Hello, I'm new here… as well as new to the whole game design world. I've always been a game addict, and I have always had what I thought are good ideas to improve on existing games/genres. Oddly enough though, I'm not wanting to make anything too unique, just something I would really enjoy.
So, I need your help. I have no clue on how to go about getting started. I have played 3 games that I got really addicted to (well, there's countless of those actually, but these are along the line of what I want to make,) The Sims, Vzones and Gaia Online (the Gaia Towns is what I liked about it… unfortunatly it was a let down.. which is what made me decide to give a go at making a game.)
Hopefully you are familiar with those (surely are with The Sims…) as you could help me a lot more. Okay… so what I'd like to do exactly.
I'm wanting to make a virtual world where you can create and customize your character, clothes, hair, all that good stuff. Can earn money by playing various mini-games or doing other stuff (lol) and go to stores in the little virtual city and buy more items for your character and rent apartments at buildings, or if you choose to, buy a plot of land outside of the main city(s?) and construct and decorate your own house/yard. Basically a lot like I imagine Sims Online to be and a lot like Vzones.
Sorry if all that doesn't really give you a good idea of what I'm wanting to do, I really suck at explaining things. lol. What I need to know, is what would be the best program(s) to go about creating such a game and what not. The only experience I have at all is messing around with Blender (I suck at modeling lol) and messing around with 3ds Max for a while at a friends house. All I done in 3ds Max was try to recreate the Temple level from the game Goldeneye on 64 with the prefabs or whatever they are that were already on the program.
Hmm. I think I have said enough, if not too much already. Look forward to your replies, and thanks in advance.
Edit: If it didn't get through, I want this to be an mmog, where lots of players can join, create houses, avatars, customize them both and interact with one another and their surroundings and furniture.