A lot of work needs to be done before, during and after the creation of a game in BYOND. This goes especially if you have plans to write sequels to your games. I myself am working on an RPG for BYOND called Isorath. Isorath is only part one in a series of four RPG’s set in the “World of Evalon”. Aside from the game itself, there are also add-ons like the online character viewer, the game Lobby and any secret future tidbits, all of which require access to core aspects of the game itself.

When designing the initial game systems, the design decision to split up the core components of the game into a stand alone library was made. To allow for easier bug fixing, updating and future releases using the game engine.

Splitting the core components of the game into its own library allows for easier updating of key system components spread across multiple games. Same can be said for bug fixes, any bugs found in the core itself can be fixed across all games in the series simultaneously.

This method gives the programmer the added bonus of quicker releases once their first game is completed. Any additional games in the series already have all the core components necessary to get the game going at the click of a button. Really, the only thing left then is game content.

Other such bonus’ of this method, aside from saving time and effort, is all objects included in one game are included in the others, same goes for player saving and loading. This gives the programmer the freedom to allow players to transfer their savefiles from one game to another, allowing them to continue the story using characters they’re already fond of. There are many other ways this method can help improve not only the programming aspect, but also the game play experience all together.

As an example for the various things the core and the game would contain, I present to you two screenshots of the Isorath development projects.

_global Engine - Isorath (Lobby)

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Isorath is the first of a series of projects designed to bring about a revolution in turn-based role playing games for BYOND. Introducing new players to the BYOND system and giving some old players something to occupy their time. Along with showing off as much of BYOND 4.0’s interface additions as possible, hopefully to inspire future programmers to take more pride in their interface designs and really give BYOND something to look forward too.

Tiberath is a long-time developer on BYOND, developing a distributed RPG called Isorath. He has no formal education or training in any programming field, but is self taught (with guidance from others) various programming scripts and languages. Tiberath assists in BYOND Community management, acting as a moderator for Dream Makers, BYOND Help, and BYOND Members; he is a Guild Master for BYOND RPG.