BYOND Strategy Tech Tree: 151

Liron Pe'er has released an animated short film inspired by Disney works called Lady Ice.  It was originally a project created for the Animation program at Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Israel, but she continued to work on it after graduating.  She's currently looking for a job.  Check it out on YouTube or her deviantART page.

Also, congratulations to Daniel Steger for releasing Mega Monster Mania on the Xbox Live Marketplace.  I was a fan of the developer logs.  I found them more interesting than gameplay videos with random music or silence.

Tech Tree is a list of links about developer activity in BYOND Strategy, a guild run by unpaid volunteers on a game/development portal and software engine called BYOND.  Those curious about notes or YouTube videos I've cut out can view the original version.

Unknown Person has updated his turn-based tactical fantasy, Ultimatum.  Bugs were fixed and the interface was slightly updated.  Meanwhile, a new map, called Whirl, was created for quick 6-player matches.

EGUY has updated his tile-laying game, Deus Rex, multiple times this week.  His goal is to have 16 tiles of each category implemented in addition to whatever bonus tiles are required to negate the possibility of a turn order advantage.  There have been interface changes as well, but I'd lose the game spam box and give the space to chat.  Previous changes already made the spam superfluous.

Ganing released multiple updates to his base defense game, Seika SE.  I'm unaware of all of the changes.  However, a help file was definitely added.  I could insert a rant about inappropriately centered text, but I suppose the important part is that new players now have a chance to learn how to play.

Acebloke has announced and implemented portions of the next update to his military/economic simulation, Wargames.  Among bug fixes and interface changes, players can expect new buildings, a limit on soldiers and the possibility of nuclear chain reactions.  Overall, the goal has been to increase the economic side of the game.

Acebloke also announced the results of February's AceMedalTable.

Tsfreaks is still working on MRTS.  The AI has been updated.  Meanwhile, he has hired someone to help develop "the perfect marriage between the 1 hour RTS and a persistent multi-player world".  I'm not sure if this new project is associated with either BYOND or Tsfreak's team, PopLava.

Vexonator lost the source for his authorized version of Kunark's tactical fantasy, Surreal Dreams.  Unfortunately, the latest backup he has is multiple updates behind.  He won't be caught up for at least a few weeks.

I released a minor interface update for my daemonic battle of adaptable units, Flesh and Drone.  Meanwhile, I've been implementing the tactical mutant battle it helped inspire, Genetic Fork.  I don't have a mock-up prepared, but I've just about settled on the graphics.  I'm now working on the initial turn phases.