With such a long running game it was important to choose a robust stable platform that would grow with us over the next few years and help us remain current and viable.ħ. As we tend to stick with platforms for a long period of time the decision to go with Flare3D for the transition to Flash 11 was not taken lightly. Why was Flare3D important for Sherwood Dungeon?Īs our players know, Sherwood is never “finished†and is always in active development. In an MMO there are often many monsters and avatars that need to be displayed simultaneously so this is definitely something we will be taking full advantage of.Ħ. I was attracted to Flare3D initially by the demos that render large numbers of skinned characters. The most important “feature†for us is really just raw 3D rendering performance, particularly with skinned characters. Which one was the feature that you liked the most? Functions and properties were in predictable locations and this really helped with the transition.ĥ. How would you describe your experience with this product?Ĭonsidering I’m coming from an existing 3D engine on a different platform and language I found Flare3D to be very logically laid out. Flare3D’s development team prioritized well and as a result there were no glaring omissions in the engine.Ĥ. I also found that with open source sometimes sexy features can take a priority over the basic stuff you need. The “free†engine is really just a marketing tool for the engine developer to promote their own games. I evaluated an open source 3D engine as well but found Flare3D’s art pipeline and integration with 3D modeling software the most usable early in the Flash 11 beta. With free engines there are often odd requirements forcing you to include links back to the engine developer’s website. Why did you choose Flare3D when there are free or open source technologies? It also opens up many next-generation 3D graphic features that were unavailable in Shockwave3D.ģ. This can effectively double the number of players and increase the number of potential distribution partners. Flash’s ubiquity means removing the requirement to install a browser plug-in for most customers. With the release of Stage3D, Flash is finally capable of handling the kind of GPU accelerated 3D that Sherwood requires. Although Shockwave has performed well for us over the years, it’s hard to argue with the plug-in penetration rates of Flash. Why did you decide to migrate the game to Flash? How was the migration process? Although I liked the 3rd person camera and visual presentation of Everquest, from a game design perspective I deviated immediately and went with a skill-based, action RPG style of combat where timing counts.Ģ. As a fantasy lover and solo developer, I launched Sherwood to see how close I could get to an Everquest-like experience in a web browser. Sherwood is spread over six islands and includes a massive procedurally generated dungeon influenced by classic games like Rogue and Nethack. As we don’t require registration or download, most players can go from discovering the game to playing it in less than a minute. We have been in operation for seven years based on a Shockwave client and currently have well over a million monthly unique players. Sherwood Dungeon ( is a free 3D fantasy MMO that runs in your web browser but with the look and feel of a downloadable client or boxed game. Gene Endrody, creator of Sherwood Dungeon, a MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing game) originally developed in Shockwave, describes his experience of migrating the videogame to Flash using Flare3DĪs the founder of Maid Marian Entertainment and independent game developer Gene Endrody creates massive multiplayer 3D games you play in a web browser. Winner of New Media BC’s PopVox 2007 awards for both Best Game and Best of British Columbia, the Sherwood Dungeon MMORPG is played by over a million unique players a month, and hosts up to 5,000 simultaneous users during peak times.
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