Listing Your MUD

MUDs that get onto Mudlet's default profiles list are those that go the extra mile to add a great gaming experience for their players on Mudlet.

Player experience

The point of Mudlet is to give the players a better experience to play MUDs with; otherwise you might as well open up PuTTY. Decades of experience has shown that players appreciate having a built-in map, speedwalking, a nice overhead interface with vital statistics and other information, and a tabbed chat is quite popular as well, so that is listed in the requirements below*.

Midnight Sun 2 is an example of one such game – check out their Mudlet integration. For good non-Mudlet examples of interfaces check out the web players for IRE games.

The exact steps to getting your MUD listed are:

1. Get in touch with us to let us know you'll be working on this: we'll help guide you through the process.
2. Ensure your MUD enables GA by default for Mudlet players - this means that the N: field bottom-right will be filled in with a number. This is important because a very useful function for making Mudlet scripts, isPrompt(), relies on that working.
   1. Send IAC GA at the end of every prompt, or whenever you're done sending data, to do this (LPC example).
3. Ensure that the Mudlet mapper works with your MUD. As every MUD is different, the built-in mapper needs help with tracking the player and recognising rooms. We recommend adapting the Generic Mapper Script for your MUD which is designed to work both cases where room numbers are available to players (easiest for tracking where you are) and also for cases where they aren't.
   1. Include a map of the newbie area at minimum. We understand that there is adventure to be had in exploration, so of course you don't need to provide a map of the whole world - but new players must have the lowest entry bar possible to your game, and having a mapped out newbie area is one way to achieve that. You can get a map into Mudlet either via MMP or via downloadFile() + loadMap().
4. Include an interface that tracks the players vital stats (health, mana, ...) at minimum and has the Mudlet mapper included. Some ideas for getting started are Geyser UI Template or the Drag and Drop framework (link).
   1. Optionally, include a tabbed chat for your MUD. Players find it very helpful when communications are separately available in a window as text often scrolls off the screen.
5. Lastly, ensure your scripts get installed, and stays updated, by utilising the GMCP extension Mudlet makes use of.

When all is said and done, get in touch and after a successful review your MUD will be included in the next version of Mudlet.

Tip: if your game is ROM-based, you can easily add GMCP support with Greg's snippet.

* Do you feel that your game doesn't fit this criteria? Remember that the point of Mudlet is to give the players a better experience to play MUDs with - so if you'd like to do something different, we're happy to listen. Get in touch and explain what you could offer instead, so we can try to see and work something out.

Contribution to project

We do not take financial contributions for getting a MUD listed within Mudlet, however you can use the funds to achieve the experience point above by hiring someone to do the work for you! Consider asking for interest on the forums. It's not out of the question that a core Mudlet developer would be able to help you with this.

Many existing MUDs on the list are those that helped the project out during its nascent stages and deserve a special mention for doing so.