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.

This is currently the project's main page, though that will likely change once it is at a stage that I want to make it public. Barring anything unexpected  or general ennui (highly likely), you can expect that to occur sometime between 2010 and 2050. Perhaps sooner, though that is doubtful.

This marks the third time I have scrapped my previous work and begun the task fresh. The first attempt did not have a name, the second I called GUNGNIR and this third (and almost certainly final) version I call MJOLNIR. Draw whatever impression of me from that you like, but at least I am still plugging away. I started last year with very little knowledge about PHP and even less about programming in general, and at this point I feel comfortable not only with PHP but also the concepts of OOP, MVC and database normalization.

I am still on the fence whether or not I will offer the WOTAN software for free under a GNU license ... sacrilege to my FOSS-loving nature, I know! Time will tell. I am currently leaning toward that, however, as my real goal for WOTAN is to exist as something of a web RPG framework not merely a single game. In my more grandiose dreams, I envision WOTAN as the WordPress of Online Gamebooks.

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

MJOLNIR

• 0.0.1 CONCEPTUAL
  • design database, define site architecture
• 0.0.2 FRAMEWORK
  • implements USER module
    • site authorization
  • implements PAGE module
    • regular non-game pages, error pages, etc.
  • implements ADMIN module
    • god-level manipulation of other modules
• 0.0.3 BOOK MODELS, CONTROLS and ADMIN VIEWS
  • implements basics of BOOK module
    • BOOK ADMIN
  • Book->Page
    • Page admin view
    • Page Choices (i.e. linking)
  • Treasure
    • create admin view
    • book admin view
  • Power (i.e. attribute/skill/spell) 
    • global admin view
    • book admin view
  • Background Element (renamed)
    • global admin view
    • book admin view
  • Item  (ETA 22/June/2010)
    • book admin view
    • global admin view ->CURRENT STAGE 0.0.3.57 (as of 25/June/2010)
  • FINISH CORE MODULES/ADMIN  (FINAL ETA 30/June/2010)
    • Character admin view (ETA 30/June/2010)
      • Power
      • Background
      • Movement
      • Treasure/Items
    • BOOK Page module (ETA 2/July/2010)
• 0.0.4 CORE NON-ADMIN VIEWS (ETA 23/July/2010)
  • user
  • book
  • character
• 0.0.5+ NON-CORE MODULES and SUB-MODULES
  • Opponent module (ETA 6/August/2010)
  • NPC Trade/Barter System (ETA ?/August/2010)
  • Character Stat and Response tracking (ongoing development)
• 0.9 POLISHING THE GEM (ETA early/August/2010)
  • code debt 95% paid
  • finalize site design, clean up UI issues
  • Character Race module and documentation
  • final decision whether or not to open source the code
  • bug resolution
• 0.1 IT'S ALIVE!! ALIVE!!!!! (ETA mid-late/August/2010)
  • beta release (a.k.a. fully-functioning and ready for adventure)
  • Rest/Movement module
  • "Premium Token" p2p System

More About WOTAN

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.