1.21 Gigawatts

BYOND 455 Before & After

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 17:46:02 GMT

+100 Internets to the BYOND staff. I don't know how they do it, but these updates rock.

Looking for an artist!

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 16:33:07 GMT

I'm still desperately looking for an artist. If you or anyone you know is not currently busy with schoolwork, please direct them to the forum post. Keep in mind most of the artwork is done and you'll only be required to draw small details and fix up some of the current stuff. If you decide to stick around there will definitely be more maps to come.

I'll be making an announcement about Decadence sooner or later, depending on how the artwork pans out. Until then there wont be any beta sessions.

How many BYONDers are women?

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 16:35:13 GMT

More importantly I'm trying to decide if there are enough women on BYOND to warrant a female icon and female voice clips. If you know any, please direct them to this poll.

If you are a woman, please comment on how important it is for you to have a female icon to play as.

Small Update

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 13:37:51 GMT

*blargh*

Decadence Beta - Day 3

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 12:21:29 GMT

There will be another beta session today at 5pm Pacific. We'll be playing Team Slayer mostly.

I've made a lot of changes to the zoom mechanic. Movements should transfer over from one mode to the other so you no longer stop dead in your tracks. There's also a 'double zoom' feature for long range weapons. If you press Z once it will zoom out to the normal distance, pressing Z again will zoom out to max range, pressing Z one more will unzoom. Hopefully players will begin to scout ahead as intended.

Zooming also automatically crouches, you no longer have to hold the space bar. You're always going to get a bonus to your accuracy and you'll be protected by whatever cover you're standing by. You can also press the space bar while zoomed in order to remain crouching after unzooming.

The cover mechanic has had a few notable changes as well. The first change I made was to make all cover around you useful rather than just the cover directly in front of you. If you're facing to the side with cover above you and a bullet comes from the north, the piece of cover above you will still protect you even though you aren't facing it. Because of that upgrade, players are also now able to turn and shoot in any direction while crouching. You'll still be dealt full damage if bullets hit you from an unprotected angle.

There are also a few changes to the weapon balancing and map layout.

NOTE TO BETA TESTERS: Please leave your comments on the forum so I can read them when the beta session is over. I can't remember everything said during the beta and you can be much more thorough on the forum.

Decadence Beta - Day 2

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 19:07:46 GMT

Thank you AmonR, Martain, Metamorphman, Mista Dougie, T3h B4tman, and Techgamer for showing up today, that was really fun playing with you guys. There didn't seem to be such a laggy start this time, at least for me, and the game stayed pretty fast and smooth throughout the whole session. I'm happy to report pretty much every bug discovered yesterday didn't show up today. These improvements wouldn't have been made without the support of the beta team. You guys rock. Also, thanks to the three men who got to be a part of my first official triple kill. ;)

Decadence will not be (officially) hosted until Sunday. I could use a break and I need some time to make some changes. Consider the next few days open for anyone who wasn't able to get on the original beta list.

Please subscribe in order to keep up-to-date on Decadence information. Also, feel free to post any comments, bugs, or suggestions on the forum.

Decadence Beta - Day 1

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 20:24:54 GMT

Thank you AmonR, Fugsnarf, Mista Dougie, Suzakou, T3h B4tman, Techgamer, and Zaole for taking part in today's beta testing. Though it was a rocky start with everyone jumping on and downloading the resources at the same time, things eventually stabilized and we had a few 2v2/3v3 matches. I genuinely had a blast being able to play with so many people.

I received a great deal of feedback in-game and I was able to squash a few major bugs, along with a few minor ones. If you have a minute, could you please post about any bugs you discovered like Fugsnarf has? Any criticism, no matter how insignificant or harsh will only help with the development of the game. Don't pull any punches.

Bug Report: Major: 2 (2 Squashed); Minor: 5 (4 Squashed); Runtime Errors: 0

Decadence will go live again tomorrow at 5pm Pacific with a few tweaks and changes, so feel free to stop by. Also, don't forget to subscribe in order to keep up-to-date on Decadence information.

Features	Staff
10 Weapons/Grenades 4.0 Macro Support 3D Sound Achievements Character Customization Cover Elevation Grenade Physics Limb Damage Perks Pixel Projectiles Weapon Accuracy Weapon Upgrades Exploding Barrels!	Lead Programming: Chris Thiessen (SuperAntx) Lead Pixel Art: Daniel Mize (Bakasensei) Pixel Art: Matthew Honnick (Maggeh) Terry Mack (AmonR) Paul Mitchell (Pmitch) Miguel SuVásquez (D4RK3 54B3R) Jake Woods (ninlil) Special Thanks: Wulfon – Music Tayoko – Art Contribution Chris-g1 – Art Contribution

Decadence Beta

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 11:51:30 GMT

Decadence, a premiere 2D action game, will begin closed beta testing in the following weeks. I'm looking for a solid group of individuals who are usually online in the evening. You must be able to write detailed bug reports, provide constructive criticism, and have access to high speed internet. Programming experience is a plus.

While one of my objectives is to stamp out any remaining bugs, my main goal is to provide the game with some much needed weapon balance. You're encouraged to be as creative as possible with your choice in weapons and perks.

Please send me an email or leave a comment detailing what time you're usually online on a regular weeknight.

Features	Staff
10 Weapons/Grenades 4.0 Macro Support 3D Sound Achievements Character Customization Cover Elevation Grenade Physics Limb Damage Perks Pixel Projectiles Weapon Accuracy Weapon Upgrades Exploding Barrels!	Lead Programming: Chris Thiessen (SuperAntx) Lead Pixel Art: Daniel Mize (Bakasensei) Pixel Art: Matthew Honnick (Maggeh) Terry Mack (AmonR) Paul Mitchell (Pmitch) Miguel SuVásquez (D4RK3 54B3R) Jake Woods (ninlil) Special Thanks: Wulfon – Music Tayoko – Art Contribution Chris-g1 – Art Contribution

The Hunt For Gollum

Sat, 15 Aug 2009 13:39:43 GMT

The Hunt For Gollum is 40-minute independent film directed by Chris Bouchard. It is based on expository passages in both The Fellowship of the Ring and its appendices. The film had a shooting budget of less than £3,000 ($4950) and had 160 volunteer crew members. Location filming took place in North Wales, Epping Forest, and Hampstead Heath; all shot in high definition.

The Hunt For Gollum takes place just before the The Fellowship of the Ring. Gandalf fears Gollum may know the location of the One Ring so he sends Aragorn on a quest to find him. Gandalf, Arwen, Gollum, and Aragorn all make appearances. Though, as the title suggests, the film mostly focuses on Aragorn tracking down Gollum.

We get to see Aragorn use some of his ranger tracking skills, fight some orcs, and encounter a Nazgul rider. Don't be fooled by the low budget, the film looks amazingly well made. Compared to most fan films this one should be shown in theaters. They've done a superb job channeling Peter Jackson's ability to enhance a shot with CG without having it get in the way.

The acting is great, you can clearly tell they respect the characters and the world they exist in. There are a few choice scenes where even Jackson's films don't touch on how awesome the characters are. If you love the trilogy you will find The Hunt For Gollum to be more than enough to hold you over until The Hobbit hits theaters.

You can follow this link to watch the movie at whatever quality suits you best. The film is best seen with the lights off and windows closed. You could always turn your monitor's brightness up a notch if you're unable to get the room dark.

Gamer - 09/04/09

Tue, 11 Aug 2009 05:37:42 GMT

Watch full trailer!

Gamer is set in a world where death row inmates are forced to fight to the death in gladiatorial battles with modern day weapons. Within this world exists a game known as Slayers which allows its players to take control of the prisoners and use them as avatars in some sort of first person shooter.

Just because of the subject matter there is a very high chance the movie is going to be a complete train wreck. So high I would be surprised if it wasn' terrible. I'm also fairly certain I've seen this exact same scenario played out in a low budget movie on the Sci-Fi channel. There's also a chance angry soccer moms and overprotective parents will use this movie as an excuse to push for more video game censorship.

That, however, is not what concerns me. What I want to know is how the company behind Slayers able to manage everything going on in that pretend world. They have the technology which allows someone to log into another person and take control of them. Surely that would completely wipe out large portions of society if it ever fell into worse hands. There's also prisoner management, licensing, weapons, ammunition, arena construction, and all sorts of unimaginable costs associated with running a death simulator.

Wouldn't it just be a lot easier to make virtual reality games available to the mass public?