling and to have something mature enough, and easy enough to deploy, build and modify.
Hosting
I set up my Dead Souls MUD locally, but at some point, I want people to be able to connect and play the actual game. I figured it’d be important to ensure people would be able to connect at some point. It’s a great motivator to have testers and it’s a good way to tell if you’re going in the right direction or not. Basically, I want to tinker a bit with the basic settings of Dead Souls and put a prototype in the wild as soon as possible. This way, I’ll get feedback and I’ll be able to iterate and build a better version of the MUD.
Next steps
At the moment, I’m:
- Setting up a very simple Notion page to stay organized
- Working on a first playable area
- Experimenting with some early class mechanics
My goal is to have something online within the month, a functional starting point.
If you’ve built a MUD before or have thoughts to share, I’m all ears. Any feedback, advice, or just encouragement is always appreciated.
I’m also starting a blog to document the process—mostly for myself, but also for anyone curious about what it’s like to build one of these from scratch.
Thanks for reading. More soon.
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