The First Week

To sum up the first week of research in one word... a learning experience.  I must of downloaded and tried out at least twenty different 2D engines.  I actually found one to be truly amazing with a host of features I was interested, including dynamic shadows, but the guy discontinued the project 4 years ago!  Damn you man, damn you!

I eventually came across the Eclipse Origins engine.  Now let me tell you a little something about this community.  Normally when you post a question on a forum without using the Search function you will get flamed.  It's just common sense.  But these guys, especially Robin, are soul suckers.  They wouldn't only flame your topic but they would put you down as a person and as a designer.  It was actually pretty brutal some of the things that were said but, for the moment, their engine was the leader in 2D MMO creation.  Thankfully I didn't put up with them for more than a week.  This lead me to a new project.

I found Genesis2D and immediately fell in love.  This engine was not open-source like Eclipse was but the features, features, features!  OMG there were so many features including full 8 direction movement!  Did I mention I love features?  EO was bare bones compared to this exciting new engine I found.  I could tell the community was already far more helpful and laid back after reading just a few posts.  I quickly downloaded the G2D engine and created a forum account.  A few hours later I sat back in my chair with the feeling of a huge burden lifted off my chest.  I smiled to myself as I realized I was one step closer to making my first MMO.