Thousands log on to magical game created by pupils

January 12, 2016

Deadly arrow rain and fire tornados are among the amazing powers which have attracted more than 3,000 people worldwide to play a new computer game created by schoolboys.

Olympia RPG is a mind-blowing roleplay game, painstakingly built in Minecraft by a dedicated team of four pupils from Monmouth School.

Thousands of lines of complicated code have been written by the teenagers over the last year to make their virtual world ready for gamers across the globe.

From Scandinavia to Australia, Minecraft fans have been logging on to the boys’ server to become either a magical Sorcerer, Wildsman, Outcast or heavyweight Vanguard.

Sam, Matthew, both 16, James and James B, 17, welcomed players into the colourful land of Olympia – which features 320 biomes – around six months ago.

“The world we have created is completely unique,” Sam said.For

“At least 3,000 lines of code have been written on top of the already-existing Minecraft game.

“Our players start off as Level 1 nobodies, then gain points by fighting and killing their enemies. Once they reach Level 5 they can choose one of our RPG classes, each with their own set of unique skills.

“There are 107 different abilities; Sorcerers will be able to conjure ice at their fingertips, and a Wildsman can summon feline companions to battle alongside them.

“The Outcasts, or thieves, are stealthier and lurk in the shadows to stalk their enemies.

“There’s a lot of maths involved – coding is like learning another language.”

People from Germany, Asia, all over America and the UK have been logging on to take on the exciting challenges in Olympia, on all sorts of terrains including desert, forest, sandy beaches and built up cities.

The boys have even ensured Olympians have their own dynamic economy, and that players are able to build their own towns and communities within the game.

Gamers are free to play as they wish, whether they want to wander the wilderness alone and penniless, or make enough money to create their own community.

It has taken countless hours of complex work throughout the summer holidays and after school to finally open Olympia up to the world.

Matthew said: “It’s amazing to see people building towns.

“The most exciting part of running the server was when we started it off and all these towns began springing up.

“Buildings were popping up all over the place, it was incredible.

“We’ve made friends all over the world through the game.”

Building Olympia has been complementary to the boys’ school work, and they hope universities will look favourably upon the game when they apply to study computer science next year.

“It’s such an excellent learning activity,” Sam, who hopes to land a job in programming, added.

“Computing is such a great subject and the stuff you do at home, like this, is all effectively homework.”

Lyndsay Hope, head of computing at Monmouth School, runs monthly Hyperlocal sessions for budding coders from all over South Wales.

The coding days at Monmouth School enable children to meet likeminded friends and develop their skills to create everything from apps to websites and games.

Mrs Hope said: “I think it’s really exciting to see students turning their programming skills to build a game that’s being played by roleplay game players all over the world.”

The next Hyperlocal session will be on January 16.

Click here to find out more about Olympia RPG.