What's up with BYOND games, lately?

ID:2209782
 
Feb 7 2017, 6:37 am
no rly, can someone play some BYOND games and tell me what they're like now? I would play some myself, but I'm too lazy to (well I will check out some) and I already have a mmorpg I play aah

Basically, when I played BYOND games (which was mainly only year 2002) it was just a bunch of Dragon Ball Z fangames (my first BYOND game was one, too) where you click repeatedly to punch punching bags.

I did see some really cool BYOND games, though, but anyways..

My main question that I've been trying to get to, is..

how did BYOND Action-RPG games avoid having gameplay consisting of clicking punch on a pbag or monsters, over and over?

are they all like Secret of Mana or The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past now, or what?

or an alternative bonus question is:

"halp my hamster rivals game just has players clicking Punch on pbags and monsters over and over again, well when I made it in 2002 I just took the coding from my dbz fangame which the code was mostly not mine anyways, ok how do I make the battle system more interesting?"

I have some original ideas (I think) with the battle stats, but the gameplay of clicking Punch repeatedly while the sprites perform no animation at all, as well casting some spells occasionally, just seems kinda boring. So I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions on how to improve it. I was thinking of it having it be mostly be the same, except having it kinda like Secret of Mana where it shows the character attack. But idk.
Feb 7 2017, 6:41 am
Don't use pbags. That's literally just like giving game design the finger.
Feb 7 2017, 7:36 am
In response to Kumorii
Don't worry, that's a genre now. We call it an "idle game" these days.
Feb 7 2017, 9:01 am
One way you can make it better is by not just having pbags to punch. For example, some games use logs. One game I tried also had you stand in one spot and lift actual weights which was a bit more realistic. Just try to be creative - don't just make one red pbag and call it a day. Incorporate logs, weights, hyperbolic time chambers, etc.

If all else fails you can also sell accept donations for in-game privileges such as an instant boost of 100 levels or something like that.
Feb 9 2017, 7:16 pm
Yut Put wrote:
when Falacy replaced pbags in his dbz game with pictures of tom

Did he call them tbags?
Feb 9 2017, 10:26 pm
Figure out what's interesting to you and pursue that wholeheartedly. Remember: You were a consumer before you were the producer. Use that experience to create an experience you -- and by extension, players like you -- can enjoy. This approach cannot fail.
Feb 10 2017, 7:35 am
The punching bag usually comes from a world-first-gameplay-later approach to design, which is pretty backwards. Kids come into the game design process without a mechanic or series of mechanics that they want to explore and hit on.

They start building a world and map and enemies before they even have a good grasp on what their mechanics are, which usually means that they're rushed, last-minute affairs.

Then when they're finished with the mechanics, they realize that their world has no method of progression and that they need a way for players to level up and see it all. So they add a punching bag. Often they implement it without even thinking about the careful [Rewards/Effort Required] formula when designing progression and reward systems.

Oh, and realism is your enemy. Don't ever try to make game realistic at first. People get the great idea where, "Well, in animes, people don't have upper limits, they just keep getting stronger" which is true, but having no power limit is a really shit game mechanic. Create power limits. Don't let your players train to oblivion.

And if you end up with that world-first design and feel like you need a punching bag just to add progression, then just don't bother adding progression mechanics. Games are often more interesting where the more powerful players aren't necessarily higher level, but who have explored more.