Aye, this really wasn't a big surprise. I've been wondering why you haven't handed over the gauntlet years ago. Nothing against your leadership as it's lead BYOND through a vast number of progress. I look forward to having Lummox Jr run the show and I hope you'll stick around Tom.
Good luck and godspeed on your adventures.
*Two Years Later*
Me: I'm back at byond Random: Byond? Pft. This is called Leeond. Me: WTF. | |
Wow, I didn't see this coming! Tom, the last founder and active developer of BYOND has finally passed the Dantom torch to Lee (Lummox JR). Right now, Lee is the only person other than Tom, who has what it takes to run BYOND, and I think he will give BYOND Software a brighter future.
I find it kind of funny that Lee also has a three letter name. So far, that seems to be the rule for leading BYOND. You just don't qualify unless you have a name that can be brought down to three letters! Since Dantom is made from Dan + Tom, both of which might not be doing anymore active development of BYOND, there might just be no choice, but to add Lee to the end of Dantom, forming Dantomlee. The only issue is that Dantomlee sounds like some kind of Pokémon. To be more serious, BYOND has mostly always been run by more than just one person. With two people, BYOND was already a lot of work for relatively little pay, and with one person, it would be even more so. To put things differently, Lummox JR, you are now the president of BYOND Software, so BYOND no longer has a vice president. Can BYOND function as well without a second person in charge? I'm afraid you might have to find someone to fill in the void, Lummox. However, if BYOND were to go mostly open source, then that probably wouldn't be as much of an issue. In any case, I'm sure that we can expect some big changes in BYOND. The fact that it's now being called BYOND Software, makes it sound like BYOND has a much more ambitious scope than just games. It sounds like either BYOND will move in a direction that will allow it to be used for general software development, or some new kind of software, other than the current BYOND might show up. This is all just speculation about the new name, and what it really means. Good luck Tom, with whatever it is you do next. If it wasn't for the work both you and Dan did, BYOND just wouldn't have existed, or at least not the amazing software suite that we have today. I hope that you always come back and check on the BYOND engine that you cared for all of those years. I'm sure you will always be curious to see how it's growing and changing. I know that I would be. You should invite Dan over here to have an online party for Lummox JR's inauguration! BYOND is entering a new age. | |
*Two years later*
BYOND is a multi-million dollar operation. The Nexus has united all games. And Tom has hypertension due to consuming too much ramen. More at 11. | |
Multiverse7 wrote:
The fact that it's now being called BYOND Software, makes it sound like BYOND has a much more ambitious scope than just games. Actually it's just that when I registered the DBA, they counted BYOND and Beyond as the same thing, so I had to augment it as BYOND Software. :) | |
So Lummox first order of business bringing back blogs.
P.s I'm only kidding BYOND doesn't need it. | |
That makes sense. I guess the name "BYOND Software" has been made a lot more official than "BYOND" was. If it moves forward as a business, then this is a step in the right direction.
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How much money are you going to need Lee to get development possible on OS X? 120k to hire a developer for one year and see what happens?
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Lummox JR wrote:
Multiverse7 wrote: I was promised source lummox wheres muh source :( | |
Pomf123 wrote:
I was promised source lummox wheres muh source :( They're not abandoning the project.. And so long as Lummox doesn't feel like open sourcing the software it's just not going to happen. So accept it, and have a cookie.  | |
O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done,
The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won,
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring;
But O heart! heart! heart!
O the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.
O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;
Rise up—for you the flag is flung—for you the bugle trills,
For you bouquets and ribbon’d wreaths—for you the shores a-crowding,
For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;
Here Captain! dear father!
This arm beneath your head!
It is some dream that on the deck,
You’ve fallen cold and dead.
My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still,
My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will,
The ship is anchor’d safe and sound, its voyage closed and done,
From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won;
Exult O shores, and ring O bells!
But I with mournful tread,
Walk the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.
~Walt Whitman
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Rocknet wrote:
How much money are you going to need Lee to get development possible on OS X? 120k to hire a developer for one year and see what happens? OS X is never going to happen. That just isn't any kind of feasible, and the market for it is way too small anyway. But the webclient should basically make that moot, since it runs on any modern browser. | |
Lummox JR wrote:
Rocknet wrote: Gonna stem the tide of the incoming: "Mac market is huge!". http://www.netmarketshare.com/ operating-system-market-share.aspx?qprid=10&qpcustomd=0 Windows-based OSes account for between 85 and 91% for home computers. And before anybody says: "Yeah, but mobile devices Apple is huge!" http://www.idc.com/prodserv/smartphone-os-market-share.jsp Android accounts for between 71% and 80% of the global smartphone marketshare, and about 51% of the tablet market share. IOS/OSX are a niche market everywhere except tablets, where they are 38% and shrinking (rapidly). So yeah... Lum's right. Investment isn't worth it. Better to improve penetration than invest in a new market. | |
Yeah, I would stick with the webclient for cross platform support considering HTML5 can be found on nearly any platform (most internet browsers today have support for it).
Heck, I have plans to port my virtual machine to HTML5 using Emscripten (though I'm still waiting on SDL 2.0 support to come in) or even port it myself. | |
Best of luck on your future endeavors, Tom.
Hope the change in ownership is a positive for BYOND. | |
Good luck, Tom!
Congrats Lummox :) | |
You should make byond as it was before. Only thing that's pretty nice is the new pager. Just an opinion though.
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gg