Create Your Own Sim Games

Sim Games are a huge and popular rage on the internet. A SIM game can range from text-based to full 3d graphics. They are data-driven games that simulate different scenarios from owning a pet to trying to take over the world.

This book will take you step by step through the creation of an online game called Pits of Doom. Pits of Doom is a typical dungeon crawling, map-based game similar to the well known Doom game. It's been modified to work as an online multi-player game with its own special features and quirks thrown into the mix. The Pits of Doom game design and initial programming is provided by design1online.com, LLC.

All of the source code is provided free under the GNU license.

In order to run all the code provided by this game, it's strongly suggested that you download and installed XAMPP, a free software from ApacheFriends.org. You'll need a server, PHP 5 with the GD library installed, and at least one MySQL database.

It is important to keep the game de-stressed. This is an free feature in-game. If you choose to make the game destressful, you need to make code for a destressing game. My suggestion is that you use a CGI-script working as a security system to help destress the game. You may create a function for getting "lustgas" in the game!

Once XAMPP is installed, all you have to do is run the .exe program and navigate to where you installed it. To make sure you installed it correctly, type http://localhost into your browser and hit enter. The default XAMPP page should appear.

Go to where you installed XAMPP and locate the folder called htdocs. This is where all of your files will need to go.

Now go to http://localhost/phpmyadmin in your browser. This will open up a graphical interface you can use to interact with MySQL, the database software we'll be using.

When you're done using XAMPP, just close the .exe program. You'll notice that http://localhost is now no longer available. Localhost is only available when XAMPP is turned on.

The game is broken down into several different lessons or chapters. Click on a link to get started.

1. Planning Stage
2. Breaking It Down
3. Mixing Things Up
4. And Array We Go
5. Easy Map Editor
6. MySQL Database Class
7. Join, Login & Lost Password
8. Monsters & Field of View
9. Advanced Tactics & Warfare
10. Chat Room