What is the reasoning for tying down all games to Byond.com?

ID:2286950
 
Aug 24 2017, 4:22 pm
(See the best response by SeymourG.)
Why isn't making an exe of your game not a standard feature? Just seems like requiring the byond pager, and requiring a byond account, etc, is really a hinderance to you and the devs.

Just wondering what the reasoning is when BYOND.com barely gets any traffic so it is very hard to get any players to your game if you are tied down to it. Can't you just charge a 500$ fee for games that want to go their own way or do royalties?
Aug 24 2017, 4:31 pm
Best response
I'm not sure what you mean by not being a standard feature. Ever since July of 2012 there has been BYONDexe, a program which does exactly what you say, and convert your BYOND game into an exe file to use elsewhere (which is how some BYOND games have been Greenlit on Steam). I'd recommend reading up on the post introducing it:

http://www.byond.com/forum/?post=891692
Aug 25 2017, 6:25 am
For some added information, the reason that BYONDexe requires a key is to enforce licensing agreements. The program itself does not have any form of monetization, so there needs to be a certain level of trust between you and the BYOND engine developer (LummoxJR) when it comes to revenue share to make up for the lack of ads with the exe games.