Project Aspect
by Jonathan C. on Mar.18, 2010, under MUDs
I’ve been working on a new personal project lately, which I call Aspect. It’ll a web-based MUD client, but without Java or Flash. (A bit like PHudBase, actually, but built differently.) I haven’t done much with it yet, but I’ve got a local webserver running using the Python-based Tornado server. Tornado is great because it’s built specifically for handling AJAX long polling, which is what I use to communicate between Aspect and the browser. I’ve never used Python before, so it’s an interesting experience.
I’m planning on making the client extremely customizable by way of plugins, drawing from my ongoing experiences with MUSHclient. I’m also taking philosophical inspiration from Mibbit, which seems to work similarly (though the focus is completely different). With some MUDs, though, there’s a bit of an issue. Many MUDs disallow multiplaying, which is often tracked through the user’s IP address. But all users playing through Aspect will appear to connect from the same IP address; namely, the IP of Aspect itself. This is something I’ll have to work out eventually, but I have some ideas.
More to come eventually. I’d like to keep most of the details under wraps for now, and there are a lot of details.
~Jonathan
July 29th, 2010 on 10:33 am
Hi Jonathan,
It seems we have some things in common! I’m also a Jonathan, and a programmer, and into MUDs. I’m founder and former CEO of Turbine, Inc. the MMO behind Dungeons & Dragons online and Lord of the Rings Online.
You must get this all the time, but I wonder if your domain is for sale? You are doing something with it but it’s not like you have a business based on it so I thought it wouldn’t hurt to ask.
Check out my most recent project at http://WheelQuestions.org
-Jon
July 29th, 2010 on 12:38 pm
Hello!
I’ve heard of those two MMOs, but I never got around to trying them out. Once I start playing a game, my presence in other online communities takes a huge hit. I try to limit myself to one game, which is the MUD Achaea at the moment.
*laughs* I do get that all the time. No, it’s not for sale currently. I’m going to use it more actively in the future, but right now it’s just my personal blog. I know that a good number of people have ‘personal’ websites, though I do realize how rare it is to have the domain of your first name.
Wheel Questions looks like an interesting concept!
~Jonathan Castello