The next version of Adventures will feature a redesign of the interface (unfinished in that screen-shot), equipment systems for your companions, possibly improved trees, and a few changes to Territory Wars. The redesign of the interface will also be forcing the implementation of a few more HUD based systems, in place of interface based pop-ups, which should probably happen for all systems sooner or later (interfaces suck).
Box Art, I need some. Some sort of design that will be synonymous with the Celestial Chaos series, and that could function as the cover of the box if this was a retail game. I'm open to suggestions, maybe even submissions. I was thinking something with a white dragon overlooking an epic battle. And/or maybe something specific with the title text's appearance, like Final Fantasy does. This "box art" will be adapted for hub images, banners, title screens, and most other general representations of the game.
Subscriptions in yo face! Mostly due to the recent take-down of my games, subscriptions will be undergoing some design philosophy changes.
I've been keeping the bonuses provided for subscribers fairly balanced, mostly cosmetic, and somewhat limited. This obviously isn't a working formula, and has barely kept an income large enough to support the games (the servers alone cost almost $400 a month). In the beginning of this copyright mayhem, I changed the pricing plan for subscriptions, but due to popular demand, the old pricing and time periods are back.
If SilkWizard truly is making $10,000 a month of off a failed NES game wannabe (which either he and/or Tom has lied about), then I should surely be able to make that much off of a collection of the best games on BYOND. I'll be adopting some of his cheap marketing tactics. A screen, as soon as you log in, that hints: "Subscribe now, or you might as well not even bother playing", for example.
I've also been keeping the advertising of such features somewhat hidden, since BYOND has shut down my games for openly displaying such things in the past (have I mentioned how awesome the administration around here is?). Now that all of my games are "original", this is going to change. Subscriber buttons will be everywhere, features will be prominently advertised, and aspects of gameplay will be centered around them.
Graphics, graphics, and more graphics! Graphics are important, I'm not just talking about in-game character animations here, but more-so about "interface" graphics. Having a plain box with some text written across it is just lame. A small graphical icon, or even a graphical button with text is superior, and a standard that I plan to bring most aspects under my control into.
For any developers new to BYOND, I spread this message of hope to you: Get out while you can! It becomes more apparent by the day how worthless BYOND is, and how undeserving it is of being related to gaming. Unity is an amazing alternative, so far beyond BYOND (ha hah!) that I don't know if it can even be considered an alternative. Its offered for free, can do everything BYOND can 10,000 times over, and is just as easy, if not easier to use. Unity is even capable of making console and mobile games. If you haven't already devoted years of your life to mastering DM, or becoming a mind blowing artist of pixels locked into a 32x32 box, then you should move yourself over to Unity ASAP. BYOND is an underwhelming game engine, capable of almost anything, but at a cost that doesn't make those goals rewarding or worthwhile. If you plan on making anything other than a MUD, get out while you can. Even if you do plan on making a MUD, there are better platforms for it.
EDIT: As I mentioned in the comments below, there are some great video tutorials, and official project tutorials available for Unity.
On an unrelated note, KhaosParadox should be banned from posting in any public areas of the site. His constant scam posts about assets he doesn't have, aspirations he won't live up to, and paid positions that he's unwilling to actually pay for; its just getting ridiculous at this point. He's been making such claims for over a year now, and obviously can't, or just wont, actually follow through on anything. His spread of false hope is almost as bad as NEStalgia's.
