A new item was added to The Illusive Qualities of "Fun" and "Goodness" defined as part of the feature standards. While rules regarding gameplay can't always be known beforehand, they can be posted so all future games are judged on the same merits. Fortunately, a solution could be offered for the game the issue was discovered in. =)
Meanwhile, I've set the Minor Fixes forum to allow anyone to write in it. The forum was intended to be a place where reviewers could help games they believed in meet the standards for feature status. However, I'm still the only reviewer so I've opened it up for anyone to gather that particular kind of help. Of course, Classified Ads likely offers a larger audience.
Todo Review: Darker Emerald submitted Dead World. The trick is going to be catching a server while I have time. If you see me on, feel free to help me test. (Meanwhile, some of my own games have been submitted if anyone is interested in giving me a reason to reject them.)
Within BYOND
Unknown Person's tactical fantasy Ultimatum is now featured. There was some concern over the license of the background music, but that song was removed. Go grab a friend and join the server!
The submission thread ignited some debate. Please note that there is currently no featured game support outside of what I maintain and nagged the staff to implement. When you desire a policy change, you're essentially trying to tell me what to do with my time. Arguing with each other is likely fruitless. I'll frustrate you all in unique and mind-numbing ways. ;)
Forum_account's digging platformer A Miner Adventure has received an update. The new Career mode offers the open-ended gathering of ore and upgrades mentioned earlier. The new Survival mode offers a deathmatch with observers. Go earn some of the new medals and avatars as you listen to the music provided by Mr Waltz.
In non-news, the release of the Black Sanctum expansion to Silk Games' retro MORPG NEStalgia has been postponed until this weekend. An intermediary update and a PVP tournament have been offered in its place. As I've often thought, players just get in the way. ;)
Magicbeast20 has updated the wave-based survival horror of Quarantine. Animations, crawling zombies and a friendly NPC have been added. The latter is a military guard that both kills zombies and revives players. Though I'd like to see further steps taken, the removal of some of the game spam has been noted. (Also, remind me to post the runtime I just got.)
Falacy has again updated the treasure defense game GG: Tales of a King. Among various bug fixes and display changes, a Spectate mode was added. Play alone, play with others or just watch them fight.
I missed the earlier post, but The peoples republic of china's NOMADIC has retro beauty. It's described as a dungeon crawler with roguelike combat and mechanics inspired by Dwarf Fortress. A variety of humanoid races will be available.
Makeii has expressed concern over the work required for the online action RPG Magus Aora - Ederoll. I'm not sure how much shrinking the icons will help, but Tairun's extra hands might be able to take some of the load off. Makeii still has to save map instances and read-only variables while deciding how much to process on the server.
OrangeWeapons has posted setting and character attribute plans for a fantasy RPG called Kuniken that is based on Japanese culture. Meanwhile, a screenshot of his Cartridge Classic entry has been posted with a note that, despite its looks, it's not exactly chess.
Remember that Lummox JR's BYOND Cartridge Classic II ends on April 1st!
Procedural generation fan that I am, I couldn't pass up a chance to link to Koil's landscape generator. There's no hub entry, but a link to a demo is provided. I think it looks pretty. Are any games going to take advantage of it?
I'm going to add support for "rooms" with multiple cells to my Map Generation library. The rooms will be able to have an arbitrary shape. I'm also going to include some fast BSP splitting for rectangles and Prim maze support for connecting neighboring rooms.
BTW, if I cheat by merging columns, next week's post marks the 4th year and 200th entry. I'm meeting the arbitrary numbers, Tech Tree readers. Happy now? ;)
Beyond BYOND
- The Experimental Gameplay Project for March and April is to create the most horrible clone of an existing game you can. So horrible as to require an additional month apparently.
- Voting is now open for the TIGSource Versus Competition. 81 games were submitted. Voting involves choosing your three favorites within the next two weeks. Pictures and game links can be found here.
- The "short and simple" terms of Indie Fund are now public. Go read them.
- Robert Boyd offers 9 tips for marketing. They're intended for Xbox Live Indie Games, but can apply pretty much anywhere.
- Justin Keverne's Framework for Systemic Storytelling caught my eye. Maps are only one part of the procedural generation I'm interested in... Though I suppose they have their charms.
- Former Kotaku blogger Maggie Greene offers a history of her career in two parts. It might be of some small interest to those who, like Zagreus, do their own games writing. Granted, I was too busy writing to fully read it. ;)
I don't know how tired you are of Starcraft links. I'll allow you to skip Dodger's awkward interview with Husky, but this bit of history from the 2005 World Cyber Games is too cool to pass up. Especially if you're a fan of either Plott brother... Though you may want to give Artosis a hug.
Don't settle for a brief mention of activity. Get games featured!
