This jam is now over. It ran from 2024-10-01 05:01:00 to 2024-10-31 05:59:59.

Sharpen your favorite sword, grab a torch, and gather your party -- it's time to build a MUD!

What's it About?

We're using October to make a MUD from the ground up! Note that there are no prizes or rankings here. This is strictly a personal challenge.

What's a MUD?

  • MUD is an acronym meaning Multi-User Dungeon or Multi-User Dimension, depending on who you ask.
  • A MUD is a text-based multiplayer computer game that users generally connect to via a telnet client.

  • A MUD is usually some kind of roleplaying game. The roleplay can be centered on combat, statistics, and leveling up or it can be more focused on social interactions.
  • MUDS were basically MMOs before MMOs were a thing. :P

    • MUDS can depict just about any kind of setting imaginable.

    What are the Rules?

    Your MUD should:

  • Be your own creation, written during the month of October.
  • Include at least one hundred rooms, and
  • Ten mobs that will interact with the player character.


    • How Do I Get Started?

    That depends on your experience level and how comfortable you are with coding. If you've never played a MUD before, I suggest playing a few so you'll know what is expected.

    My personal recommendation is to check out Written Realms from the links below. The hardest parts of coding a MUD have already been done for you -- all you have to do is sign up and start building, and that's about as painless as this gets!

    If you're comfortable coding in Python then it might be worth giving Evennia or Mud-Pi a go. There are also a number of out-of-the-box codebases that you can download as well.

    Other than that: Conceptualize your world. Brainstorm it, build it, populate it with cool stuff, test and then publish it!

    Resources

    FAQ

    Is there a theme?
    The theme is social conflict and rivalry. This is completely optional.
    Isn't this too complicated for a jam?
    Not if you use the right tools and limit your scope. Remember that you aren't here to write your Magnum Opus. Just a small adventure.
    How do I win?
    You win by creating and sharing a playable MUD game before November.

    Submissions

    Since MUDs are by definition hosted on offsite servers, simply post the link or host:port information for your MUD in the submissions forum. There's no need to upload a game to itch.

    Inspiration

    I recently discovered the idea of something called namubumo, which was apparently meant to be like National Novel Writing Month but for MUD developers. The idea has since been abandoned but I wanted to try it out so here we are.

    2024 Shades