“Initially hired David to review code for the game at a very early stage and was blown away by his abilities and after a round with the board we hired David as lead developer for the project. He brought with him other developers who also did great work and I can say with full confidence there would be no Domi Online without their expertise.”
Building an MMORPG With a Core Team of Four
How we led development of Domi Online, a soulslike MMORPG with no level caps, handling everything from 64-bit progression and server-authoritative gameplay to combat, quests and environment art.
Summary
- The challenge
- An open-world soulslike with no level or skill caps, an economy that cannot trust players, and a long stretch of development before it earns any money.
- What we did
- David led development. With Adam he built 64-bit progression, combat, quests and skilling, the environment art and the levels, while Brinca led the server-authoritative networking.
- The result
- Closed alpha stress tests of up to 500 players on a single server, 10,000+ interactive trees at 100fps or more, and five engine upgrades without a rebuild.
In brief
Overview
- Timeline
- 2021 onwards
- Platform
- Windows (Via the Domi launcher)
- Genre
- MMORPG
- Engagement
- Multiplayer
Built with
- Unity
- C#
- FishNet
- AWS EC2
Domi Online is a soulslike massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) with no level caps and no skill caps, set in a large open world where progression never stops. It combines the long-term grind of classic MMORPGs with harsh, high-stakes combat, and it needed to be built by a very small team.
David was hired first as lead developer, after an initial code review impressed the founders. Adam joined as a senior Unity developer, and Brinca led networking as the project's network engineer. All three were part of the core team of four that built the game, with a scope that would normally call for a much larger studio.
Nobody on a team that size gets to be just a programmer. David and Adam built the user interface (UI), combat, quests and skilling systems, and also created the environment art and designed the levels. Domi Online secured backing from investment partners including Avalanche. We also sat down with the Domi team for an in-depth interview about the project. David was hired as lead developer in 2021 and later became a director and shareholder of Domi Online.
| Area | The challenge | What we built |
|---|---|---|
| Progression | No level or skill caps, so values grow without limit | 64-bit values end to end, from client to server to database |
| Networking | A competitive economy that cannot trust the client | Server-authoritative gameplay with FishNet |
| Running costs | A long pre-revenue period with servers always on | The full closed alpha ran on a single AWS EC2 server in Ireland |
| Environments | Dense forests where every tree can be chopped | 10,000+ GPU-instanced trees, swapped for interactive stumps on demand |
| Engine | A multi-year project on an ageing Unity version | Upgraded through every Long Term Support (LTS) release, from Unity 2020 LTS to Unity 6.3 |
| Team | MMORPG scope | A core team of four |
Progression Without Limits
With no level or skill caps, player numbers keep growing for as long as people play. A single 32-bit value anywhere in the pipeline would eventually break.
64-Bit End to End
Stats, experience and other player values use 64-bit integers throughout the client, server and database, so no value is lost or wrapped by a 32-bit limit anywhere along the way.
Built for the Long Grind
Players can progress indefinitely without the maths overflowing, keeping the leaderboards meaningful for years rather than months.
Bandwidth Kept in Check
Wider values mean more data to send. Network messages were kept lean so 64-bit progression did not inflate bandwidth costs.
A Lean, Server-Authoritative Backend
Domi's economy depends on players not being able to cheat, and its budget depends on servers that do not cost a fortune to keep running.
Server-Authoritative With FishNet
Gameplay runs on the server, not the client, so players cannot fake results. Networking was led by Brinca, the project's network engineer, who recommended FishNet for the job.
One Server, Full Alpha
All four closed alpha stress tests, with up to 500 players, ran on a single AWS EC2 server in Ireland.
Running Costs First
An MMORPG's servers run constantly, long before it earns money. Keeping the infrastructure small and bandwidth lean meant budget went into the game rather than hosting.
Building the World
David and Adam did not just write the code. They built the world players explore.
10,000+ Interactive Trees
Forests use GPU instancing, and each tree swaps to an interactive stump only when a player chops it. The result runs at 100fps or more on ultra settings on an RTX 3090 and an RTX 4070.
Environment Art and Level Design
Biomes, from dense forests to deserts and snowfields, were built and laid out by the development team itself.
Gameplay Systems
UI, combat, quests and skilling were all designed and built in-house by the same small team.
Keeping a Long-Running Project Current
A multi-year project cannot stay frozen on the Unity version it started on.
Unity 2020 LTS to Unity 6.3
The project was upgraded through every LTS release, from 2020 LTS, 2021 LTS and 2022 LTS to Unity 6 and Unity 6.3.
Upgrades Without Restarting
Each upgrade was done in place on a live, growing codebase. Nothing was rebuilt from scratch.
Lessons for Client Work
The same upgrade experience now informs our legacy modernisation work for clients.
The Results
500 Players on One Server
Four closed alpha stress tests, with up to 500 players, ran on a single EC2 server in Ireland.
10,000+ Trees at 100fps+
Dense, fully interactive forests on ultra settings, on an RTX 3090 and an RTX 4070.
Five Engine Upgrades
The project moved from Unity 2020 LTS to Unity 6.3 without a rebuild.
What the Client Said
Building an MMORPG with four people meant learning to do everything, from networking to environment art. We bring that range to every client project, whether the game is tiny or huge.
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