To develop this epic game, a large team will be needed. The team will develop their own engine for the game, to allow for the most control of the world and ability to influence the terrain. When this game is the leading standard for MMOs, the engine can be licensed out to future games for profit. If there is one thing that games like Darkfall (Darkfall Online, 2009) have shown the MMO community, it is that small development teams are very bad for making lots of money. Small development teams also have a hard time with the huge launches, distribution, and billing of MMOs. The main thing to be careful of when using a large development team is that you still maintain creative control, and that the high-budget bosses don't turn the game into a vanilla World of Warcraft (World of Warcraft, 2004) clone. The game will be digitally distributed through a variety of sources, including Steam and D2D. There will not be a boxed copy at initial launch. This saves on packaging costs and overall is the way that PC games are going (toward exclusive digital distribution). The ultimate goal for HND is a large development team that can get things done in a reasonable amount of time, while still maintaining creative control.
HND will have a development time of three years, fixed. Realistic benchmarks and a strong production staff will be the key to this. If the project is greenlighted on the first of April, the design document work will begin, as well as concept art.
Budget and Benchmarks