In response to Lige
Lummox JR:
I am definitely planning to do something along the lines of allowing authors to do something about ads for all of their players. This is very high on my priority list.

2015... Lum, you just need to listen to yourself.
I think programmable royalty based ads would also help so much. Set a minimum amount for BYOND and let us play with the rest. You can probably bring Unity Ads into the project if not other Ad networks. Let us use ads anywhere we want and however we would want.

To be blunt, if there's no easy way to format our games for steam or some outside community than there's no reason for any of us to develop games here. The BYOND community is dead. I've had my game live for 3 days without a single player.

I'm willing to pay whatever fees or subscription that comes with it (within reason...), and for the record I would much prefer to make my games with BYOND than any other service for the nostalgia and the time spent on the platform.

So let's have a discussion. What are the challenges? What needs to happen for this to become a reality?
In response to Evi of au
Evi of au wrote:
To be blunt, if there's no easy way to format our games for steam or some outside community than there's no reason for any of us to develop games here. The BYOND community is dead.

There's a way, it just requires you to ask Lummox and follow the steps involved in making the .exe file with the BYONDExe tool. It's just not as easy as some folks want it to be. That's the contention here.

I've had my game live for 3 days without a single player.

Sorry, do you mean your recently published game Sneks? The game that's not hosted and does not have hostfiles downloadable? Of course there are no players, nobody can play!
It's been hosted, a lot. Like 15 hours a day for the last three days. However the smart-ass comment doesnt change the fact that nobody is browsing live games (assuming my game even shows up in live games- I've yet to see it).

And we shouldn't need the permission of the great overseer to allow us to package games for steam or gog release.
In response to Evi of au
Your game would appear in live games, especially when sorting by active (once a player joins, ah'course). People not joining is a different problem, though.

Yes, I was assuredly condescending in my response, but the people who should be complaining about a lack of activity should have exhausted all avenues available to them in terms of promoting their game before making broad statements like "the BYOND community is dead" when their game doesn't get any players - especially when their game has only been up for a couple of days.

Perhaps you could add some attractive art for the hub icon and maybe some screenshots for your game? Your game currently lacks a hook, and while I've no doubt it's got playable qualities, I have no way of knowing what I'm getting into before I hit the play button beyond "It's Snake but PVP!" Advertise what's awesome about what you've created, and if you find yourself running out of awesome to showcase, for what reason should anyone play?

Like I've said before, I agree that the ability to compile to .exe should be easier. Your ask to address the roadblocks that're blocking its implementation is fair - I was just needling at your complaints because I feel as though you have not exhausted all of the promotional avenues available to you before complaining in the first place.
You are correct, there's a lot more that I can do to make it more attractive to prior to clicking play, and that arguement may have been driven by my frustration. However ultimately I intend to release my games outside of BYOND where there is a much more broad audience and further reach. I've been using the engine for almost 20 years and I know it's capable of making games that people will love and enjoy... and pay for.

I don't want to be abrasive or pushy, but if not now then when? I genuinely don't understand what's holding us back from such a feature? I really don't like the idea of "asking permission" from lummox (no offence to anyone, it just doesn't make sense).

If the issues keeping that from happening are money, then let's discuss possibilities for BYOND to benifit from it.
In response to Evi of au
Yeah, what you say is fair. I'll try and open a discussion in Discord with folks who might have a feasible way of moving forward with compiling to exe that makes sense. Hopefully we can come up with something usable.
I would also like the compile 2 exe feature and would pay to use it, ..given that I ever get a project to completion.

Another idea lummox for you would be an option under the hub edit page to apply for license for your project, or under your account settings.
I appreciate that. I would imagine that once more BYOND games make it to steam or gog, we would see more people making high quality games with that very intention. I started seeing BYOND games on steam and that's exactly what has drawn me back after a few years away. I don't think devs would abandon BYOND after making a successful game, but would rather be inspired to make more on the engine. Just a thought.

I will continue to work on my game with hopes that someday I can sell it, if even for a few dollars. Until then I'll take the steps you've suggested to try and get a few BYONDers involved, maybe a shout in BYOND and within would help- when the time is right.
In response to Evi of au
You know it ;)
In response to Spevacus
The BYOND Community *IS* dead, and I've shown graphs about it before.
Imagine turning down free real estate
Sorry but if you have to contact the creator/developer of the game engine you're using just to get a playable exe then there is 0 chance BYOND will grow. It's not a scalable approach and i'm shocked its 2021 and nothing has been done about this.

Just give us a compile 2 exe option that installs byond/directx or whatever is needed behind the scenes to run a BYOND game in an exe format, and find some way to hook up ads. Let the game developers handle what to do with login systems
In response to NSBR
NSBR wrote:
Lummox JR:
I am definitely planning to do something along the lines of allowing authors to do something about ads for all of their players. This is very high on my priority list.

2015... Lum, you just need to listen to yourself.

Lummox JR wrote:
We have talked about releasing the Dart code at some point, so that's something we're strongly considering.

2015...and it's still pinned to the top of Developer Help.
Hey if Windows 11 will have IE components removed how will we be able play spacemans?
In response to Fizbun
Embedded IE should still be available for a while, but I do want to switch to WebView2 which is the newer version of the same thing.
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