BYOND and Within #25

I didn't dress up for Halloween.  I haven't in years.  Children didn't roam my street looking for candy.  I can't remember the last time they did.

I wasted time in Bloodline Champions in order to wring some use out of the in-game costume I was offered.  However, I grew tired of grinding for coins while trolls were allowed to cancel matches.

I could have enriched my mind with the wonders of the universe instead.  I should have.  But I feared it would eat my soul!

This edited version of BYOND and Within comes to you from an unpaid volunteer using a game/development portal and software engine called BYOND.  Rather than play suggestions, the column focuses on recent developer activity.

Within BYOND

Silk Games released a podcast episode and two updates for their retro MORPG NEStalgia.  The latter include large lists of bug fixes and balance tweaks to smooth over the changes brought by the previous update's skill trees.

Brettpenzer released a demo and multiple updates for a platformer called BlockWorld.  Players are invited to toggle the platform layout during mid-jump as they attempt to reach highlighted destinations in roughly 20 single-screen levels.  Thus far I've only really succeeded in having time run out while I bump my head on the ceiling. ;)

Responding to D-Cire's recently finished contest to create a school-related demo, library or game, GreatFisher released and twice updated a demo for Another Day At School.  It's a puzzle adventure.  At one point I wondered whether the school was just window dressing for a scary tale.  Then I ran into a timed set of equations and realized I might be SAVING THE WORLD WITH MATH!

Timing the release before Halloween, Acebloke added a year's worth of updates to his multiplayer zombie rush SurviveThis!  Amongst a plethora of bug fixes, changes and new features, what stands out to me are the earmuffs subscribers can wear to drown out the zombie noises.  =)

Vexonator released multiple bug fixes for Surreal Dreams.  Finding out the specifics again involves delving into the game's forum.  There's even videos.  Screw specifics.  I want more feedback like that in BYOND games.

Also posting a video, Bravo1 has made progress on the movement and collision of Chasm.  The platformer has been redesigned to be a blend of metroidvania and Phantasy Star Online-style MORPG.  Meanwhile, Bravo1's team-based vehicular combat title Tanx has been undergoing a conversion to use BYOND's native pixel movement.

Oasiscircle has continued to post videos of his lane-marching RTS Corsair.  Progress has been made on buildings, resource management and user-defined unit groups.  Corsair and other projects were discussed in his interview with Enzuigiri for DM Blog.

Forum_account was interviewed by EnigmaticGallivanter for the Journalism guild.  The creator of A Miner Adventure discussed his various libraries, the upcoming Tiny Heroes and his work outside of BYOND.  More recently, Forum_account has been posting a series of programming tips.

Higoten ran a tournament for the DMcast involving WildBlood's RTS Omnipotence.  Congratulations to Frostbeard65 for being the last god standing and recipient of a free BYOND membership.  The full list of participants and accomplishments can be found here.

I finally attempted to participate in Screenshot Saturday.  However, it appears the website only grabs from Twitter so the Google+ hashtag is limited to its social network.

Anyway, my post includes the map generation algorithm in the action adventure I've been slowly working on (and off).  Most of my recent effort has actually involved the overworld, but there was a minor change to the upper cliffs which I think fares better than the previous squiggles.

Beyond BYOND