I have always wanted to build my own online game. However my understanding of programming langagues are limited and I will almost never get to do it with other langagues. BYOND represent perhapes my best hope. However, I still have some questions remaining.
1. Can I set my game on my own server? How is it done?
2. Can I complie my code to run without Dream Seeker on the
client side?
3. Is there support from graphic maker? I do not have
talent in graphics.
4. From the games I have tried, Byond seems to run rather
slow, possibly due to internet factors. Can the
programming be done to reduce the lag in graphical games?
I am in two minds about BYOND. I hope my persisence in asking questions do not offend anyone.
Thanks in advance.
ID:138246
 Dec 23 2000, 4:06 am
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2. Can I complie my code to run without Dream Seeker on the client side? Just touching onto that a little, the Dream Seeker is actually a useful tool. Not only that, but it provides a familiar interface for playing games. On a side note, I heard Dantom saying something about releasing a .dll so that you could make up your own clients to distribute, but that was either something Tom said to get us to shut up, or a dream I had. Probably the last. =) Tom has, however, been planning on letting us specify designer-specified custom configurations for the arrangement of the windows on the Dream Seeker whenever a client logs in. He's just a little confused on the details about coming up with a good notation (with good cause! I've drawn up a couple ideas myself for posts but scrapped them when I found flaws). 4. From the games I have tried, Byond seems to run rather Again, piping in when not really necessary, the current BYOND server isn't, well, designed for megagames, to put it frankly. It's supportive of large bandwidth but it isn't equipped with intensive processors to perform complex calculations in games such as those. As it is, any world runs excellently when by itself, even hosted off a 56K modem... I know this because I ran SpaceTug, Guy T's baby, on the desktop PC that I'm typing on right now. I hosted 4 other players, and my 650 MHz processor was slightly taxed but not anywhere close to being overwhelmed. As for my modem, my bandwidth was fine; I was reading up on my email at the same time, without any major slowdown. So, if you were to get your own server your game would work like a dream. If you got a powerful server, your game would work like a reality... I hope you'll stick around! I think I speak for everyone when I say that we ALL hope you'll stick around... | |
You are exactly the kind of person that Dantom created this tool for, so hopefully we can make it work for you. (Uh, by we I mean the community here...I'm not a member of Dantom itself because I have the wrong name.)
Yes -- it's very simple, you just run dreamdaemon program that comes with the download and tell it to start up your game.
Nope. This is a requirement for desktop games.
However, given BYOND's web capabilities, you can create web-based games that don't require the client.
Do you mean from an artist, or are you talking about a program of some sort?
I sympathize as I also don't have natural artistic talent. I'd suggest what I do: use whatever you can from other sources, and in the meantime work to find someone who can work with you on the art. If you look at Living & Dead you'll notice that the art sucks because I did it; if you look at DragonSnot you'll notice (I hope!) that the art is quite nice, because Guy T did it.
My other suggestion is to try working with some 3D programs. I have found it's much easier to create art in 3D than by drawing it.
Here are some resources for you:
DerDragon's BYOND icons. An archive of 100s of BYOND .dmi graphics, some of which are quite nice.
Art Today. An excellent free/paying site for icons that I use all the time. I typically take the icons and tweak with them in Paintshop Pro, which is a great app to get if you want to do graphics.
Amorpheum. An incredible, simple 3D graphics app that Guy turned me onto. Very intuitive and easy to use -- you mold a block of clay into the thing you want. This is mostly useful for organic shapes. Guy used it for the DragonSnot logo, and he got an effect out of it that would be just about impossible in a traditional 3D app.
Blender. This is a totally free, fully functional 3D drawing application. It is not simple, but there are a lot of tutorials on the web (and I can explain a few things). This app gives you for free what others charge hundreds of dollars for. It's really great. I've done a lot of my recent art using this.
Also, if you are interested in an Anime look, there are lots of websites around where you can download the RPG Maker icons, which work quite well with BYOND.
Yes there is much you can do to improve the efficiency of a game. If you are interested in providing your own server, and that server is dedicated to your BYOND game, then there is no reason that your game can't be about as lag-free as is possible to make an internet game.
Given that BYOND is just now getting its first real tests of sustained player usage, Dantom is getting their first chance to see areas where they can make improvements to reduce lag within the system. You can expect to see a number of continuing improvements in this area (as some of our discussion elsewhere right now shows).
However, as is probably obvious to you, BYOND is not a system to try to create Quake levels of responsiveness in. That's not what it's designed for.
You are asking good questions and we're happy to answer.
I think it's easy to say that BYOND is the best system you will find to learn to create games. Even if you eventually moved to another system (and I suspect you wouldn't but who knows!) this is a perfect tool and a perfect community for you to learn with. Many people think they are going to just jump in and create the game of their dreams the first time...the reality is that you first have to put together some not-so-good games as you learn how to program and what the tricks are for making things work the way you want.
After you do that once or twice, then you tend to be ready to create the game you want. That's certainly been true for me.
I'd like to throw in another mention of BYOND's web integration...because there is a browser within the game, you can provide complex, comprehensive interfaces within the browser. This is quite powerful, and not available in other desktop game systems that I'm aware of.
I hope you'll stick around!