project WOTAN

WOTAN is the name of  a Persistent Browser-Based Game (PBBG) I am writing. In essence, it is to be a framework for creating and running single-player text adventure games via the Web. These "adventures" are in the spirit of gamebooks, which are novels much like those from the Choose Your Own Adventure series of the 1980s but with more options and detailed rules like a Role-Playing Game.

Planned features for release are server-stored persistent characters and a wide range of interactivity within the story environment. Future plans include multi-player stories, crafting/harvesting and whatever else I or others think up. While WOTAN represents an interpretation of the gamebook medium on the web, I would like to expand that to eventually operate a multi-player gambook.

The WOTAN game engine will appeal to a person who wants to create and live in a world of imagination. Like those two girls from Enchanting Creatures. Seriously, though, the ultimate goal of WOTAN will be to create a content management system that will allow game masters to shape a single-player game world directly. The direct inspiration for Project WOTAN comes from the adventure gamebooks popular during my youth in the 1980's like Fighting Fantasy, Lone Wolf and the solo Tunnels and Trolls modules, among others.

The current list of third-party software I am using within this project are:

• PHP Markdown
• HTML Purifier
• JQuery
• Gravatar

Below is my schedule for development of WOTAN. However, if you happen to be curious I usually write down what I am actually doing on the WOTAN dev server at The Wizard's Tower.

WOTAN ROADMAP

GUNGNIR 0.0.0

Gungnir is the second attempt (but the first real attempt)at making WOTAN. Started in July 2009 then scrapped in December 2009. While virtually none of the code from Gungnir made it into the next iteration, MJOLNIR, it was important in testing concepts and finding out more what not to do when designing the site from the ground up.

MJOLNIR 0.0.1

Mjolnir is the the third and final start to WOTAN which I began in April 2010. Future iterations of WOTAN all stem from this, which I concluded at revision 72 in August 2010. Rather arbitrarily, I might add. So there.

OSIRIS 0.0.2

Just as Isis searched for the dismembered parts of her son Osiris, so am I threading together all the parts of WOTAN. This iteration began with revision 73 in August 2010. WOTAN will be in an officially playable state when work on Osiris concludes, lacking only in statistical tracking features, a finished site design and content.

MNEMOSYNE 0.0.3

Mnemosyne is the personification of memory and the mother of the Greek Muses. This iteration will see the elaboration of the tracking system I am designing into the game.

AMESHA SPENTA 0.1

Site design finalized and deployed. Game system runs smoothly and all admin creation and tracking tools are complete. Work will focus on creating an easy-installation system, though I do not have plans to make sure it works with less than php 5.2.