BYOND Featured Games List

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ID:1960061
 
Oct 14 2015, 2:23 am (Edited on Aug 19 2016, 12:58 am)

Poll: Should there be a Featured Games list?

Yes 73% (28)
No 26% (10)

Login to vote.

Every time I visit this site and I see that front page of games, I am revolted by all the clutter that is taking up the space of quality professional games and(if I am being totally honest) it is very discouraging. The front page is the most important place in this entire site for new developers and players. It is the first impression they will get of BYOND as a whole and therefore it should feature the very best this site has to offer, not a long list of "rips" and unoriginal, unprofessional games( sorry if it sounds crude, but that's honestly what most of them are in my opinion).

What I suggest is that there is a featured list of games displaying the best we currently have to offer. This list can either be assembled by a moderator or even by a simple vote of current active developers.

I know I am not a veteran developer here but after doing some extensive research and going through and playing most of the games, here's my suggestion of what I mean:


Basically something similar to this to highlight and expose the top 10 or 15 of BYOND's best games. I personally would set up this list as follows:

1. NEStalgia- The obvious choice for #1 is Nestalgia. This is the most successful and professional game there is here, this is what every single new developer should aspire to achieve; They simply just did everything right and single-handedly gave this engine new life as far as respect and recognition goes.

2. SS13- The game with the biggest cult following. Although the game looks horrendous it seems to have a very powerful fan base and niche.( I personally couldn't bring myself to play it for more than a couple minutes)

3. Eternia:Roleplay- Arguably the second most successful game here. It has beautiful art, a rich lore and it seems like a lot of time and effort was put into developing the RP community it has developed.

4. Teridal- From what I've seen and heard, this game is a legend here and I can clearly see why. Although it is old it has some of the most professional and extensive work put into any game on this site. The art is nice and uniformed, the interface is beautiful and the amount of content can go on forever.

5. Decadence- Beautiful artwork, one of the more professional games here and it seems to have been very popular in its days. I think if this game made use of some of the features the engine has now and with enough exposure it could really take off.

6. Spirit Age- By far the most beautiful game this site has ever produced and probably will produce for a long time. Although there isn't a lot of content in the small demo, the work that is currently in the game is very professional and more importantly it has actual industry potential. The systems in the game are smooth and well executed barring a few bugs. My biggest question is why the moderation and developers of this site didn't make a bigger effort to try and expose this game to the masses. As of right now I couldn't find this game anywhere in the front page no matter how much I scrolled down. That's just a crime... It is no wonder that it was discontinued and moved on somewhere else.

7. Manacept- I think this game is an absolute gem that not a lot of people have even heard of. It is truly one of the most enjoyable and well put together games on here; The idea is unique for a card game, the execution was done almost to perfection with a flawless deck customization, easy to learn game-play and cute and captivating artwork. With a bit more polish and exposure I honestly think this game has one of the highest potentials out of any game on this site.

8. Feval- Another game that is a legend around here. This game seems to have been ahead of its time(as far as BYOND games go). This is the sort of quick game-play and competitiveness that could really benefit from the web-client.

9,10. I have left this up for discussion since there's many that could go here. Some suggestions I would put here are games like Hazordhu(crazy amount of content), Rise Of The Pirates(again, ridiculous amount of content), Sigrogana Legend 2(probably the game with the most content), one of Yut Put's games(I can't really say since they were mostly P2P and the ones that weren't were really just sub-par with minimal content) and Feed(very smooth and professionally made) by Kumorii.

I was originally going to put this in Feature Requests but I figured this would be better discussed here to see if there's enough support. Feel free to tell me if you agree or disagree with this list or post your own top 10 list- This way we can narrow down the games that should be featured. Let's see if we can make this happen!
Oct 14 2015, 2:54 am
I agree that when someone loads BYOND they should see the original and best BYOND has to offer. However I also believe all games should be easily viewable by the user.

Untitled

This is honestly dreadful to look at and could have been handled better. I apologize however because I don't have an idea for a replacement that would be better.
Oct 14 2015, 6:59 am
We used to have a "featured game" header that was lost during a site revamp. It was one of my favorite features. That and the monthly featured game promotions.

Feed - Game of the month of September, nevar forget!11!

EDIT: Wayback machine!
Oct 14 2015, 9:22 am
In response to Pokemon Entertainment
I don't like how they removed the anime tag from that, most people come to this site to play anime games and now you wouldn't even know they exist, unless you were searching for a specific game
Oct 14 2015, 11:55 am
Featured game lists only help the popular games get more popular. 1% issue right there.
Oct 14 2015, 12:47 pm (Edited on Oct 14 2015, 2:00 pm)
@Pokemon Entertainment- I don't really see much of a problem with that, I don't think that is used often anymore since the Anime tag was taken out. It could probably be a bit annoying to use if you're on a mobile device though.

@Kumorii- That is actually probably an even better idea. To have a monthly featured game could help expose games that otherwise no one would even know of and it can be a great incentive for developers to work and compete with each other for that spot. Although I think this should be added on top of the Featured List I proposed. The point of the list is to showcase the most professional games we have and to push back the current garbage there is on the front-page now.

@Zagros5000- I don't really have a problem with anime and fan games, as long as they are professional and represent this site properly. However, that's usually not the case 99% of those games are just a complete mess and honestly it gives BYOND a bad name. The only one I could think of is Pokemon Z by Zete.

@Lugia319- I disagree, the point of the list I proposed is to do the opposite. Again, the point is to showcase quality games(no matter how popular) and to drive back the current crap there is on the front page now. How it's actually setup right now is exactly what you're saying, the most popular games with the most support are featured on the front page. As you can see from my list most of them are not popular, or at least not anymore.

@Yut Put- Again, the reason for the Featured List is to push back the current crap there is on the front page. Having just one game featured, wont really do much for that cause. I do think there should be a featured monthly game like Kumorii mentioned, but that should just be an addition to this list.
Also you don't have to agree with my selection, you can make your own. Ideally I think the selection should be assembled by the vote of current developers. But to refuse to recognize that Spirit Age's beauty and potential is probably the best we have ever had here, is a bit ignorant. This is probably the reason why they moved somewhere else, the lack of support and probably bitterness and jealousy of your peers here. We should be encouraging each other not trying to bring each other down because of our own insecurities.
Oct 14 2015, 1:20 pm
http://www.byond.com/forum/?post=1959510

We already have a featured list monthly it's called within byond o.O rite?
Oct 14 2015, 1:20 pm
In response to Exentriks Gaming
They moved elsewhere cause they failed as game devs, you can't build a game off solely art.
Oct 14 2015, 1:23 pm
In response to Ghost of ET
Ghost of ET wrote:
http://www.byond.com/forum/?post=1959510

We already have a featured list monthly it's called within byond o.O rite?

I like the idea you proposed there, although I think each category should have its own 3-5 featured games in there to showcase the best in each category. Within BYOND is an initiative to expose development but it doesn't achieve what I'm proposing here.
Oct 14 2015, 1:29 pm (Edited on Oct 14 2015, 1:48 pm)
In response to Zagros5000
Zagros5000 wrote:
They moved elsewhere cause they failed as game devs, you can't build a game off solely art.

I disagree, I think that game set a new standard for games here, not just with art but with the systems and overall scale and ambition of the project( you will be surprised how often I hear people reference Spirit Age when talking about things they want in their game). That in itself is not a failure under no circumstance, people just tend to focus on whether it was completed and whether it had good repertoire within the site. There's a reason why the game has as much fans as it does and as much support from players as it did. It just seemed like the developers here tried their hardest to bring the game down for whatever selfish reason and overlooked all the incredible things it was achieving- I don't think that can ever be called a failure.
Oct 14 2015, 1:41 pm
What if instead of showcasing games(because let's face it - we'd be out of games to showcase after a month), we showcased the latest developer news. We have a lot more of that going on and its what most indie game portals do.
Oct 14 2015, 1:45 pm
In response to Kumorii
Well that's kind of what Within BYOND is doing. My list wouldn't change often though, it would be a simple Top 10 list and it would only change by popular demand within the developer community.
Oct 14 2015, 1:46 pm (Edited on Oct 14 2015, 1:53 pm)
In response to Kumorii
Kumorii wrote:
(because let's face it - we'd be out of games to showcase after a month)

Unfortunately, this was very much so the case when I was doing the Featured Game of the Month series a few years ago. The goal was to talk about upcoming/newly released games, but after about four months I had already made my way through all of the games to feature.

Exentriks Gaming wrote:
My list wouldn't change often though, it would be a simple Top 10 list and it would only change by popular demand within the developer community.

The issue with this (which more or less ties to the previous issue) is that the list would always stay the same. Three or four site iterations ago, we had a featured games list of our best content and the list never once changed, because nothing even came close to meeting the criteria. All of the games on the featured games list were already the ones with the highest players as well, so giving them more exposure than they already had wasn't really helpful.
Oct 14 2015, 1:53 pm (Edited on Oct 14 2015, 1:58 pm)
In response to LordAndrew
LordAndrew wrote:

The issue with this (which more or less ties to the previous issue) is that the list would always stay the same. Three or four site iterations ago, we had a featured games list of our best content and the list never once changed, because nothing even came close to meeting the criteria.

That's fine, that's actually the point of this; The point is to showcase the Top 10 most professional games BYOND has to offer. It would actually be better if the list doesn't change often, it's just there to showcase the best that we have( unless another great game comes along, it shouldn't need to be changed). As I mentioned, it would just help with the first impression people get when they come here, as of right now it's just a bunch of Dragon Ball Z and mediocre garbage.

edit: I mean the best game we have(NEStalgia), isn't even visible unless you scroll down. It's a crime that after how much that game has done for this site, that the developers and moderators aren't making a bigger effort to return the favor and help them out.
Oct 14 2015, 2:09 pm
In response to Exentriks Gaming
Exentriks Gaming wrote:
LordAndrew wrote:

The issue with this (which more or less ties to the previous issue) is that the list would always stay the same. Three or four site iterations ago, we had a featured games list of our best content and the list never once changed, because nothing even came close to meeting the criteria.

That's fine, that's actually the point of this; The point is to showcase the Top 10 most professional games BYOND has to offer. It would actually be better if the list doesn't change often, it's just there to showcase the best that we have( unless another great game comes along, it shouldn't need to be changed). As I mentioned, it would just help with the first impression people get when they come here, as of right now it's just a bunch of Dragon Ball Z and mediocre garbage.

edit: I mean the best game we have(NEStalgia), isn't even visible unless you scroll down. It's a crime that after how much that game has done for this site, that the developers and moderators aren't making a bigger effort to return the favor and help them out.

Nes is love Nes is life.
Oct 14 2015, 2:12 pm
My vote goes towards 0-bit or coma simulator 2014
Oct 14 2015, 3:57 pm
In response to Zagros5000
I fully agree, some of us are serious about our fan-game love and anime love. Tis the reason I came to BYOND in the first place.
Oct 14 2015, 3:59 pm
I wasn't talking about putting anime/fan games on the front page lol, i was just saying it's kinda dumb how they made the tag invisible
Oct 14 2015, 4:00 pm
That's what I'm responding to lol.
Oct 14 2015, 4:01 pm
I was responding to Extenrik
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