Keep up the excellent work here, Tom, and Lummox.
I'm not sure I understand this clearly. The standalone will eventually support multiplayer games, correct? I'm assuming yes, but it wouldn't hurt to get a definite answer.
In response to FKI
The standalone has always supported multiplayer games.
The standalone already does support multiplayer games. It's basically an exe version of DreamSeeker.
Also, the HTML5 client port will never support singleplayer games.
In response to Kaiochao
Kaiochao wrote:
Also, the HTML5 client port will never support offline singleplayer games.

Well, what we can do is embed it in a simple exe (that could be made for all platforms since our backend code & the GUI HTML5 widget will be universal). Then you could write a single-player game. It just wouldn't work on the web since it would have to run the C++ server code.
@Tom: Is there any plan to differentiate clients based on their client?

For instance, since the HTML5 client will lack the UI features introduced with BYOND 3.5, obviously, mingling HTML5 and DS clients on the same server will serve some difficulty. Will there be a client variable that distinguishes the client the user is playing with? We can already access the version number of the client, we just don't currently distinguish outwardly whether the player is using the standalone, or connecting via seeker.


Second, will the HTML5 interface respond to verbs in a similar way to the current client? Currently, I have been working with Javascript and DM communication to trigger verbs and get around the annoyance of converting and vetting text/numbers as inputs. Losing the ability to do this would be a major cramp in my work since 505/506.

Third, will there be the possibility of treating a secondary Canvas element in the HTML as a secondary map element treated similarly to Map elements in the existing implementation?

I'm more than happy to write my own HTML5 implementations for all the other UI elements, and release them for public use, but having some way of accessing and rendering icons via HTML5 without having to write our own resource layer will be somewhat important to getting things moving for early adopters of the HTML5 client.
Congratulations, SilkGames! You deserve it, the game is fantastic.

Really excited about the HTML5 stuff, especially considering how easy it will be to integrate with Facebook. FarmVille would be really easy to remake in BYOND. ;)

Have you guys considered letting members have more control over their hub pages? Maybe something similar to the way Tumblr handles customization, so that we could rearrange the layout and make the hubs more appealing. Since we lost a lot of customization with the redesign, I think this would be a very nice middle-ground that would make a lot of developers happy.

As always, thanks for all of your hard work, Tom and Lummox! Your guys kick more ass than a seventeen-legged kickboxer.
This must be the EVOLUTION.
I'm glad NEStalgia is getting hundreds of players ^^
It rarely used to hit 70 players before, but now it's hard to find it with less than 200 players.

I hope more games (like Eternia) can get into Steam aswell, this'll definitely help BYOND.
In response to Eternal_Memories
Eternal_Memories wrote:
I hope more games (like Eternia) can get into Steam aswell, this'll definitely help BYOND.

I don't think Eternia will ever get on Steam, but I am hopeful that a decent PvP version will do fairly well with the future browser support. Gaming portals like Kongregrate rarely have projects with less 50k hits. Plenty of free advertisement if you have something that people are going to click.

Games like Casual Quest and Footrace would benefit a bunch, I think.

Don't think so negatively, WANO. I think a PvP version of Eternia would do very well on Steam if you flesh out the questing (I haven't played in awhile, so you guys may have already done this - my apologies if I'm ill-informed). I know for a fact you already have a ton of back story and lore written.
Thanks for all of the kind words everyone - I couldn't be happier with how the Steam launch has gone so far. Tom and especially Lummox put in a ton of extra work to get the standalone client ready for Steam, so this was truly a joint effort.

I'm sure that I'll do a big post-mortem on NEStalgia's run at some point, but for any aspiring BYOND developers there is really just one thing you need to know: NEStalgia's success wasn't a fluke. We didn't just get lucky overnight, nor did we have some sort of magical formula for BYOND development success that can't be repeated. NEStalgia is Steam right now because everyone involved worked really hard, and because we were persistent.
Congratulations Silk!

NEStalgia's success was inevitable. It was only a matter of time before everyone provided the right conditions for it to grow. However, we might only be seeing the beginning of the success. I think that with more promotional efforts, NEStalgia's player count at any given time could easily exceed 2000, which is more than reasonable for any MMORPG in the real world.

Success is only relative to your current level of success, whatever that may be. For this reason, the success should only be taken with a grain of salt. It would be wise to never declare a project as successful, because as soon as you do, you have effectively put a limit on its potential.

Also, I don't know if anyone has pointed this out or not, but isn't it funny how SilkWizard chose a statue of Atlas for his forum icon? What does Atlas do? He holds up the world. You could almost say that right now, Silk is holding up the BYOND world. Maybe it was his plan all along! It's unfortunate that there aren't yet many more games to share the burden.

Now, take a good look at the default BYOND member icon. Do you see the resemblance it has to Atlas? Notice that there is one ring around the globe. That small globe represents a piece of the BYOND atom logo. What this symbolizes is the reduced burden that would need to be carried if a greater number of developers were holding it. In reality though, BYOND is more like a whole universe, each game is its own world, and each developer is like Atlas, holding up their world. For this reason, Atlantis might be a good representation of BYOND. Hopefully that comes without the tragedy.

The conclusion that can be drawn from all of this spooky symbolism is that BYOND is still just an idea that hasn't yet been given the chance to fully exist. Only when the developers manifest the games of BYOND into a reality that is observed by the real world, will the true BYOND come into existence, and reveal itself for what it was truly meant to be.

Has anyone else made these connections?
In response to Multiverse7
Multiverse7 wrote:
Congratulations Silk!

NEStalgia's success was inevitable. It was only a matter of time before everyone provided the right conditions for it to grow. However, we might only be seeing the beginning of the success. I think that with more promotional efforts, NEStalgia's player count at any given time could easily exceed 2000, which is more than reasonable for any MMORPG in the real world.

Success is only relative to your current level of success, whatever that may be. For this reason, the success should only be taken with a grain of salt. It would be wise to never declare a project as successful, because as soon as you do, you have effectively put a limit on its potential.

Also, I don't know if anyone has pointed this out or not, but isn't it funny how SilkWizard chose a statue of Atlas for his forum icon? What does Atlas do? He holds up the world. You could almost say that right now, Silk is holding up the BYOND world. Maybe it was his plan all along! It's unfortunate that there aren't yet many more games to share the burden.

Now, take a good look at the default BYOND member icon. Do you see the resemblance it has to Atlas? Notice that there is one ring around the globe. That small globe represents a piece of the BYOND atom logo. What this symbolizes is the reduced burden that would need to be carried if a greater number of developers were holding it. In reality though, BYOND is more like a whole universe, each game is its own world, and each developer is like Atlas, holding up their world. For this reason, Atlantis might be a good representation of BYOND. Hopefully that comes without the tragedy.

The conclusion that can be drawn from all of this spooky symbolism is that BYOND is still just an idea that hasn't yet been given the chance to fully exist. Only when the developers manifest the games of BYOND into a reality that is observed by the real world, will the true BYOND come into existence, and reveal itself for what it was truly meant to be.

Has anyone else made these connections?

All that, plus most likely a reference to Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, SilkWizard has the objectivism going on.=, as he has stated a few sparing moments in the past.
In response to Multiverse7
Multiverse7 wrote:
Also, I don't know if anyone has pointed this out or not, but isn't it funny how SilkWizard chose a statue of Atlas for his forum icon? What does Atlas do? He holds up the world. You could almost say that right now, Silk is holding up the BYOND world. Maybe it was his plan all along!

I, like EG pointed out above me, always assumed it had to do with Atlas Shrugged. On the subject of Objectivism, I think Silkwizard was just pursuing his happiness and trying to make money. Perhaps I am a cynic, though.
In response to Fugsnarf
Fugsnarf wrote:
Multiverse7 wrote:
Also, I don't know if anyone has pointed this out or not, but isn't it funny how SilkWizard chose a statue of Atlas for his forum icon? What does Atlas do? He holds up the world. You could almost say that right now, Silk is holding up the BYOND world. Maybe it was his plan all along!

I, like EG pointed out above me, always assumed it had to do with Atlas Shrugged. On the subject of Objectivism, I think Silkwizard was just pursuing his happiness and trying to make money. Perhaps I am a cynic, though.

I'm sure that's why he did it, not to say because of Objectivism he couldn't do it for those reasons. I haven't really kept tabs on his views, because... well I don't do that, and of course we never have casual conversation.
I'm pretty sure he's at least a soft objectivist; he can chime in if he feels like saying he is or not. But either way, you don't need to be an objectivist to want to be rich and happy. Now let's just not turn this into an argument for or against objectivism. This is starting to go off topic.
Oh I'm for it, but yes boo.
Huzzah!
Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8