Cuddlebear's BYOND website

So I'm down here in Missouri visiting my family, and i managed to talk my sister, who is a very talented artist into doing my game art for me! This makes me very happy, though she does want 1/3 of any profits I ever make. I did let her know that it will probably be a long time before I make a profit, but I would have agreed to 50%, not just a third. A good artist, like I know my sister to be, would be as valuable as the programmer if you ask me. But she says I would need to find a sound person to compose music and the sound effects.

*sigh* I think for my bunnies, I can handle any music that is going to be needed. And since I definately won't be charging for my bunnies, then she can do the work for me for free. Not that there are gonna be all that many graphics for my Bunnies, but it will give me a chance to get her to work with me.

I get home and back to my computer on Friday morning, and since she agreed to help me, I have even more reason to finish my bunnies up. Now I just need her to sign up and get a Byond membership!

In exactly 4.5 hours, I will be partaking of the wonderful state known as "on Vacation". Yes, I'm excited, because I think I deserve some free time to focus on all my hobbies without worrying about bedtimes and work. Who knows, I might even get around to working on some code!

What I have been doing is fleshing out a few ideas that have popped into my head and won't go away. One of them is my Bunny. Instead of just making it an aspect of some much more massive game, I have decided to build a simple rpg around my bunnies.

What I intend to achieve with this:

1) Multiplayer interaction
2) A chance to develop AI
3) Fleshing out a character builder
4) Play at creating a UI
5) Maybe even a little combat!

All this will eventually relate to the larger project I want to make. Hopefully it will give me to confidence to move forward with it later, rather than staring at a monitor screen, uncertain where and how to proceed.

Who knows, maybe when I finish this, I will be able to entice an unsuspecting Icon artist to aid my humble self in this and future endevors.

So I didn't get around to working with my trees, but I did figure out what stats I really need to start with.

As far as my bunny goes, well, he's gotten more complicated than just randomly walking and leaving logs and mushrooms in his path. I've found myself working on an actual AI, which is rather disturbing for me, since I know maybe 2% of all there is to know about BYOND, and thus I'm lacking 98% of what I need to know to write a good bit of Code.

So far, I've built a nice long if/elseif/else chain going, with a bunch of small procs that the chain calls as the bunny moves. He get hungry, and eats, he gets tired, and sleeps, if anything other than another bunny gets close to him, he runs away. Eventually I would like to get to where there will be multiple bunnies, and boy bunnies will seek out girl bunnies to make baby bunnies, and thus create a population that could withstand preditory mobs too.

So after a long leave of absence, I am back to attempt my Net Dream yet again.

I think it was a matter of having too many hobbies, and not enough time to fit them all in. Now that I am less intense into some of them, I am finding myself with freetime, and thinking again on BYOND. I'm excited to start over with BYOND 4.0, and have scrapped all of my old material in favor of starting fresh.

My dream still remains the same though, to build a fully interactive environment, not so much a game as a world. Since I've started again, that world is a 20x20 square with growing grass, a tree, and a firepit. Not much, but it's a start!

I've been taking diligent thought-notes down at work when we're slow (being a bank teller does have its advantages, even with the death of "banker hours"), and I've come to the conclusion that some of my old ideas weren't ever really necessary. I might look back on them at a later date, but for now, I think my goal will be to keep everything as simple as possible.

I think to motivate myself, I'll make a weekly To-Do list. So to start, this week I want to add to my lil world:

1) Return of the log-rabbit.
2) Have my tree grow fruit.
3) Figure out what stats I really think are necessary to start.

and for a challenge:
4) Learn more about overlays and icon saving!

I've gotten sick of my own pathetic attempts at creating my own icons, so I did a search online and found a bunch of tile sets from Snes games!

I'm a major fan of the Super Nintendo, one of the many reasons why Byond appealed so well to me. At any rate, I've spent my weekend modifying these "chip sets" to use as turf tiling. Now instead of blah grass, i have grass, and tall grass, mud, dirt, sand, rocky ground, and water of varying color ( to show depth) that is animated!

Maybe I should feel guilty for using someone else's work, but right now I'm just too tickled to have a NICE looking lil map world to care. I appriciate the work they did in making these tiles, and I would put forth the effort to acknowledge the artists ( i think they can be called that) who took the time to copy tiles from copyrighted games, except I forgot to write down the website I downloaded from. When (and if) I am able to find the website again, I will put acknowledgements for their efforts in my game with their user names and the website.

Eventually, if my game is ever finished and if it ever becomes popular, I will make every effort to find an icon-artist to make custom and beautiful icons for the game to make it 100% copyright-infringement-free. Until then, I'm not worried. I won't be asking for money until the two above requirements are met, so I feel safe from prosecution for the time being.

Thanks to Stephen001's help, my game now has a working item-stacking system, I just have to modify everything I've done up until now that involves adding or removing from the usr.contents (i.e. the woodbox and the fireplace).

My apple tree also got a make-over along with the turf, and I couldn't be happier. I know that looks don't make a game, but I suppose I'm shallow enough to find a great deal of enjoyment from the appearance as much from the content.

For the rest of the month my time with Tavern World (the working name) will be limited. The spring semester started just this week past, and I'm trying to work something out with my boss so I'm not constantly running between work and class. (Manager seems to think because our branch is across the street from the college that I only need 30 minutes to get myself there or back.)

Alas the tribulations of the part-timer student.

On another positive note, (because I like to end on positive notes) I've started the the to-do list for V.02 of what I want to do with the game after I finish V.01. I will post the checklist when I finish the first one.