Kumorii's site

Welcome to the team!

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 02:09:37 +0000

I would like to announce my new partner-in-crime with Feed's development; Carn! She's an experienced programmer who will be helping to pull everything together with the overhaul! She's already proven her talent by improving the efficiency of several issues and squashing bugs that have popped up over the course of the rewrite.

I'll be taking lead on art for awhile so we can hopefully deliver something worthwhile! Expect good news in the coming days!

Frakture Studios 2013
Kumorii | Carn

r56 Progress Thread

Sat, 18 May 2013 23:29:38 +0000

Howdy, Feeders!

The past couple days I've been messing with various parts of the game as a mini-project to see what all could be fixed or improved. The result is a Feed that makes effective use of pixel movement, better AI, a couple new weapons that never got incorporated, and a larger resolution. I decided to go ahead and extend this project into an official release(it's nice to work with Feed again). I will use this thread to list changes made and take suggestions from the fans.

All I ask of your suggestions is nothing too major /yet/. Feel free to base ideas on the new pixel movement and whatnot.

Changes:

Larger resolution(960x640).
Removed the fullscreen option(depreciated).
Made use of BYOND's pixel movement.
Smoother AI(speed is actually a factor!)
Misery Lane mapped.
New control layout.
New dynamic explosions.
New music.
Login now screen-based.
Account system has been optomized.
Account login includes a 'Remember Me' option.
New weapon sound effects.
Menus have all been converted to screen elements(no more interface).

Improvement Requests

Tue, 19 Feb 2013 01:26:32 +0000

I've been with BYOND since late 2005 and it's played a huge role in my life. Between introducing me to the world of game development and being an outlet for stress and creativity, I've loved my experiences with the site and community. However I'm starting to grow tired of the laziness and poor design on BYONDs part and I know I'm far from the only one. I have a game that I'm only about two days worth of work from completing and I don't even feel as though I should bother publishing it to BYOND but porting it to Java instead. I'll go through some of the gripes by category;

Website:
The new website is definitely an improvement in contrast to the older one, however the community has been condensed to the forums and hardly much else. The guilds were removed when they could have easily been fixed/updated to serve as 'sub-sites' with their own updates and game listings(I don't mean a list of guild favorites). Guilds were an excellent way for the community to find and follow games of their own interests rather than just searching "Action".

Another highlight that was removed(and the community clearly wants back) are blogs. The blogs were a highlight of community activity and made for an ideal method of updating the community with game development and get feedback. Hell, their isn't even a designated forum category for this. As for the argument over people blogging about life through their blogs, who cares. A majority of the community consists of gamers; not strictly developers. Personally, I could do without the CSS', but removing blogs altogether certainly wasn't a good move.

This isn't as much of an issue as the former, however the standards for game listings are obnoxiously low. I don't want to see this. Some of the volunteers must not even bother logging into the games and if they do, their judgement is lacking. If BYOND is to improve it's image there has to be stricter guidelines to game submission. Quality is better than quantity and this is a perfect example of when that phrase is relevant.

Lastly, between the excessive use of borders, awkward top bar, and the abuse of drop shadows, the overall design of the website isn't anything to be overtly proud of. If you can't do it hire a professional web designer. If money is an issue, start a donation pool or even ask the community. People in the community have expressed their willingness to help behind the scenes on man occasions but they're always turned down for no good reason.

Software:
While I don't have as much of an issue with the software as other people do, it's stagnating. The last update to the software that I recall was the addition of tabs(which aren't even done like they should be done). Even when you disable tabs they just go invisible. Tabs still open/collect in the background when they're not being used. Disabled means completely, not partially. I understand that the Flash client is where your attention is going(at least I like to think it is) the feature requests are piling up and people are starting to lose faith that they'll ever be added. Most of which are simple things that I'm sure could be done with just a day or two of work. If navigating BYONDs programming is that much of a hassle, just restart. It would not only be worthwhile in the long run, but you could improve native support for map text, pixel movement and more.

Unlike most, I don't agree with removing the pager altogether but the 'secret' new pager that everybody knows about is a minor improvement to what we have. Interface design isn't BYONDs strong point so let more people in who actually know a thing or two about it instead of attempting to make something on your own. Just like a biologist doing chemistry; it's going to blow up in your face.

Closing:
As I said before, I have grown fond of BYOND and what it can do but it's falling behind times(even for it's tiny niche of a community). Take the slowly descending player count as an indicator of this. People have mentioned time and time again that they disagree with the way things are being done. Whether it's due to laziness, lack of motivation, or separate engagements; do something.

I appreciate your reading and eagerly await a response. I would also like to encourage the community to voice their opinion over this as well.

Updates Inbound!

Mon, 14 Jan 2013 08:56:14 +0000

You've been waiting for it and it's nearly here! Feed 2 is just around the corner and will bring a whole new assortment of features, tactics, and achievements to the table! Just what do I mean by all of this? Allow me to go further in depth!

Combat has recieved a complete makeover with an entirely new system that allows for more variety and flexibility with weapon effects. Firepower is also limited as players only have the ability to carry up to two primary weapons at a given time(yes, you can finally drop weapons) and two different tactical weapons. A new feature in regards to combat is the introduction of unlockable killstreaks. However, you may only have one active killstreak that may be used once every 100 kills! Ammo is also much more valuable as ammo boxes are now drops instead of having a crate you can visit whenever you want.

Competitive gameplay is something that unexpectedly developed among Feed and something we planned to adopt as a core feature. How will we do this? Player stats that grow and change with every game played! You can keep track of your accuracy, kills, revives, and shots fired! Each match also includes its own leaderboard that you can view anytime during gameplay to see who is in the lead for that given match! We also revamped our scoring system to balance out the numbers!

Bigger pixels were something that the community wanted but we never bothered with; man we should have looked into it sooner! Feed looks much better with bigger pixels!

Improved spawning was always something I wanted to get around to and it made a huge difference! Players no longer have to hunt down that last zombie on larger maps because spawning is all relative to player position and AI now has the ability to despawn and respawn near players if it goes too long without seeing a target!

There's much more to cover, but you'll have to experience it youself when the time comes! We held nothing back with this project and I feel it's finally what Feed should have been from the start. More electro, brains, and hordes of the undead are coming soon!

Thanks,
-Kumo

Note; I've gotten a couple questions about this; all current and previous subscriptions will be supported and bumped up to lifetime subscriptions - think of it as a thanks for supporting us!

[Ugli] Teasers #1

Thu, 20 Sep 2012 09:43:12 +0000

Game Info
I present to you the first public mockup images for Ugli; Frakture Studios latest endeavor! The art seen was done between Lilius and myself.

*Teasers do not represent the actual window-size of the game.

Ugli is a survival horror game that puts the player in the shoes of a young Victorian-era girl named Eva who has recently opened her eyes to her plummet into sin after the mysterious death of her mother. Shadowy embodiment of her own evil called 'The Darkness' are pursuing her in an attempt to once again blind her to her ways again - further ensuring her damnation. As Eva struggles to stay sane in her own home and find solace, she encounters a variety of puzzles, monsters and even her own reflections - but with no way to fight back, all she can do is seek solace in the light.

Announcements:
1. Java[10/4/12]

Donate to support the development of Ugli - Every cent helps!

Teaser #1

Thu, 20 Sep 2012 04:53:01 +0000

I present to you the first public mockup images for Ugli; Frakture Studios latest endeavor! The art seen was done between Lilius and myself.

Open-Sourced

Mon, 27 Aug 2012 03:34:40 +0000

Hello, Feeders!

Feed has been made open-source for everyone to mod and develop with so now you have the power to bring your own ideas and concepts to life on Feed! We hope this will not only be a great learning experience for newer developers, but also a great way to help encourage open-sourced, community-driven games on BYOND. Stop fearing the rips and help the community grow through encouraged learning and better learning methods!

Download: [Mediafire] #Please read the READ_ME.txt that comes up when you first open the source.

Notice: I had just fixed an issue with vetoing maps before I packaged this; I didn't do a very thorough bug test so pardon me if any issues still exist with it; I'll update this with a fix tomorrow if there needs to be one.

Happy modding,
-Frakture Studios Team

North Korea Loosening Up

Fri, 17 Aug 2012 23:52:13 +0000

Not sure how many people have heard, but Kim Jong Un(dictator of N. Korea) has been loosening up on restrictions and reflecting a more joyous and "fun loving" personality. Quite a change compared to his father. Turns out he's legalized cellphones, pizza, hamburgers, french fries, and woman wearing pants which were all previously considered "too western".

Personally, I'm quite fond of him and think these are some pretty incredible developments from such a strict regime. What are your thoughts?

Article: [Click]

Feed 2.4.1 Patch Notes

Wed, 18 Jul 2012 10:20:12 +0000

Heads up: This will likely be the last major post regarding Feed that I have on BYOND. All posts regarding Feed and it's development will be moved to the news feed for the Frakture Studios domain that was kindly supplied to us by our long time tech guru, Darker Legends.

#Taken from the Frakture Studios news feed.

Hey, Feeders!

Well, this patch has been a long time in development but believe us when we say, "it was well worth the wait!", we really mean it! This patch was focused on polishing the game and giving it a much-needed facelift. Personally, I think we as a team were definitely successful at reaching our goal! So, you're probably just here to look for the change log, right? Well here you go!

2.4.1 Change Log:

Imported a new colour picker from a previous side-project. (Kumo)
Picking up ammo will now display the type and amount of ammo picked up. (Kumo)
Bullets will now travel much farther. (Kumo)
Finished fixing Autobahn and Escape Plan. (Lili)
Tweaks and colour enhancements to base tiles. (Lili)
Added some new environmental details. (Lili)
Added turrets and flamethrowers. (Lili)
Fixed a layering issue with some shadows. (Kumo)
New menu for customization. (Kumo)
The chat is now toggleable. (ExPixel)
Redid various screen effects. (Kumo)
Fixed the issue where the weapon the player was using would cycle around when respawned. (Kumo)
Fixed a bug where the AI would pick up on players on a seperate z level. (Kumo)
Brand new map, "Hallowed". (Lili)
New HUD. (Kumo)
Improved Help menu for controls. (Kumo)
Fixed the issue where players would lose their weapon. (Kumo)
Outbreaks will now only happen after wave 5. (Cire)
Zombies will now move faster after wave 15. (Kumo)
New in-game account system; no longer tied to your BYOND account. (Cire)
New save system to match the new account system; everything is saved server-side now. (Kumo)
New, improved interface. (Kumo)
Designed some new weapons; will be added post-patch. (Lili)
Improved the player's base icon. (Lili)
Projectiles now have diagonal icon states. (Lili)
There are now five brand new ranks. (Lili)
Several brand new vanity items. (Lili)
Added a macro for taking screenshots; F2. (Kumo)

Standalone Launcher

For those of you who don't follow BYOND related news, they've recently released the beta version of their standalone launcher/installer. If you don't know what that means, it means a couple of things. Most importantly to us it means that we're no longer strictly tied to the BYOND website; we can now advertise openly wherever we want and people who launch and play the game, will never have to go through the BYOND website or even install BYOND! This will be the first step to promoting Feed and Frakture Studios out of BYOND and we hope to get some more publicity from this! Now, what else does this mean? Well, you know how programs will have an icon on your desktop and you can launch a program directly from there? You will be able to launch Feed directly from your Desktop at any time! It will display a list of online servers and you can connect from there! Sounds awesome, right? Our standalone client is being put together by a long time contributor and supporter of Frakture Studios; ExPixel. Should be complete within the next two days so check back here to stay up-to-date!

We hope we're doing everything we can to keep you all interested and supportive of both Frakture Studios and Feed. Have a suggestion or don't particularly like something? Tell us and we'll do everything we can to accommodate you! Also, thanks again to Darker Legends for setting us up with a site! We should be able to go much farther than previously possible!

Thanks,
-Kumo

Frakture Studios 2012
D-Cire | Kumorii | Lilius | Darker Legends

Map Maker [updated for 2.4.1]

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 05:27:04 +0000

Map Maker 2.4.1
Download: [link]

Any map designed with the older map maker was incompatible with 2.4.1 so we found it as the perfect time to update the map maker so you guys could design some new maps before Feed 2.4.1 goes live on the 16th! Let us see your creative sides, Feeders!

Please be sure to read the 'READ_ME.dm' file for tips and suggestions! The map, 'Evacuate', has been included with the map maker as a reference for designing your own maps! If you complete a map and want to see it included in the game, just leave a download link for it in this thread or contact Lilius or Kumorii via MSN!

Completed Maps:

Thanks,
-Kumo

Frakture Studios 2012