Games which meet these standards shall undergo a final review by the guild staff before being featured. The staff can be made aware of games which meet these standards by posting in the forum. However, they are volunteers so please make use of this list before taking up their time. Likewise, please accept that it may take a while to complete a review session.
- Games must meet the submission guidelines and be accepted into the guild.
- The content of a featured game must belong to the game's developer or be used with the permission of the content's legal owner. No unauthorized fan creations are allowed.
- Featured games must be in a playable state. Development may continue while a game is featured, but the updated features must not be necessary to play. There can be temporary bugs, but they are expected to be fixed.
- Games intended for multiple players should have basic chat options and methods for seeing who is on a server.
- Documentation must be provided either in the game or on the hub.
- State the winning and losing conditions of the game.
- Describe the mechanics of the game. List the actions that may be taken in chronological order. Use your best judgment for actions that do not have such time restrictions.
- Describe how to use non-obvious interface elements of the game. The definition of "obvious" shall be left up to the staff, but use your best judgment. While it is a viable option, these descriptions need not be mixed in with the descriptions of the mechanics. Simple instructions next to your interface elements like "click one of these links to do this" are fine. Besides, the less players have to read at once, the less likely they are to be confused.
- Provide a reference for all pieces (units, technology tree branches, etc.) in the game. If players do not know what things are then they can not form plans. If they can not form plans then it is not a strategy game. The following might be exceptions:
- Puzzle elements in single player games, such as boss characters.
- As these games are meant to represent the best of BYOND, presentation is key.
- Format your help files so that they are easy to read. Do not center the text of entire pages. Do not use walls of text. Avoid random line breaks.
- Minimize your use of verb panels. BYOND currently supports alternatives, such menus, buttons, and even screen objects. They usually look more professional. The following might be exceptions:
- Administrative commands because of the low number of people who shall see them.
- Text-based games where the retro commands are part of the style.
- Games with so many dynamically available verbs that a menu could not reasonably display them. The term "reasonably" shall be defined by the staff.
- In games with multiple players, make the messages of your players easy to distinguish from the messages of the game. For instance, different CSS styles can make different lines of text stand out and using different outputs can separate them completely. However, long prefixes are usually not a solution on their own. The difference should be easy to distinguish at a glance and, possibly, even from a distance.
- Pop-up windows themselves are fine. However, avoid hiding something behind a window and then forcing players to make comparisons between the window and that hidden section. People should be playing the game rather than memorizing temporary information.
- These two posts offer some more interface tips.