Any beginner tips on how to create a browser breeding sim similar to wolvden/lioden?

this idea has been swimming around in my mind for months, ever since i started reading the warriors books i wanted to make a breeding sim similar to wolvden/lioden where the animals were cats in the world of warriors.

i have no idea how to even start, or what to do. i'd like to make this a one-person passion project because im mostly making it for myself and i wouldn't want a team because i don't really know how i'd convey my ideas to people and them getting those ideas correct, and i have a low income so i won't be able to pay a full-blown team of coders, illustrators, all that. i've already got the illustrator thing down (im a digital artist, somewhat) but i dont have the coding down or what i should even be doing to start coding.

treat me like a newborn baby that has no idea what coding is, if you'd like to give tips. i've looked online for tips, but every article i read has these words and terms that a person with a bit of coding experience should understand, but i have no coding experience, and looking up the definition of the words overloads my brain with all the info and i have to constantly keep searching up the definition and i keep forgetting. im unable to medicate my adhd, so that's one factor to why looking up how to code has my mind breaking.

i'd also like to point out again that i have very low income, and i would prefer it if everything was either free or had a low cost to it. im living off of food stamps at the moment and the only job i've had since january was selling scent warmers and little wax cubes on facebook, some of yall will know my situation. i have all these ideas and creativity on how things would work but no way to express it clearly, and i really, really want to do this.

please, if you could give some beginner tips i'd really appreciate it! 

I used SoloLearn to learn coding and I heard Khan Academy is a good place for that too.  I’ve similar project ideas to that (mostly recreating games I loved that shut down lol). But I’m in the same spot of not knowing where to even start lol

if you can't code you are a long way off from making a full game. this kind of game is complicated and multifaceted behind the scenes you would need to do these things:

host a server/pay for a server host
learn how HTML and web design works
learning javascript is pretty much mandatory
learn PHP or some server side code and write something that generates HTML pages and serves it to the user
learn SQL or some server side database code that can keep track of things like the site map, items, creatures/pets/colors/genetics/stats and what users have whichever things

somtehing like a web pet game is usually a lot of work from a bunch of different kinds of people that come together and figure out how to most effectively serve someone microtransactions so i would recommend having a smaller goal, like maybe learning how to program a little app in javascript or something that's like a text-based game that keeps track of some creatures genetics and random traits and generates their offspring or something. i would suggest javascript as a first coding language because you have everything you need to code easily available (your browser!)

there are a lot of tutorials for people just startying to learn how to code. this guy teaches javascript with a package that has some graphics stuff built into it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HerCR8bw_GE&list=PLRqwX-V7Uu6Zy51Q-x9tMWIv9cueOFTFA

I am also interested in doing this, if you want to learn or try and develop together, hit me up! 

I’m in the same spot as you except I do have coding experience in Java and HTML(and CSS too) but in the art area i’d be worse. I’ve been thinking about making one with my friend

Hi :D

So I have some experience in this field, because I made my own browser clickgame about wild horses together with my father (he is a very experienced and retired programmer)!

I wanna add some things to what funny wolf guy said! Those are already good points and show how deeply complex and hard work an online game is. To say it short, it is exhausting and unfortunately more exhausting than rewarding... but personally I love the creating part and we only do it for passion and don't need the money, that's why we keep at it. However the stress I'm having due to this is absolutely overwhelming and very bad for my mental health xD

Now let's come to the parts that an online game also needs:

- legal side of a webgame

Which means you need to look up all important laws for internet games/websites. Often you need to have a data privacy policy and, to protect yourself, terms of use. Make sure you also research how it works in other countries, in case you want to cater the game abroad the borders of your country.

Also make sure you don't have any copyright infringements, especially with the theme of warrior cats, I don't know how much that is copyright protected.

This is only a small part of the legal side of the game, there's a lot to read up and it would potentially be good to talk to a lawyer and have one by your side, that you can contact in case of a legal emergency

- financial side

Research about taxes and how the regulations of earning money in your country are. Maybe have someone to help you with taxes! Make sure to find a way to safely let people pay on your website, without the possibility of their data getting stolen. Best is probably to work together with a big corporation like Paypal etc.

Learn how to get paid advertisements on your website and if you want to do that.

- insurance

It would be really good to have an insurance for your webgame, there could be something unexpected be happening which can be extremly expensive. For example data leaks or copyright infringement, lawsuit from a customer... it's not likely but it can happen!

- Marketing

There is a lot to learn, best is to google, read books, articles and watch Youtube videos about it. Unfortunately a good game doesn't sell itself and you have costs for the game every month that need to be covered.

- Community management

It is very important to learn how to communicate with your playerbase, especially if there are some rude people or someone who maybe wants to make trouble or even harm you

- Other things

There are people out there who will want to scam you in many different ways. For example bots that mass register to your website trying to market something or people who want to get things in the game for free or just someone who wants to harm the game and tries to hack it... I've heard even worse things from other developers, for example some user tried to give the developer subscriptions to services that they didn't even order but had to pay for.

There will be a lot of bugs, loopholes in the game and simply bad game mechanics, that need to be fixed and can upset players.

You will face a lot of harsh criticism, even if you do your absolute best. On the other hand, you will also meet wonderful people, that appreciate your work! Still you have to be able to deal with people, who might be very rude, because they feel frustated about the game and don't really know how much hard work and love you as a developer put in there.

My tip: research about these topics on the internet, in books, magazines and on Youtube! There are a lot of helpful Youtube videos out there! Try to search for "Indie development" and you can hear from many different indie developers talking about the ups and downs of their job and giving valuable advice!

I hope this helps you, it is a long and hard journey, but builds up the character! And don't be afraid of failure, you will fail at certain things and things will go wrong, as long as you pull yourself together and work through it, it will get better!

However it will need an immense amount of strength, time and hard work. Try a smaller project first to see if this is something for you and please don't break yourself by working too hard. Take care of yourself <3

thank you all who have replied!! i took your replies into account and I hope that someday before i get to a ripe old age that i'll be able to do this! for now though, i might just stick to making a table-top game xd i know now that games like these take a lot of time and work (wolvden was thought of years ago, somewhere near the time lioden came out and they've been working on it since) but im confident now that with the right type of research, learning, and hard work ill be able to do this or something similar before im 70! 

You might also be interested in running an ARPG like the ones on Deviantart, personally I think they seem kinda hellish to run lol but there seems to be lots of database management (inventory/points/animals/etc), without the coding*, which might appeal to you. Though if you aren't an artist I suppose you'd have to hire one+.

*Not to say you shouldn't learn coding, it's an extremely satisfying skill and not as hard to start as it seems.