We’re a small team working on Paroxysm, a persistent text-based multiplayer RPG built on a Diku-derived codebase. It’s in early alpha and playable over plain telnet (mud.paroxysmrpg.com:3000). Text lets us do things that would be expensive anywhere else: a whole world government, player-run societies, and supernatural archetypes, with no art pipeline. The hard part is getting new players past “download a MUD client.” Curious whether anyone here has worked on older codebases or on onboarding for text games. What made the first five minutes work? Site: https://paroxysmrpg.com/ Discord: https://discord.gg/Hkx8rcj4k6 (adult content, 18+)
What is MUD?
Multi-User Dungeon (or Delusion, or Dimension)
Precursor to MMOs, they were always-on shared worlds you connected to over the Internet. Most were text-only and accessible by telnet, some had web clients or downloadable dedicated clients; some had static images as backgrounds or mob icons. It’s also the origin of the word “mob” to mean videogame enemy, as MUDs pioneered MOBile enemies that could follow you from location to location or wander around on their own.