BYOND and Within #27

Farewell to one of the best game news blogs there ever was, GameSetWatch.  Overlapping content with improving sources have made it redundant.  Simon Carless, Eric Caoili and Danny Cowan offered their memories on the site.  Recently separated contributor Matthew Hawkins offered his own.

Due to upcoming BYOND changes, I'm thinking my own writing contributions shall be obsolete as well.  Granted, the Gamasutra reposts never served much purpose in the first place.  Frell, I just bid farewell to a blog on its own sister site!

When I wrote Along The Tech Tree, it served to bring readers into the official BYOND Strategy guild.  When guilds were phased out, BYOND and Within at least offered a way to avoid wading through the recent blogs for game news.  With the next version of the site, that news will be found in the top posts of dedicated forums.  There will even be a place for the events I mention in the external links section.

A portion of my unpaid volunteer work has been automated and, though some may mourn the loss of my questionable charm, that's not a bad thing.  Maybe I'll even *GASP* manage to release a game again!

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 recorded a small podcast episode, fixed some bugs and held a Cyber Monday sale, but their most important news probably involves the NEStalgia update they've been previewing.  While the MORPG's balance changes might have to wait, the new version is now live with a gamepad mode, interface improvements and more.

According to PC Gamer, it's a new indie hero.

After screenshot and video previews, Oasiscircle has released a beta version of Chicken Feat.  Run around, collect eggs and return them to your nest before time runs out.  Go earn a spot in the standings while Eksadus adds audio.

Chris Gayle and Zane444 have released an early demo of a wave-based platform shooter called Chromium.  The key configuration is described in the announcement.  The duo's colonial creature-channeling MORPG, Spirit Age, is still in progress.

Acebloke has updated his military/economic sim Wargames.  Highlights include rebalanced research, options for alliance leaders and in-game meanings for political ideologies.  Another update revealed that video tutorials are on the way.  Perhaps they'll help you win subscriptions in future contest rounds.  (Gratz, Myrin.)

Acebloke's multiplayer zombie rush Survive This has also been patched with manual barricade placement in non-survival modes and interface improvements.

Nefarious Development have posted screenshots and a video of their MORPG Prism.  The latter is a demonstration of the inventory/equipment system and HUD anchors.  The rendered 3D models and isometric perspective appear to be working well for them. =)

AlexandraErin is again back from hiatus to work on her MORPG RetroQuest with a newly simplified talent tree.  Inspired by Terraria's sandbox, the world will contain a mix of static towns and procedurally generated environments.  Screenshots are available, but the comments state that they're a bit outdated.

With the help of ExPixel and Unwanted4murder, Kumorii has been rebuilding the zombie shooter Feed.  Apparently, the old team drifted apart.  This screenshot and more can now be found in a dedicated forum thread.

Beyond BYOND