1. What were you looking for when you came to BYOND?
I was looking for a utility to help me learn how to create multiplayer games.

2. What were your first frustrations?
Well, the users on those DBZ fangames and IC rips weren't exactly friendly, and I guess channel organization (though when I came, a good deal of DBZ fangames were in the fangame section.)

3. How did you learn how to program (or to use the Dream Seeker)?
I first started programming by use of the Icon Chatterz coding available on the hub. I did this four about two years and then I found the developer forum where I started learning all sorts of practices.

Moving into the present...

7. What new documentation do you think would be useful, if any?
I'd like to know about some of the undocumented procedures, I've found some to be pretty useful, like client.Command(). Also, I think examples should be provided for all documented procedures and operators and documentation should really just be updated.

8. What do YOU think about the layout of the website, both the "play" and "develop" sides? What would you change to make it easier and more useful for players and developers, new and old?
Well, it took me two years to find the develop side of BYOND. I think there should be a tab on the front BYOND page for it; if there is, I'm sorry, I usually just go directly to http://developer.byond.com . I think that orange gradient bar needs to be removed.

Here's more! I came here as Lord of Water in 2001.

1. What were you looking for when you came to BYOND?

I wanted to make games. I was making websites and Logo games, and I wanted something scriptable like Logo but networked like the web.

2. What were your first frustrations?

Mine were all related to creating games. I had no sense of how to write programs, or how to learn. I just kept getting frustrated and asking questions on the forums.

3. How did you learn how to program (or to use the Dream Seeker)?

Learning Dream Seeker was easy, and I learned to program through trial and error and documentation. I have never really read any of the tutorials or anything.

Moving into the present...

4. What advice would you give to someone who was new to BYOND today? (This advice could be about anything.)

I would tell them about a few quality games. I think that's really the most important thing -- a few really entertaining games.

5. Have you had friends who tried BYOND, but didn't continue with it? Why did they drop out?

They had a distinct sense that there were not enough good games or enough gamers to make it worth their time. They enjoy Xbox Live, where there are tons of people to play with all the time, and World of Warcraft, where there are thousands of players, etc.

6. Have you had friends you tried to introduce to BYOND, but they decided not to download/use it? Why not?

Yes, for the same reasons as above. They just weren't impressed.

7. What new documentation do you think would be useful, if any?

I want a few really neat games with source code provided. This would aid new developers in seeing how things are put together. The current generation of games with source code provided are mostly "rips", and their code is usually not instructive or even of good quality.

8. What do YOU think about the layout of the website, both the "play" and "develop" sides? What would you change to make it easier and more useful for players and developers, new and old?

I don't really like the website. The forum is nice, but I never spend time with anything else because it isn't interesting or helpful.

9. Anything else?

BYOND should focus on community and sharing. Those are its strengths, because developers can get up and running quickly and players have many games to share with their BYOND friends. Currently, I would say BYOND is very cliquish and game developers are always very possessive of their creations. This is evidenced by their grief over ripped graphics, etc. If more developers were releasing their graphics under Creative Commons licenses in the first place, it would improve the community rather than singling out certain developers as "rippers" and thieves.

Thanks for putting your time into this, Zilal.

What were you looking for when you came to BYOND?

I had previously found a game called "Final Fantasy Online" for Pueblo MUD, but it went down permanently a few months after I joined. Thereafter I was looking for a similar free online game. I found BYOND in late 2001 by following a pseudo-ad for DWO from a Dragon Warrior sprite comic. It wasn't until after playing DWO for a couple of months that I realized I could make games of my own.

2. What were your first frustrations?

I didn't have any before I started learning how to program in DM. Trying to piece together a game using trial and error (since I didn't fully understand the system) was quite frustrating. With each aspect that I mastered, however, subsequent issues became easier to resolve on my own.

3. How did you learn how to program (or to use the Dream Seeker)?

I read through and "did" all of the examples in the Guide. After that, I learned as I went along. I looked through the DM reference for procs that I thought might be useful and then tried them in trial-and-error sorts of ways until I figured out what they did and how to use them. The single most helpful thing for me was probably the Newbie help forum.

4. What advice would you give to someone who was new to BYOND today? (This advice could be about anything.)

Don't make a "rip" of another game as your first project. In the end, you won't learn a thing and aren't contributing in any way.

5. Have you had friends who tried BYOND, but didn't continue with it? Why did they drop out?

I got Abra into BYOND a few years ago. =P He still messes around with his Space Castle project periodically, but now that he's programming professionally, he doesn't have as much time to spend on BYOND (or desire?). I only had one other friend stick with it for any length of time. He played FFO for a while, then decided to play FFXI instead.

6. Have you had friends you tried to introduce to BYOND, but they decided not to download/use it? Why not?

Most see it as a novelty. They download the client, try a few games, and then never come back. "Why play tile-based games made by amateurs when you can play graphically stunning games made by professionals?"

7. What new documentation do you think would be useful, if any?

I'm not sure; I've been here too long to answer this in a meaningful way.

8. What do YOU think about the layout of the website, both the "play" and "develop" sides? What would you change to make it easier and more useful for players and developers, new and old?

Marginalize the Member's section and replace it with guilds.

9. Anything else?

can't wait for 4.0

Sweet, be sure to make the "newbie" tutorials actually VISABLE though, I hate having to dig around for stuff.

7. What new documentation do you think would be useful, if any?
Can't think of any external documentation that hasn't already been provided, but I'd like to see something that comes with Dream Maker and displays the first time you run it with an extremely basic tutorial (or maybe even ZBT1!), and references on where to go to access tutorials on this website.

Very good suggestion.

1. Game-making engine.

2. Some of the official channel libraries/demos were not properly documented, commented, didn't teach well, etc. This includes some even from Dan (his MUD engine, specifically)

3. Mostly referencing the DM guide for syntax, and looking over libraries that made sense. And of course, plenty of trial and error.

Moving into the present...

4. Visit the developer forums, ask for help politely. Even if you can't find source that will help you on your way, if you're polite on the forums, you can receive it.

5. Appearance and ease of entry. It takes a solid 10-15 minutes just to get started with a game (as you're trying to talk them through it on AIM) and once you're in it's entirely unimpressive visually. Much more control over the appearance of dream seeker and the improved graphics support of OpenGL is vastly needed.

6. I haven't had anyone not try it, but as I said before, after they wade through getting setup they're unimpressed.

7. I think more official tutorials and examples should be included in the guide. I'd even go so far as to seperate them by genre and make quite a few example games as part of the documentation - after all, GameMaker does it. They include the images, sounds, and everything. In fact, including some sample source projects might not be a bad idea.

8. I'll stay away from this one.

9. I definitely think ease of entry should be a top priority. Download the game -> Choose between making a key or a big explicit button that says Login as a Guest, which throws you right in. If you're logged in as a Guest, you

1. A way to make online games.

2. The guides were great, but they did not allow for much expansion past what they showed you.

3. By persisting through the initial stages of confusion, and by having a goal on what I wanted to accomplish.

Moving into the present...

4. The best way to learn would be to learn at the same time as a friend so you can bounce ideas off each other.

5. Yes I have. They became constantly drunk and stopped having time to use their computer.

6. Yes, it seemed too simple to them. These kids with their 3d games…

7. A wiki or other method of connecting all the information that is out there together.

8. I like the new “play” website, however, I think it would also be nice just to see a list of all the games.

9. Not really.

i am new and i am looking for a GOOD tutorial that covers a lot and actually works!! i have found a lot of nice tutorials but the examples dont work and they dont teach you what is actually being done