I want to build a online sports management game where do i start?

Question

I want to build a site similar to Hatrick or soccermanager.com

but im not sure where to begin any tips/ help would be great!

cheers

Answer 1

As JohnK813 asks, you need to provide more information on your programming/db experience before anything specific can be suggested.

If you don't have experience in programming, you will need to find someone or a team of programmers to do this part for you, plus possibly designers and other professionals to make the game work, whilst you focus on the business end.

Before approaching any project like this, work out what your requirements are - what would you like your final game to do? This means evaluating existing products, coming up with fresh ideas, talking to potential users, and checking all ideas are possible. It may be worth looking up guides to creating games in general people have already written.

Answer 2

You need to start off with a more specific idea of what you're actually going to build. I'm not talking about specifics of the game, though that's a part of it. You need to decide how you'll present the player with his/her options.

Start with basic UI design:

• What pages do I need?
• What information should be on each page?
• What functions should be accessible from each page?

In general, you want to make it as easy as possible for your end users to navigate your UI. First, you usually don't want to make too many pages, as that can fragment the user experience with the game information served up to the player in tiny chunks. On the other hand, you want each page you do make to have a clear and consistent set of data and functions.

From a methodology point of view, I suggest you build your game iteratively. You're on your own, so spending too much time designing the game will likely hinder the development cycle. Here's an example of how you could start:

Iteration 1:

• Design the database tables that hold the game data
• Create the database
• Build simple pages that query the database (for test data) and provide a bunch of different views

Iteration 2:

• Design the user account DB tables
• Build a login page and an account overview page

Iteration 3:

• Design and build the first round of functions and game pages

In between iterations, especially in later rounds, get feedback on the progress so far. Listen to that feedback and roll it into your future design ideas.

The hope is that an iterative approach like this will allow you to see and test progress on your app and get feedback as early as possible. It helps to mold the application to the expectations of the end users.