Website Design and Tech questions?

[justted83]

Hello everyone,

I have an idea in mind for a gaming website in which I would like to have it so that the following is included:

I would like each member to be able to sign up and have their own profile page which include music, blogs, details, inbox and message facility, photo uploads, profile background editing, etc.

I would also like to have it so there is a point system in place in which members can earn points for various things they do on the site like when playing games, for logging in, and to be able to exchange points between each other when buying objects, etc

I would also like to set up a system that gives members a title and also to have access rights for each title.

I would want to have some sort of thing in place so members can choose a place on a map where the would want their profile to be accessed. (Kind of like a house map i suppose)

How would I go about doing this? The idea I have is quite involved and I know it would be a large project for someone/a company to take on.

Im not sure what type of programmer I would need to contact. PHP/FLASH etc ??? Could anyone help?

[sdesigns]

You would need a very talented PHP programmer, or team of programmers - what your asking for is more complicated than it sounds i would imagine.

Look at some of the social networking software that is available, these might do the same thing and save you a fortune !

[kinster]

Not complicated at all and it don't have to be php. Check out www.yoyogames.com

[Martin]

If you take a look at the Drupal CMS - most of what you require is available by way of Plugins.

It shouldn't be too hard for a developer to tac any other bits on.

http://www.drupal.org

Regards,

Martin

[jagalaw2]

It does depend which way you decide you want to go, there are two main routes really. Either way you will need a programmer or alternatively start learning.

1) Modify an exististing content management system such as drupal that was suggested by Martin you can find a range of them here: http://www.opensourcecms.com/

2) Contract a web developer or team to completely code your site from the ground up.

First option is obviously the cheaper as you might be able to do alot of the work yourself and just get a developer to do more of the tricky thngs. The second option will be the most expensive and if you can't find a decent uni student that wants smething for the portfolio a project like yours could quite easily be in the thousands...

Best way to go imo would be mainly a php site with a mysql backend (because i'm not a windows whore) with some flash thrown in to liven it up..

Just my two pence worth.. Personaly i'm coding my site up from scratch.. as there wasn't a cms that would do the job well enough.. Ah the joys..

[richardh]

Originally posted by jagalaw2
... as there wasn't a cms that would do the job well enough.. Ah the joys..

Hehe: there never is!

[justted83]

Wow thanks for all the feedback.

I am keen to pay for someone to do it (or a team of people) but im not sure how I would go about finding the people. Id also be worried about someone stealing the idea if they were working on my project.

Im leaving the navy oin october and will be looking at going into IT as I will have 6 weeks of resettlement time and also a certain budget to spend on training courses. Im not sure that I could learn something like PHP in that time though as I know its pretty difficult to do. lol However, I will be very keen to have an active role in the building of the website.

So do I just contact a website design business or do I try and advertise somewhere that specialises more in this kind of thing.

Thank you all so much for the replies and help.