Elenter's Site - Will BYOND still be around in 2 or so years?

#1 Nov 29 2011, 3:49 pm
Albro1	Hover your mouse over the Games section to find out. About 5000 people online, most of which lurking. So, yes and no. With the hidden rips and fangames, the "playerbase" has appeared to decrease. I'm sure they are still all over the place though.

#2 Nov 29 2011, 3:57 pm

Tom

Elenter wrote:

Just your opinions, I've been working on a game now for 2 years & it probably won't be done for another 1-2 years from now.

I'm really enjoying it & believe it has the most amount of content & polish compared to what is currently on BYOND at the moment but I want there still to be a player base by the time it is released.

Is the BYOND population increasing or decreasing these days?

Almost certainly, given that BYOND has been around on the web for almost 15 years and has had far lower populations than this. Also, with the introduction of the web/flash version, we should be able to get more users through greater accessibility.

That said, it shouldn't even matter. We've setup the tools such that games can exist just fine without us. It means more legwork for you to find users, but we want you doing that anyway. There are far more potential players that have never even heard of BYOND.

#3 Dec 4 2011, 7:30 am

In response to Tom (#2)

Acebloke

Tom wrote:

Almost certainly, given that BYOND has been around on the web for almost 15 years and has had far lower populations than this. Also, with the introduction of the web/flash version, we should be able to get more users through greater accessibility.

That said, it shouldn't even matter. We've setup the tools such that games can exist just fine without us. It means more legwork for you to find users, but we want you doing that anyway. There are far more potential players that have never even heard of BYOND.

And this pretty much says it all, advertise advertise advertise! I've been here about 10 years myself, and from BYOND's own statistics the number of users 'online' has certainly gone up.

#4 Dec 4 2011, 8:27 am In response to Acebloke (#3)
OrangeWeapons	Still, I am confused as to why we don't have a larger active population.

#5 Dec 4 2011, 9:33 am In response to OrangeWeapons (#4)
Kaigne	There are not a lot of worthy games around =/.

#6 Dec 4 2011, 9:34 am In response to Kaigne (#5)
OrangeWeapons	Which is why it would be awesome if the community worked together on an open-source game.

#7 Dec 4 2011, 12:38 pm In response to OrangeWeapons (#6)
Calus CoRPS	OrangeWeapons wrote: Which is why it would be awesome if the community worked together on an open-source game. Toss me some great game ideas, and I would be willing to start such a project.

#8 Dec 4 2011, 1:32 pm In response to Calus CoRPS (#7)
OrangeWeapons	Make a blog post and link to it so that we don't de-rail this thread.

#9 Dec 4 2011, 5:36 pm

In response to Calus CoRPS (#7)

Narutorox123456

Calus CoRPS wrote:

OrangeWeapons wrote:

Which is why it would be awesome if the community worked together on an open-source game.

Toss me some great game ideas, and I would be willing to start such a project.

I had a game idea and am recruiting as many people as possible for it. It's gonna be completely original. It's called The Quest For High Quality, where a mage you are fighting suddenly turns the world 8bit and you have to navigate throughout the quest (and side-quests) to get enough strength to beat him and bring the world to HQ peace. Just an idea I had and I'm currently working on it piled onto the other 3 projects I am working on.

I would be happy to make it open-source to developers so they can work on it. Byond needs more players, and I can't mention how many people tell me they are gonna quit byond.

Oh yeah, most people I see quitting say our community is too closed-down to people with different interests such as anime fans, especially naruto fans. Some say its cause most of the games are rips.

I want to try and make Byond to be really great, and possibly, we can migrate over to making 3D games with DM code, because anything is possible with this code.

#10 Dec 4 2011, 5:46 pm In response to Narutorox123456 (#9)
Kumorii	Narutorox123456 wrote: we can migrate over to making 3D games with DM code, because anything is possible with this code. Lolwat. DM is certainly not capable of anything, much less 3D games.

#11 Dec 4 2011, 5:49 pm

In response to Kumorii (#10)

Narutorox123456

Kumorii wrote:

Narutorox123456 wrote:

we can migrate over to making 3D games with DM code, because anything is possible with this code.

Lolwat. DM is certainly not capable of anything, much less 3D games.

I don't know about that.

I found out myself how to make a game be Bird-eye view at one point with all controls, then make it isometric with controls, then side scroller, in one game. It has the capability to replicate the Nintendo DS (excluding the 3D models at the moment) which is more than what other programming programs can do, especially Game Maker.

I'm just saying that if we can do flash, we may be able to do 3D model games.

#12 Dec 4 2011, 6:17 pm

In response to Narutorox123456 (#11)

Kumorii

Narutorox123456 wrote:

Kumorii wrote:

Narutorox123456 wrote:

we can migrate over to making 3D games with DM code, because anything is possible with this code.

Lolwat. DM is certainly not capable of anything, much less 3D games.

I don't know about that.

I found out myself how to make a game be Bird-eye view at one point with all controls, then make it isometric with controls, then side scroller, in one game. It has the capability to replicate the Nintendo DS (excluding the 3D models at the moment) which is more than what other programming programs can do, especially Game Maker.

I'm just saying that if we can do flash, we may be able to do 3D model games.

I honestly don't see it happening anytime soon, since BYOND is simply too slow(as stated many times before). Game Maker has a much more powerful scripting language than BYOND from what I understand, it's just that many people don't bother with it since GM allows you to make a game with minimal programming. However, I do agree that BYOND's full potential is yet to be tapped and is capable of MUCH more than it's been used for thus far.

#13 Dec 4 2011, 6:28 pm

In response to Kumorii (#12)

Narutorox123456

Kumorii wrote:

Narutorox123456 wrote:

Kumorii wrote:

Narutorox123456 wrote:

we can migrate over to making 3D games with DM code, because anything is possible with this code.

Lolwat. DM is certainly not capable of anything, much less 3D games.

I don't know about that.

I found out myself how to make a game be Bird-eye view at one point with all controls, then make it isometric with controls, then side scroller, in one game. It has the capability to replicate the Nintendo DS (excluding the 3D models at the moment) which is more than what other programming programs can do, especially Game Maker.

I'm just saying that if we can do flash, we may be able to do 3D model games.

I honestly don't see it happening anytime soon, since BYOND is simply too slow(as stated many times before). Game Maker has a much more powerful scripting language than BYOND from what I understand, it's just that many people don't bother with it since GM allows you to make a game with minimal programming. However, I do agree that BYOND's full potential is yet to be tapped and is capable of MUCH more than it's been used for thus far.

I didnt say we were gonna do it any time soon. I just said we could possibly migrate to 3D games. And yes, it's full potential hasn't been used, but it can be used. Just not at the moment.

#14 Dec 4 2011, 7:41 pm

In response to Narutorox123456 (#13)

Solomn Architect

Narutorox123456 wrote:

I didnt say we were gonna do it any time soon. I just said we could possibly migrate to 3D games. And yes, it's full potential hasn't been used, but it can be used. Just not at the moment.

BYOND will reach it's full potential if it even begins to do more Client-side Processing. That's one of the biggest drawbacks with the system, is that all of the processing is done by the host server. A lot of that processing could be mitigated if Tom and Lummox decided to do Client-side Processing, however that's an entirely daunting task all in its own, basically requiring them to rewrite Dream Seeker from scratch. This is one of the reasons that BYOND games just can't compare to the scale of games developed in C++, Lua, Java, ect. If Tom and Lummox ever announced such a project, I would be more than willing to pitch in some funds to help get the ball rolling, all it takes is that initial spark, and they would get so much support from the community.

#15 Dec 4 2011, 7:45 pm

In response to Solomn Architect (#14)

Narutorox123456

Solomn Architect wrote:

Narutorox123456 wrote:

I didnt say we were gonna do it any time soon. I just said we could possibly migrate to 3D games. And yes, it's full potential hasn't been used, but it can be used. Just not at the moment.

BYOND will reach it's full potential if it even begins to do more Client-side Processing. That's one of the biggest drawbacks with the system, is that all of the processing is done by the host server. A lot of that processing could be mitigated if Tom and Lummox decided to do Client-side Processing, however that's an entirely daunting task all in its own, basically requiring them to rewrite Dream Seeker from scratch. This is one of the reasons that BYOND games just can't compare to the scale of games developed in C++, Lua, Java, ect. If Tom and Lummox ever announced such a project, I would be more than willing to pitch in some funds to help get the ball rolling, all it takes is that initial spark, and they would get so much support from the community.

I would also like to see a part of the program that can make it like RPG Maker, and optionally edit the code, because when I was a noob, I did rip one game, because I found coding too hard, but now that I know about it, I don't rip anymore. I think since people are too lazy to learn it themselves, we could possibly make something so we can reduce the number of rips. It would be greatly appreciated by those who are hacked like I was once.

#16 Dec 4 2011, 9:00 pm

In response to Narutorox123456 (#15)

Solomn Architect

Narutorox123456 wrote:

Solomn Architect wrote:

Narutorox123456 wrote:

I didnt say we were gonna do it any time soon. I just said we could possibly migrate to 3D games. And yes, it's full potential hasn't been used, but it can be used. Just not at the moment.

BYOND will reach it's full potential if it even begins to do more Client-side Processing. That's one of the biggest drawbacks with the system, is that all of the processing is done by the host server. A lot of that processing could be mitigated if Tom and Lummox decided to do Client-side Processing, however that's an entirely daunting task all in its own, basically requiring them to rewrite Dream Seeker from scratch. This is one of the reasons that BYOND games just can't compare to the scale of games developed in C++, Lua, Java, ect. If Tom and Lummox ever announced such a project, I would be more than willing to pitch in some funds to help get the ball rolling, all it takes is that initial spark, and they would get so much support from the community.

I would also like to see a part of the program that can make it like RPG Maker, and optionally edit the code, because when I was a noob, I did rip one game, because I found coding too hard, but now that I know about it, I don't rip anymore. I think since people are too lazy to learn it themselves, we could possibly make something so we can reduce the number of rips. It would be greatly appreciated by those who are hacked like I was once.

Then BYOND won't even be a Game Development Software anymore. It'll become a point and drag RPG creator with a few extra features. I always saw RPG Maker as a completely novice tool, used only by those who are too lazy to make a real game. BYOND Has always been seen, in my eyes anyways, as an Entry to Intermediate Level Game Development Software, and will always deserve much more respect than RPG Maker. If you're too lazy to learn how to program, why did you want to program in the first place?

#17 Dec 4 2011, 9:03 pm

In response to Solomn Architect (#16)

Narutorox123456

Solomn Architect wrote:

Narutorox123456 wrote:

Solomn Architect wrote:

Narutorox123456 wrote:

I didnt say we were gonna do it any time soon. I just said we could possibly migrate to 3D games. And yes, it's full potential hasn't been used, but it can be used. Just not at the moment.

BYOND will reach it's full potential if it even begins to do more Client-side Processing. That's one of the biggest drawbacks with the system, is that all of the processing is done by the host server. A lot of that processing could be mitigated if Tom and Lummox decided to do Client-side Processing, however that's an entirely daunting task all in its own, basically requiring them to rewrite Dream Seeker from scratch. This is one of the reasons that BYOND games just can't compare to the scale of games developed in C++, Lua, Java, ect. If Tom and Lummox ever announced such a project, I would be more than willing to pitch in some funds to help get the ball rolling, all it takes is that initial spark, and they would get so much support from the community.

I would also like to see a part of the program that can make it like RPG Maker, and optionally edit the code, because when I was a noob, I did rip one game, because I found coding too hard, but now that I know about it, I don't rip anymore. I think since people are too lazy to learn it themselves, we could possibly make something so we can reduce the number of rips. It would be greatly appreciated by those who are hacked like I was once.

Then BYOND won't even be a Game Development Software anymore. It'll become a point and drag RPG creator with a few extra features. I always saw RPG Maker as a completely novice tool, used only by those who are too lazy to make a real game. BYOND Has always been seen, in my eyes anyways, as an Entry to Intermediate Level Game Development Software, and will always deserve much more respect than RPG Maker. If you're too lazy to learn how to program, why did you want to program in the first place?

True.
Also I learned programming because I wasnt too lazy, I just had no clue how to do anything in it. I didn't read the guide though. I learned the hard way, by studying code from a ripped naruto source. What's wrong with this? The only problem is that it's very hard and for those who gave up on a guide that isn't easy to understand.

Basically, we need a new and updated guide, because people who are enthusiastic to make a game don't want a boring and outdated guide and end up studying for years like I have. Just sayin'

#18 Dec 4 2011, 10:09 pm

In response to Narutorox123456 (#17)

Kaiochao

I think the common attitude towards your suggestion is "do it yourself."

"Yes, it's true that the guide was probably not written with today's ADD-riddled 140-chars-or-less Twitter generation in mind. And I agree it could use an update, but, this is something that the community can handle.

The reason I suggested posting your tutorial to the developer section is that you touted it as a useful resource and collecting such things is the purpose of that section. From there it can be easily featured more prominently should it prove useful to newcomers. The guide is but one of many links there."

Alternatively, if you or anyone else want to take a shot at rewriting the guide itself, more power to you." -Tom

Strangely enough, at least one person has written another guide, although probably not as long and detailed, and not as up-to-date as we all would like.

#19 Dec 5 2011, 2:41 am In response to Calus CoRPS (#7)
Zaltron	Calus CoRPS wrote: OrangeWeapons wrote: Which is why it would be awesome if the community worked together on an open-source game. Toss me some great game ideas, and I would be willing to start such a project. I'd be down for working on open source project once I can free up some time. Possibly at the start of next year or around May. I have many ideas.