[bladedtoys]

This sounds like great fun, especially having a nice front end.

I built something similar on google app engine way back when it was new and cheap. It was browser based so more text than cool graphics. And I didn't get to play with shaders.

It may sound dry but I was thrilled with the challenges of coding for NoSQL BigTable and its promises of cheap scalability. It was a fun project.

[opticfluorine]

This really resonates with me. My big motivator has always been the challenge of all the different technical details. Persistence was certainly a fun one, though I stuck with a RDBMS instead of going the NoSQL route.

It's why I'm making an open source engine instead of focusing on making a single game - I can work on whatever tech problem I find interesting at the moment, and eventually (I hope) others who are more interested in the creative side will be able to build off of the engine and create their own games. My first run-in with MMOs was back in the day when there were lots of random MMO engines written in Visual Basic 6, and the indie MMO community back in those days was amazing.