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Hello Readers! This is one of the longest editions of Within BYOND being released in some time, not only because of the month-long span between this and the previous column, but due to a genuine uptick in activity, from both new and frequent titles! So be sure to grab a snack and set a pace, because we have a lot of content to digest!

Congratulations goes out to all four award-winning Game in a Day 2019 challengers, who with the revised prize pool, each received a monetary prize! A round of applause goes to Megablaze, Raffile, Kozuma3, and Mr. Goober, whose games placed in that respective order. And be sure to review the scoring and conclusions reached by the judges for these four 24-hour projects!

BYOND

BYOND Developer Lummox JR has been fixing bugs and adding features to BYOND 513, while also getting the groundwork and idea train going for BYOND 514! Maptext now supports more text alignment features, like being justified, indented, margins, and mixing them as well. ''in'' operations now function faster, a new blending mode was added, mouse support handles alpha masking, and the skin editor is getting an overhaul. Over on Patreon, he covers multiple bug fixes (and refixes) in detail.

BYOND Games

Kozuma3’s Elora has been rapidly growing, from what a few weeks back was just a series of windows is now nearing the starts of an RPG. The current demo features equipment, an inventory, quests, and a map, with chickens running about and mountains, forests, plains, and a town to explore. A dozen skills are in the works with fishing and cooking underway. Keep tabs on the game progress (along with others) on Kozuma3’s new DreamCrafter’s Discord.

Bumblemore has unleashed the Demon Revolution, where players take on magic or become a werewolf and terrorize the residents of the town. The gory game contains many ways to turn the townspeople into victims, and runtimes, plenty of runtimes.

We haven’t heard much from Bravo1 since starting his new job this month, but in January he was showing off the graphical changes in Darkstar! A new breath effect lightly shifts the screen while idling, and the camera drifts towards the direction the player is pointing their weapon. He then proceeds to disturb a large nest of spider-like creatures, Terrors, and as was mentioned, haven’t heard from him since.

Zenith’s Call is growing more diverse, with new additions from scenic plant life to new monsters, herbs, biomes, and equipment! A new location, Blackgriffin Canyon, leads to new adventures, like in the Blackgriffin mines, mouse interactions and interface elements have been greatly improved, and a really cool mini-map will help keep players orientated!

Paradise Blue has picked up on development again, this time bringing some new concepts to the roleplaying game. Players will now be given a few single-use moments, where they can escape definite death, or counter their opponent's certain survival, or counter their opponent’s counter of their escape. And just in case that sounds confusing, players will be given a few moments to figure it out under new RP timing and turn-taking rules. And finally, Rice Miso gives a glimpse into how fame and bounties play in the game.

Now that Flick has successfully created the world, he has now moved onto creating the Underworld! Current GIFs show an intricate and sprawling cave anatomy, with shadows and lighting as well.

Azusa RP Online has achieved a one-year milestone since launching on Steam, and the team is giving some big gifts to their players in celebration! For starters, a new gameplay spin-off, Azusa Battle Arena gives causal and action-oriented players a chance to experience the Azusa world without the RP element, in where players build teams of three characters, mixing and matching skills to strategize the best combination to take out the teams of other players, netting special gear along the way. Traditional Azura RP is rolling into a new millennium, seeing the addition of new Zodiac signs and relics that grant special abilities. Oh yeah, was it mentioned that it is all available for free until February 22nd?

Falacy’s Zombie Paradise now has a training ground where players can go to... train! Shooting zombies at the training grounds does come at a cost, giving no gold and a reduce exp rate, player built barricades are stronger than the ones left lying about the map, and many other adjustments were made to guns and abilities.

Magicosm successfully launched a month ago, and along with that came many bug fixes and revisions! Out of the dozens of line items, new armors can be crafted, the chatbox appearance has been revisited, rats and snakes now scatter through caves and forests, and folks can do harsh things with voodoo magic.

A new town has revealed itself in Sigrogana Legend 2! The village of Karaten on the continent of Kysei features many new NPCs, housing, and a magic circle where style seeds can be previewed! Familiars have been added to the battle mix, allowing for the familiar’s spell or ability to be used at no cost to the player. And a new form of magic has been discovered for mages, allowing a Rune Magician to imbue spells into runes and objects, and can be triggered directly or by proximity. Custom spells have also been implemented, and are created by obtaining a Dynamic Tomb, and using seeds that have the desired effect to produce powerful and unique spells!

The development team of Eternia: Chronicles of Esshar has made good on their new year’s promise, bringing major changes to the map and splitting into three separate cities, with factions moving to their new locations. And a fore-spoken prophecy of another race moving into the lands came to fruitarian when a band of witches would travel deep within the forest, finding a portal that when active would unleash demons!

AERProductions has amended the progress log for Pondera, making notes that some of the most powerful in-game spells are now found out in the wilderness and that several interface elements have been improved! Players now start with a tutorial book in their inventories, and that torches now work correctly and have a limited life span. And for those who may have missed it from the comments last time, he has also covered in further detail many of the new changes to the game, along with plans and ideas!

Pride Ravanok filled in the details on the latest happenings in Rise of the Pirates! Islands in the Black Sea can now be captured by crews, granting powerful buffs to ships that can complete the feat and fend off opposing pirates. An additional buff can also be gained by completing all of the daily challenges. So as Season 1 comes to a close and Season 2 begins, ships are receiving new upgrades, PvE content is gaining focus, and islands are getting a make-over!

BYOND Resources

  • PopLava demonstrates how visual contents can be used to group interface elements, and show or hide them on a whim.
  • Ter13 is back to redefining how we should be using everything in another harshly titled tutorial! This time, mouse params are in the crosshairs. As a bonus, Mouse Drag functions were caught in the cross-fire.
  • After decades of being immobile, Nadrew makes a mention that images can actually walk... Yeah, it’s likely a non-starter.
  • Kozuma3 provides a quick snippet for making HUDS and adding them though mob.screen.
  • AERProductions is helping developers help their new players with his Tutorial Guide object.
  • And PopLava is helping players get their ideas and thoughts to the developer with his Feedback System, complete with a quarter-hour video tutorial.
  • In case you missed it, PopisFizzy made some modifications to a handful of his libraries, changes you can check out here.
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Thx
FUCK MOUSE PARAMS

YOUR ATTEMPTS TO SHAME ME ONLY ADD FUEL TO MY BURNING HATRED OF CRUFT.

(Real talk tho, touche. Probably tone it down from here)
Great post. Found a ton of value in all the linked BYOND resources that I would have otherwise overlooked. So glad to have them highlighted like this. Thanks for the mentions as well. Surprised me.
Surprised me with the Paradise Blue mention.

Thanks a lot, Higoten!