Hello! Today we will talk about how the project team prepared for the presentation of VSU diplomas in the MMORPG "Allods Online". Many of you have probably seen the mentions of events held in online games flashing in gaming publications . In the case of the Allods, we decided to hold a graduation ceremony for the students.
It's worth starting with the fact that at VSU, on the basis of the Faculty of Applied Mathematics, Informatics and Mechanics, there is the Igrosfera project , within which two courses are conducted: development on Unity and testing of game applications. In the course of this initiative, the connection between the VSU and the Allods arose somehow by itself and has existed for a long time.
At some point, the deputy dean of the PMM turned to the Allods team, who suggested that the VSU be awarded diplomas in the game.
The scope of work sketched out in the framework of communication at first did not look large:
- location where everyone can get together;
- a set of playable characters for the rector, teachers and students;
- assistance in providing voice communication, because it would be inconvenient to write an appeal to the game chat;
- a set of NPCs who will give students their diplomas, as well as the diplomas themselves as in-game items.
To get to the location where the diploma was awarded, the player would have to go through a long and epic tutorial that introduces the world and a set of game mechanics. Of course, this option was not suitable for quick access, and there was no time for the implementation of the smooth connection “registering from an account from the list -> skipping training and teleporting to a location”.
After negotiations with the MY.GAMES Store gaming platform, temporary accounts were created, under which players were given the opportunity to enter the Allods, which removed the need to go through the starting instance.
Next, our designers have collected a game diploma and several NPCs who would present these diplomas. We did not add anything superfluous - after all, players who have just joined the project could easily get lost in the location without understanding the gameplay. All this was also backed up by a fairly detailed guideline that helps in the authorization process both in the game and in Discord (we were not ready to implement voice chat in the game), and was also accompanied by game masters during the event itself.
On the scheduled day, after the rehearsal, the rector and teachers spoke to the assembled students, who, in turn, took the diplomas prepared for them.
Happy end, it would seem.
In fact, I really wanted to do everything differently, using a completely different set of technologies. Planning a similar event that is being prepared in a few months, we are already working on a system solution, within which it will be enough for students to create accounts in MY.GAMES and gain access to a separate server.
Holding an event on a separate server will give a large number of advantages:
- We will be able to place the location of the event in the tutorial area.
- There will be no need to manipulate accounts.
- Registration will proceed as usual for the user.
Hosting events or even learning in a playful environment can be a breath of fresh air for students tired of the monotony, not only because of the continuing self-isolation, but simply because it is fun.