Re: Developing from scratch
Challenged in a good way, or a bad way? I found the first year really hard to keep motivated - I actually stopped working my mud a couple of times, and nearly gave up completely, as I just didn't feel that I was making any progress. But once I had enough in place to start bringing in playtesters it got a lot easier.
I think this is one of the areas where it can be really beneficial to start out with an existing codebase, even if it's something barebones - NakedMUD, ColdMUD, LPMud, etc. These can all speed up the initial development without forcing lots of unwanted features on you, allowing you to get something available for playtesting before the honeymoon phase wears off.
It wasn't so bad with Gladiator Pits, as the mud was pretty small, and I was able to finish it off within a few months. But when it takes longer than that, that's when most scratch-written muds seem to start dragging their heels - muds such as The Cathyle Project or The Inquisition II, which showed incredible promise, but ground on so long that their developers lost interest.
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