World of WarCrafts: Making a custom RPG, Warcraft-style
by Anne Stickney 
Oct 13th 2011 at 5:30PM
World of WarCrafts spotlights art and creativity by WoW players, including fan art, cooking, comics, cosplay, music, fan fiction and more. Sample the whole spectrum on our Arts and Crafts in WoW page.
Longtime readers may remember Murloc RPG, a game we featured way back in 2006. The game received an update earlier this year with the release of Murloc: Stranglethorn Fever. Hot on its heels is the latest release, Murloc RPG 2, all by Unmediocre. The game looks just like the World of Warcraft we know and love, with one small exception: Instead of playing a mighty Tauren or a Dwarven hero of the Alliance, you play ... a murloc.
That's right -- this Flash-based game lets you play as one of those fishy pests we've been killing off in WoW for years. Complete with quests, dialogue, combat, and the occasional chest to loot, Murloc RPG 2 isn't just an idle day's worth of messing about in Flash; it's a full-fledged gaming experience. So how did this all come about? Follow after the break where we have a quick chat with the maker of this incredibly detailed Flash homage to WoW.
Longtime readers may remember Murloc RPG, a game we featured way back in 2006. The game received an update earlier this year with the release of Murloc: Stranglethorn Fever. Hot on its heels is the latest release, Murloc RPG 2, all by Unmediocre. The game looks just like the World of Warcraft we know and love, with one small exception: Instead of playing a mighty Tauren or a Dwarven hero of the Alliance, you play ... a murloc.
That's right -- this Flash-based game lets you play as one of those fishy pests we've been killing off in WoW for years. Complete with quests, dialogue, combat, and the occasional chest to loot, Murloc RPG 2 isn't just an idle day's worth of messing about in Flash; it's a full-fledged gaming experience. So how did this all come about? Follow after the break where we have a quick chat with the maker of this incredibly detailed Flash homage to WoW.
World of Warcrafts: Hi, Unmediocre! Can you tell us a little bit about how you got into WoW?
Unmediocre: My first Warcraft game was Warcraft 3. I remember me and my friends used to play a lot of LAN DotA in internet cafes back in the day. I'm also a big fan of Diablo and other Blizzard games. With so much buzz surrounding WoW, I had to check it out. I started playing and got hooked. There were just so many things to do! I was especially infatuated with how much love and care Blizzard put into their games.
Murloc RPG 2 looks tremendously complex. Do you have any kind of background in game design or animation?
I've studied a lot of programming, but nothing specific to game design or animation. I've also been messing around with Adobe Flash for over 10 years (which is a lot of fun). Nothing's more exciting to me than imagining and executing ideas from scratch! I grew up with games and will always have a passion for them.
OK, out with it -- why murlocs, of all things?
I love those slimy little creatures -- who doesn't? I remember hearing a rumor that murlocs would be the next playable race at one point and was completely gutted to find out it wasn't true! I was determined to make my fantasy a reality. Murlocs have such an interesting and mysterious background; there is so much potential there.
I wanted to up the bar and improve on the first murloc RPG in every way. The plan was to make a mini-replica browser version of WoW. The sheer amount of coding required for this project was staggering. There are over 100,000 lines of code! I'm really happy with the result.
Can you take us through the process of creating a fan game? What kind of tools did you use to create it?
Before coding the actual game, I created a set of tools in Flash I like to call MUDKIT (Murloc Development Kit). These tools allowed me to edit a database of items, NPCs, quests, dialogue, monsters and more. All this data would be imported into the game on later builds. The rest of the game was also coded in Flash Actionscript 3.0.
I used WoW Model Viewer to get the graphics from WoW and an MPQ extractor to extract sounds. All the backgrounds in the game are in-game screenshots. Hard to take screenshots when you need an empty space in such a populated world! You can read more about the development process on my blog if you're interested.
Any words of advice for those who would like to try making games of their own?
Making a game requires a lot of time and effort, but it is such a rewarding experience. I've found that a clear plan saves you a lot of time and effort in the long run. The more you plan, the less changes you'll have to make, and the easier the game development process will be.
Anything else you'd like to add?
I'd like to thank Hill & Wynn Smith for the awesome WoW-inspired music they composed for this project!
Thanks for taking the time to chat with us, Unmediocre, and good luck with future projects as well!
If you'd like a delightful diversion for an hour or three, check out Murloc RPG 2 on Kongregate, as well as Murloc: Stranglethorn Fever.
World of WarCrafts spotlights art and creativity by WoW players, including arts and crafts, fan art, WoW-themed recipes, comics, cosplay, music and fan fiction. Show us how you express yourself by emailing anne@wowinsider.com with your not-for-profit, WoW-inspired creations.
Filed under: World of WarCrafts
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
dodgeballer2005 Oct 13th 2011 6:53PM
So... I heard you like MUDKITs.
GreenerGrass Oct 13th 2011 7:27PM
I played this for about 45 minutes and it is absolutely a marvel for one person's development.
But, and I know this is a horrible thing to say, my takeaway thought is "OMG so illegal." I hope Blizzard doesn't feel obligated to "cease and desist" this out of existence.
Anne Stickney Oct 14th 2011 1:04AM
Considering that it has a standard copyright disclaimer that states all models, sounds, etc belong to Blizzard, and that the person making the game isn't making a profit off of it in any way, I doubt it's really a concern. It's just a fun fan game!
poggg Oct 14th 2011 8:41AM
I doubt they'd C&D this, Blizzard usually doesn't have kneejerk overreactions like that to minor stuff such as this. I seem to recall a few times they've actually ended up recognizing and hiring notable members of the fanbase who did stuff like this, actually.
Drakkenfyre Oct 14th 2011 2:18PM
Blizzard isn't so bad. As long as it's clearly marked that the copyrights belong to Blizzard, and no profit is made, they usually don't bother them.
Nintendo, now, if you so much as mention Zelda in a game, usually they send a C&D immediately.
juanbiiberretta Oct 13th 2011 7:32PM
Playing it right noww :D
Thomas Higgins Oct 13th 2011 7:34PM
Nice as this sounds, why hasn't Bobby Kotick sent in his Stasi-like legal team in to kill it with fire? The article doesn't say if Blizzard gave any sort of blessing to the proceedings.
ravyncat Oct 13th 2011 10:14PM
For what its worth, I enjoyed being a murloc. Fun little game you have here. ^^
Amaxe Oct 13th 2011 10:19PM
I see that since they had an original game and an xpac, I'm wondering if perhaps Blizz doesn't do a C&D because they see it as advertising.
Just a guess of course.
Portalk Oct 14th 2011 4:05AM
I think this plus WoW Peggle (with permission of Popcap) should become WoW Minigames within the actual interface. Or not.
I like the idea though.
Krz Oct 14th 2011 11:29AM
That's a brilliant idea :O
goldeneye Oct 14th 2011 12:05PM
I often played the Bejeweled addon during long flightpaths.
Grovinofdarkhour Oct 18th 2011 3:57PM
HOW DO KILL THE DAMN VULTURES???