What is this all about?
Illarion (http://www.illarion.org) is an indie open source online roleplaying game that focuses on true roleplaying. All of the characters that you will encounter during your time here are living, breathing inhabitants of this mysterious world. Each character has their own past, goals, flaws, strengths and personality. Experience glorious adventures as a noble knight or live the life of a hardworking craftsman, acquisitive merchant, or charismatic priest of the gods. Illarion combines a high fantasy setting with a persistent game world. The decisions that you make while playing Illarion will actually impact and shape the world around you. Your actions will determine the events that will one day fill the pages of Illarion's history books.
Illarion features a complex crafting system, three factions maintained by Gamemasters and countless nasty monsters that wait in dungeons for their Judgement day. Unlike other so called "roleplaying" games, Illarion makes you immerse with your character and his or her live. Inspired by classics of the genre like Ultima Online, Tibia or Runescape, Illarion found its own ways and is a free alternative to hectic grinding games where only levels and gold coins matter - collective storytelling and loyal friendship instead of experience points and mass raids.
Illarion is a well established project, the game is fully playable. Illarion has a very loyal fanbase and is continously developed and maintained by around 15 volunteers. If you are interested in joining an existing project and have own creative ideas for a fantasy roleplaying game, we invite you to join the development team of Illarion.
How can I help?
You can support the development of Illarion in many ways. Everyone who grasps the basics of programming is able to contribute to it. Interest in fantasy roleplaying is preferable, team work is essential. The staff consists of people from all around the world, hence, English is the project language and you should be able to communicate in it. Since Illarion is a free game that is developed under an open source licence, no payment is possible. Concerning legal aspects, Illarion is organized as a registered society.
In every aspect of development, you can rely on skilled developers with many years of experience. Illarion specific content is explained in various documentations. In detail, Illarion consists of the following elements:
- Server
The server is coded in C++. Debian Linux runs on the hardware. To contribute to the development of the server, you need to have good skills in C++, and experience in the implementation of multi-threading. Licence: AGPLv3
Link to the Github repository of the server: https://github.com/Illarion-eV/Illarion-Server - Client
The Illarion client is written in Java and makes use of the libgdx library for its graphical display. To contribute to the development of the client, you need good skills in Java. Also, you have to grasp the basics of OpenGL. Licence: GPLv3
Link to the Github repository of the client: https://github.com/Illarion-eV/Illarion-Java - Server scripts
Most actions a player can invoke are controlled by scripts. These scripts are programmed in the scripting language Lua. Lua is so simple that everyone with enough interest can learn it very quickly. Scripts are also the most influential way to develop game content for Illarion, e.g. quests, magic spells or crafting processes. Licence: AGPLv3
Link to the Github repository of the game content: https://github.com/Illarion-eV/Illarion-Content
In addition to said projects, Illarion also offers opportunities to work in other areas, mainly to improve the game content.
- Homepage
The homepage of Illarion has room for improvement. The homepage is based on PHP and works with its own, custom framework. We want to move the homepage to a modern content management system (CMS) like zotonic, Typo3, Drupal or Joomla. Everyone who is interested in coding of websites and has skills in PHP will have an easy start. We also need 2D artists to create images for the homepage.
Link to the Github repository of the homepage: https://github.com/Illarion-eV/Illarion-Website
- Graphics
Graphics of buildings, items and characters of Illarion are 2D graphics, derived from 3D models by rendering. The client composes the graphics to scenes on the fly. Thus, a graphics artist needs to have good skills in 3D modeling software. 2D and 3D animations of magic spells and natural events are another field of interest. - Sounds and music
Illarion uses the mp3 format for background music. Artists have many areas in which to exert their creativity. Many things are possible, be it background music for different dungeons and towns or a general theme. Sound effects are embedded as .ogg files and are played to illustrate player actions like crafting or fighting.
Link to selected examples from the original soundtrack: http://illarion.org/~nitram/ost/ - Authors of game content
Illarion is a mysterious fantasy world with the technology of Europe in the 11th century. But there are orcs, irascible gods and magical artifacts. For the game content, tales, legends, poems, songs and fairytales are needed. This background of the world may find its place into books] in the game or could be read on the walls of a decayed ruin. Tales can also be made quests in the game to entertain players. Illarion offers a custom, very simple NPC scripting language and tools to generate books and other quest elements. These tools require absolutely no programming experience.
If we have sparked your interest for contributing to Illarion as a volunteer, we'd welcome to get in contact with you. Illarion has a dense and friendly community of roleplayers that will definitely reward you with gratitude. Please send us an email to vilarion@illarion.org or join our IRC chat #illarion at quakenet: http://illarion.org/community/us_chat.php
Estralis on behalf of the Illarion staff
PS: We also welcome every new player! Just check out the game at http://www.illarion.org!
