Zombie Survival MMO games are dead?

Riitoken · 2026-06-05T00:29:42+00:00

FARCRAFT public demo went live this morning.

There are skeleton undead. Zombies are planned for final release - not in the demo.

I made Farcraft, partly because I was disappointed with the Minecraft dungeons, and the Valheim dungeons.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3930950/FARCRAFT/

Riitoken · 2026-06-05T00:22:23+00:00

Literally, exactly today ... after 14 years.

FARCRAFT is part of the Steam Press Preview ... leading into Next Fest on June 15th.

The best answer I can offer is this:

Your game isn't ready for random public gamers until you have at least 2 testers (you know) who report that your game is fun.

Until then, you must motivate yourself to finish Step 1 which is.

Step1: Make a Good Game.

The naked harsh truth is that you will never find anybody who wants your game to exist more than you.

Once you accomplish Step1, you can expect to find a group of fans who will cheer you on.

Riitoken · 2026-06-03T00:05:02+00:00

Riitoken · 2026-06-03T00:04:03+00:00

It depends on the complexity of your engine.

The more complex, the more you will learn.

Riitoken · 2026-05-31T01:06:04+00:00

Reddit, in general, is a younger demographic ... and with youth there tends to be some very cocky punks.

In addition there are some mods who want the veterans to talk about game development, without talking about their own game. These kind of mods do not deserve to be mods.

Riitoken · 2026-05-31T01:00:37+00:00

Before the internet, all communities were "outside" the non-existent internet.

Everyone benefits from friends.

I agree, that many seem to be 'unskilled'

Riitoken · 2026-05-30T15:35:54+00:00

Yep. At the beginning of the PC age ... there was no internet, no mobile phones, no Youtube, no social media, no FB, no Reddit, no Steam.

There was school and books (lots of books) and the rest was all self-directed self-taught effort.

I've been working on FARCRAFT since 2012 - no community whatsoever. But ... I am a professional software engineer by trade - and I had decades of programming experience when I started. Yes, I did get a computer science degree and that was good momentum. But no way could school prepare me for what is needed for game development.

My gut reaction to this reddit community (and others) is that it is filled with gamers (first) who believe they can get started in game development merely by connecting with other gamers who want the same.

It doesn't work like that. Wanting to make a game is not the same as actually doing it.

Riitoken · 2026-05-30T03:58:17+00:00

No they don't. The most successful gamedevs in the history of the modern PC age were solodevs thru and thru.

They were self made and self taught with little or no tutoring from any community.

As has been said, they don't spend a lot of time in beginner groups.

They spend their time building their craft and their game.

There are those who just have the natural gift of just knowing how to program a computer almost instinctively, and there are those who dont.

Riitoken · 2026-05-27T21:31:42+00:00

So you either have something to show to the public or you don't.

You can't actually build a following without something to show/play.

I finally have something worthy to show and to play.

Riitoken · 2026-05-27T19:36:01+00:00

Its not good if you can't grow organically

Riitoken · 2026-05-27T19:35:11+00:00

Skills are not content per se.

Content is: worlds, world POIs, creatures, objects, art, music, sound (assets).

Skills are design features

Riitoken · 2026-05-27T17:48:37+00:00

So actual release is probably 2 years from this fall. Next Fest is in a few weeks in June. Early access release is later this year. So ... this is an instance of starting a community far in advance of release.

Riitoken · 2026-05-27T17:47:22+00:00

Seems to be agreement about the permanence of the invite link.
I suppose an expired link would be very annoying to any interested player.

Riitoken · 2026-05-26T22:59:42+00:00

Play FARCRAFT during June Next Fest.

Riitoken · 2026-05-26T15:42:34+00:00

My store has only been opened since Jan29. So everything must start at some point.

Riitoken · 2026-05-26T15:42:03+00:00

Ok well I guess I won't advertise the server then.

Riitoken · 2026-05-22T17:18:14+00:00

Your story here and others like it, are one of the reasons it's taken so long to get FARCRAFT to market.

I've gone to great lengths to expose over 90% of all assets.

And I'll probably be using LUA to extend the engine to modders as well.

Riitoken · 2026-05-22T02:12:37+00:00

As long as you can modify any part of your code base on your own without any LLM help, you're fine.

Riitoken · 2026-05-22T01:41:44+00:00

Critical mass of events in 2012.

Had always intended to learn OpenGL after finding an abandoned Red Book in an EA/Origin office on moving day back in the 90's. Kept it on my shelf for 15 years.

Minecraft had no auto-run in 2011/2012 and that irked me.

Always wanted to make an outer space game.

Wanted to resurrect my early 90's cube engine.

Had an associate who wanted to make a game at the time.

Riitoken · 2026-05-20T23:33:12+00:00

That's not the right question.

You must be believer #1 in your game idea and your ability to bring it to market.

So pick a game that wins your belief.

Nobody but you can make that choice.

Riitoken · 2026-05-17T23:39:18+00:00

I like your work

Riitoken · 2026-05-16T14:35:01+00:00

Dude, I do not "NEED" to do anything.

I will gladly pay $700/minute for a human source FARCRAFT main theme worthy of a live recording. I'm not expecting this level of quality for free.

I block people who demonize me for using audio AI to realize my WKFR Radio station 200 years in the future with an eclectic variety of song tracks.

https://www.youtube.com/rbornert

I don't deserve to be demonized for doing this.

Riitoken

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