How to Create a Virtual Site

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Updated: May 7, 2019

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Today, there's not a whole lot of people who want to create virtual video games, which is overshadowed by the number of people who want to play them. For some help and tips on how to create a virtual site read on!


  1. 1
    Take a minute to sit down and consider some of the following questions: What will the game be called? What is the target audience? Is the cost of making and managing the game manageable? Will there be a market for this game?And how will it work?
  2. 2
    Think about ideas you have and write them down. Give yourself 3 minutes to come up with as many ideas as possible. Write them all down quickly. Remember, ideas are what makes the web spin around.
  3. 3
    Think of a name. A name can make or break a game. Your name should be memorable, but not too hard to spell, say, or remember. Shorter names seem to work better as well, but that’s more of a personal preference.
  4. 4
    Think about your target audience. Many people overlook target audiences. When you design your game you need to keep in mind who actually plays your game. If your game is for young children then you don’t want a game that’s overly complex, hard to navigate through and has few images. Also, take into account your audience’s familiarity with computers and the Internet. A child isn’t likely to be able to understand complex directions or sequences, whereas a hardcore video game addict should have no problem navigating menus and following technical directions. Games made for ages 5-7 should have lots of pictures, big buttons, be easy to play, and have few words to keep younger children interested. There should be lots of games, puzzles, animations, and things to keep kids from getting bored. A suggestion would be using popular cartoon characters as they play the game. Games made for ages 8-17 should have more text, but also a lot of pictures. You want to make sure it’s easy enough for the younger players to get around and play, but hard enough to keep the interest of older players. Most games made for teenagers will automatically attract younger kids and adults at the same time. Adult games have more of a risk. Keeping younger players from seeing what they shouldn’t can be a hassle. For an adult game, you can assume they have decent computer skills and are possibly hardcore gamers. Complexity, strategy and action should play big parts in these games. A mix of all ages is the hardest challenge. Games have to have a mix of easy play, medium play, and hard play for all age levels. You’ll have to manage keeping the attention of all age groups. This usually happens on its own if you have a really popular game because everyone wants to play no matter what his or her age is.
  5. 5
    Think about how you will carry out the costs. Games are inherently expensive. The bigger and more popular your game becomes the more it’ll cost you to keep it up and running. Are you willing to put up the expense of domain names, servers, bandwidth, hardware upgrades, technical support, and so on? A larger game can reach up to 100 thousand members and can cost up to $300 a month just in server costs. That’s over $3,600 a year just to keep the game server online. Then you have to factor in advertising, domain names, and additional expenses such as postage and letterheads and office supplies. Will you be able to carry the costs of the game’s expenses if your game isn’t generating enough revenue to support itself? These are all really important questions. Take the time to research how much it costs to buy a domain, get hosting setup, and any other additional fees you may run into before you start. You may not have a big budget - don’t let that limit you!! There are several things you can do to limit your expenses. Limit the numbers of members who can join your game. This will reduce your bandwidth — the amount of data passed back and forth over the Internet — and will encourage your members to stay active. You can even go through and delete accounts that are inactive after a certain period of time. Limit how many people can play online at a single time. This isn’t the best solution, but sometimes it’s a good option if your game is popular but you don’t have many people that play online at any particular time during the day. Don’t expand your hosting/server needs as your costs increase. If you can’t afford it, then you can’t afford it. Make your members deal with slower response times and hangups. Not great for customer service but at least they can all play. Don’t advertise. This goes against the grain, you make a new game and you really want to share it, but word of mouth is the biggest and best form of advertising out there. The more people that know about your game the more will want to play and the higher your expenses. Make your game a “friends only” game. Limit it to people you know or friends of people you know. If it’s just a game you plan on making as a hobby, something to do in your spare time, this is a great alternative.
  6. 6
    Learn a few programming languages. Some helpful ones will be HTML, CSS, MySQL, and PHP. Go to or to find some good programming language tutorials.
  7. 7
    If you aren't very good at the aspects of development hire a team of people to help you.
  8. 8
    Decide on a type of virtual site. Pet, Fighting, Strategy, and Role Playing are just some ideas.
  9. 9
    Start thinking out some features your game will have. Think of one topic, describe it in one or two sentences, and choose one word or phrase to narrow down on. For example: Game World - Each map in the game is called a map node. There can be an unlimited number of map nodes in the world. Map Node - Each map node has a name and a description. Each map node can have unlimited coordinates. And so on...
  10. 10
    Take a break. It is important to give your hard working mind a good rest. Take a break whenever you need it. You could even take one after every step.
  11. 11
    Work on the details of the features you planned before.
  12. 12
    This is the boring part. Write your terms of service, privacy policy, and rules. This is all the stuff that keeps you and your website safe. Look up the Internet laws and read through each one of them carefully. If you want to, get a copyright and get a sole proprietor or LLC.
  13. 13
    Find a place to host your website. It will probably cost money, but it will usually be cheap. If your site address looks like you will need to buy your own domain. The best addresses are or You can use .com or .net. Pay all needed fees to get the website and register your domain.
  14. 14
    Once you have your website up, start sketching out a design. Your website's design should include a good looking layout, but not be too hard to navigate.
  15. 15
    Write out the different page names. For every page write out what you want to say. Write down what widgets (like a chat room) you want.
  16. 16
    Create each page on your website. Remember the layout shouldn't be too complicated so make sure the layout of each page is the same.
  17. 17
    Using Microsoft Paint or GIMP create all characters, items, and any other pictures you'll need. Save them and put them on your website when/where needed.
  18. 18
    Type your terms of service, rules, and privacy policy on a new page. Make that page invisible and include a link to it on the login page.
  19. 19
    Add a chat room and/or message board. Add any other ways you want your members to interact.
  20. 20
    Go to your website and make sure nothing seems wrong.
  21. 21
    Invite some of your friends and family to become website testers. Give them one month or so to use all the features and report to you suggestions, comments, or problems they have with using them.
  22. 22
    If you want to, put your website on Google, Bing, and/or Yahoo.
  23. 23
    Is your website 100% unique? Chances are no. Go to different virtual sites like yours and join them. See what the competition is, and if you see that someone else had that idea before you, try to change it a bit.
  24. 24
    Wait for members to start coming. Whenever an idea of a new feature pops into your head write it down and when you get the chance, add it!

Community Q&A

Add New Question
  • Question
    Why do you guys take so long to answer a question?
    Community Answer
    A question gets answered if and when someone using the site happens to read it, knows the answer, and wants to write the answer. There is no one specifically assigned to answering the questions here, so there is no guarantee that someone will answer your question and no guarantee that it will happen quickly. If you really need a quick answer, it's best to either find an existing article that addresses the topic, use a search engine to look it up, or ask it on an active online forum on the subject.
  • Question
    What if you want to do it on my own with no help from other companies?
    Community Answer
    You would have to use your computer as a web server, but you would still need either a third party web server program or a third party program to code your own.
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    • Keep a notebook with you in case you get an idea in the middle of the day
    • Include a chat room only admins can view so they can share and discuss ideas.
    • When checking your website check spelling, pages, design and anything else you want.
    • You should include help, contact us, about, news, login, and home in your pages.
    • Ask your testers if they want to be admins. If they say yes give them admin privileges.
    • Have a team of people to write articles on the news page.
    • Ask some people to edit and add to the site too.
    • If you're out of ideas and your website needs something added to keep people coming ask a friend.
    • To keep your site original only join other sites like it to see what the competition is. Not for ideas.
    • Be sure to include all features and ideas when making your site. If you can't think of many ideas or features at the beginning don't worry! Most sites start off at a humble origin and always grow.


    • You could get sued for copying another site.
    • Don't go over your budget!

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    Categories: Creating and Enhancing a Website

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