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We had the incredible opportunity to sit down with the owner of World of the Wilds, a thriving virtual pet game brought to life by 3Lements. In this exclusive interview, we dive into the inspiration, challenges, and future plans for the game, offering a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to bring a virtual world to live.
1: How long have you been a web developer? How did you intially
get started coding and developing?
I've been doing web development for about 10 years, and I've been coding and making games as a primary hobby for about 17-18 years. I've always loved the idea of making a game since I was very young.
I started with creating maps in Hammer for the Source engine for about 4 years before I started learning how to code. My first real coding experiences were with Lua in old Garry's Mod where I modified and wrote my own scripted weapons, which later evolved into coding "expression" chips in Wiremod, which is an addon for Garry's Mod that allowed in-game real time scripting for various fun purposes.
2: What inspired you/motivated you to create World of the Wilds? Is it your first game?
My wife and I both loved the old NeoPets from back in the early 2000's when we were young, and we wanted to create a game that is heavily inspired by those old nostalgic feelings.
World of the Wilds is my second public game project. It's being developed alongside my first public game called "Platformer" which is in early access on Steam at the moment.
I made Platformer's name generic on purpose; it's similar to Terraria and Starbound, but it'll have a lot of unique features of its own when I'm finished.
I've made many small to large personal game projects before World of the Wilds and Platformer, and some of them are going to be released in the future as well.
3: What are some of your main goals with World of the Wilds?
World of the Wilds is being made purely because my wife and I love to make fun games.
We plan to grow World of the Wilds into an expansive web game with a plethora of fun mini games and secrets to find. There are a lot of areas we have planned to implement, and more to come after that as well.
We will never have ads on the site, and we have no plans to add micro transactions - there will be some fun merchandise in the future, however.
4: What challenges did you face during the development of your game?
One of the hardest things was trying to figure out how to get the word out so people can find the game in the first place. I believe that skill will grow over time, so I'm currently just working on the game and casually seeking out opportunities to tell people about it.
The rest of the development process was pretty easy for me, since I have a lot of experience in that field.
5: How did you choose the genre of the game?
My wife and I have been thinking about making this website for several years, and we even had a personal version of the site for some years before I rewrote it from scratch with more modern code.
It's meant to be a fun place to come back to every so often to play with your pets, find new items, explore the world, battle, gamble with fake currency, buy and sell items in auctions, find secrets, and much more in time.
6: What’s the meaning behind the name World of Wilds?
The creatures in the game are called "Wilds" and the site is basically their "World" - so we naturally named it "World of the Wilds."
We considered several other names, but eventually determined World of the Wilds was the best fit.
7: What are some things you could tell an upcoming pet site owner? Is it easy to run a pet site, or is it hard? If you could say something to help pet site owners, what would it be?
World of the Wilds itself is pretty easy to run because of the way it was structured, but as with all games, the code can begin to get large and complicated.
It's important to follow good web development coding practices from the beginning of the project so you don't have to refactor as much later when implementing a new addition or change.
Another important factor is security. Passwords should be encrypted, and the web APIs need to be written in a secure way to avoid injection or DDoS attacks.
If you plan on making a similar website, it would be a good idea to look up common secure web development practices for the languages you're coding in.
8: What are some of your favorite hobbies? What do you do for fun?
I have a lot of different hobbies, but some of my favorites are coding games, 3D modeling/rigging/animating, drawing/painting, level design, making music in FL Studio, piano, guitar, gardening, cooking, steam distilling flowers into essential oil, athletic activities, fixing things (house/car/tractor/etc.), welding, melting soft metals and glass, taking care of a bunch of kitties that I've saved from the wilderness, playing video games, and much more.
9: What can players look forward to while playing World of the Wilds? What are the top features?
Right now, the biggest features are the Battle Arena, keeping your pets happy, exploring the world, random events that appear while exploring, quests, shops, trophies, and several mini games to get coins.
Eventually there will be an auction house, more arena challengers (some are hidden), a lot more areas and secrets to explore, more trophies, more games, different styles of games, music, fun new items, merchandise, and more ideas that are still on the drawing board.
10: What are your thoughts on the state of the virtual pets industry compared to a few years ago? Do you see it growing in popularity or declining?
I think the virtual pet industry is gaining traction recently. It felt like it was kind of in the background a few years ago, but now it seems like more people are becoming interested in this sort of thing.
Fast food chains have recently started promoting an online pet game, and NeoPets started to get more attention with their new 3D game world they're making. I feel like right now is a good time to be making a virtual pet game.
11: Are there any big plans for the future of World of Wilds?
After the website is more solidified and filled out, we have plans to make our own 3D game to go with the site. I want to keep World of the Wilds out of the hands of big business - it will never be sold to another company, so it will always retain that good old classic feel.
12: Who else is working on World of Wilds? Do you have a small staff team or a large team?
My wife and I are the only ones working on the game. I do all the logistics, coding and public communication, while my wife does all the art and game design. We've been making games together since we met about 15 years ago; it really means a lot to us.
13: Lastly, what’s your favorite all time game?
That's a tough question! I have a few favorites, but I'll list my most influential ones:
- Black & White (old 90's game)
- Red Faction 1
- Half Life 1
- Deus Ex 1 and 2
- Final Fantasy VII, IX, and XI
- 2007 Runescape
- World of Warcraft (up to WotLK)
- Old NeoPets!
If you want to check out other stuff I'm working on, please visit Home - 3Elements Games
Thank you for the interview!
1: How long have you been a web developer? How did you intially
get started coding and developing?
I've been doing web development for about 10 years, and I've been coding and making games as a primary hobby for about 17-18 years. I've always loved the idea of making a game since I was very young.
I started with creating maps in Hammer for the Source engine for about 4 years before I started learning how to code. My first real coding experiences were with Lua in old Garry's Mod where I modified and wrote my own scripted weapons, which later evolved into coding "expression" chips in Wiremod, which is an addon for Garry's Mod that allowed in-game real time scripting for various fun purposes.
2: What inspired you/motivated you to create World of the Wilds? Is it your first game?
My wife and I both loved the old NeoPets from back in the early 2000's when we were young, and we wanted to create a game that is heavily inspired by those old nostalgic feelings.
World of the Wilds is my second public game project. It's being developed alongside my first public game called "Platformer" which is in early access on Steam at the moment.
I made Platformer's name generic on purpose; it's similar to Terraria and Starbound, but it'll have a lot of unique features of its own when I'm finished.
I've made many small to large personal game projects before World of the Wilds and Platformer, and some of them are going to be released in the future as well.
3: What are some of your main goals with World of the Wilds?
World of the Wilds is being made purely because my wife and I love to make fun games.
We plan to grow World of the Wilds into an expansive web game with a plethora of fun mini games and secrets to find. There are a lot of areas we have planned to implement, and more to come after that as well.
We will never have ads on the site, and we have no plans to add micro transactions - there will be some fun merchandise in the future, however.
4: What challenges did you face during the development of your game?
One of the hardest things was trying to figure out how to get the word out so people can find the game in the first place. I believe that skill will grow over time, so I'm currently just working on the game and casually seeking out opportunities to tell people about it.
The rest of the development process was pretty easy for me, since I have a lot of experience in that field.
5: How did you choose the genre of the game?
My wife and I have been thinking about making this website for several years, and we even had a personal version of the site for some years before I rewrote it from scratch with more modern code.
It's meant to be a fun place to come back to every so often to play with your pets, find new items, explore the world, battle, gamble with fake currency, buy and sell items in auctions, find secrets, and much more in time.
6: What’s the meaning behind the name World of Wilds?
The creatures in the game are called "Wilds" and the site is basically their "World" - so we naturally named it "World of the Wilds."
We considered several other names, but eventually determined World of the Wilds was the best fit.
7: What are some things you could tell an upcoming pet site owner? Is it easy to run a pet site, or is it hard? If you could say something to help pet site owners, what would it be?
World of the Wilds itself is pretty easy to run because of the way it was structured, but as with all games, the code can begin to get large and complicated.
It's important to follow good web development coding practices from the beginning of the project so you don't have to refactor as much later when implementing a new addition or change.
Another important factor is security. Passwords should be encrypted, and the web APIs need to be written in a secure way to avoid injection or DDoS attacks.
If you plan on making a similar website, it would be a good idea to look up common secure web development practices for the languages you're coding in.
8: What are some of your favorite hobbies? What do you do for fun?
I have a lot of different hobbies, but some of my favorites are coding games, 3D modeling/rigging/animating, drawing/painting, level design, making music in FL Studio, piano, guitar, gardening, cooking, steam distilling flowers into essential oil, athletic activities, fixing things (house/car/tractor/etc.), welding, melting soft metals and glass, taking care of a bunch of kitties that I've saved from the wilderness, playing video games, and much more.
9: What can players look forward to while playing World of the Wilds? What are the top features?
Right now, the biggest features are the Battle Arena, keeping your pets happy, exploring the world, random events that appear while exploring, quests, shops, trophies, and several mini games to get coins.
Eventually there will be an auction house, more arena challengers (some are hidden), a lot more areas and secrets to explore, more trophies, more games, different styles of games, music, fun new items, merchandise, and more ideas that are still on the drawing board.
10: What are your thoughts on the state of the virtual pets industry compared to a few years ago? Do you see it growing in popularity or declining?
I think the virtual pet industry is gaining traction recently. It felt like it was kind of in the background a few years ago, but now it seems like more people are becoming interested in this sort of thing.
Fast food chains have recently started promoting an online pet game, and NeoPets started to get more attention with their new 3D game world they're making. I feel like right now is a good time to be making a virtual pet game.
11: Are there any big plans for the future of World of Wilds?
After the website is more solidified and filled out, we have plans to make our own 3D game to go with the site. I want to keep World of the Wilds out of the hands of big business - it will never be sold to another company, so it will always retain that good old classic feel.
12: Who else is working on World of Wilds? Do you have a small staff team or a large team?
My wife and I are the only ones working on the game. I do all the logistics, coding and public communication, while my wife does all the art and game design. We've been making games together since we met about 15 years ago; it really means a lot to us.
13: Lastly, what’s your favorite all time game?
That's a tough question! I have a few favorites, but I'll list my most influential ones:
- Black & White (old 90's game)
- Red Faction 1
- Half Life 1
- Deus Ex 1 and 2
- Final Fantasy VII, IX, and XI
- 2007 Runescape
- World of Warcraft (up to WotLK)
- Old NeoPets!
If you want to check out other stuff I'm working on, please visit Home - 3Elements Games
Thank you for the interview!
