I personally don't look at game engines as which is the best competitor on the market.

I look at what they offer in terms of features, how fast they are at fixing bugs, how their community / customer support is.

I'll be honest, we all know it, you as well Tom, know that Byond itself cannot compete with something like Unity or Unreal. It does however have it's own niche and I believe that it can succeed as a 2D engine.

Myself I would prioritize from most important to least. Bug fixes, multithreading, Flash, other 'minor' low maintenance features that have been lurking around, and lastly and not surprisingly website and business model reorganization.

I think bug fixes are incredibly important in a project like this. Game engines, or any software engine for that matter that have a closed source, their customers rely entirely on them to work through problems and I think in recent years Byond hasn't quite kept up to par with that.

I also feel that you may need to start having a sit down with the successful games on Byond and find out what issues they're having most with the engine, where could things be improved, what is holding them back from growing further or developing their product more. Who knows, some of the stuff they need may be minimal in terms of work load and may also fit your vision of Byond development.



I see potential for Byond to succeed and live on but I think these next few months / upcoming year will be critical on what route you take / how the community accepts it. I'd hate to see Byond shut down or development cease, as I think it can continue on if the cards are played right.
In response to Drakemoore
Drakemoore wrote:
I also feel that you may need to start having a sit down with the successful games on Byond and find out what issues they're having most with the engine, where could things be improved, what is holding them back from growing further or developing their product more. Who knows, some of the stuff they need may be minimal in terms of work load and may also fit your vision of Byond development.

I agree.
Page: 1 2 3 4