Too bright :|

I LIKE THE DARK!

I think the new style is the worst I've ever seen.

No offense, but I preffered our old styles, BYOND hasn't gotten any better with their templates, seriusly why they make site looks more like a scam every update. This is really sad, seeing how they wanted to have more community and now they'll lose it all. Funny to see how they said "Naruto RIPs won't appear on HUB" and a BR Game stills appearing, and It's from an old RIP already used...

...no offense, but new players'll automatically leave, this'll be probably BYOND's End, people worked hard for their games and for their players, why do byond keeps making their atraction to others harder with ugly hubs and styles in the main website? Pft... There are also less options when you try to search a game you want, no offense, but byond became a sh!t.

Stephen001 wrote:

You're not, as that feature actually already existed in the previous website (for maybe 2 years now) and as it's been completely ignored, it's obviously not an issue.

Ah, I never knew that. Funny, i've been playing and developing/hosting on Byond for years, and I never knew a feature like that existed.


As for the new site design, one thing that concerns me is what appears to be the loss of the "sub-hubs" from the games section. I didn't notice this at first, otherwise I would have mentioned it in my original post.


While it's great that the site is a bit less cluttered now, I can't help but feel that you're limiting your options when it comes to attracting new members, by making it a bit harder to find games they'd be interested in.

When browsing for games, originally, I would often skip the front page and go straight to the specialized hubs depending on what I felt like doing.

By putting everything together, you risk alienating new players (Who are unfamiliar with the old system.), who may grow frustrated at not being able to find a game in a category that they have a personal interest in.


It also seems to be something of the Starcraft 2 custom map dilemma. In that, just using a date/popularity/population filter to sort games on the main page risks making it harder for new developers to get their games seen after that initial rush of players shows up.

Heavy advertising or being featured in some way seems like it would be a requirement to get a decent starting population. Something a developer might not be the best at doing.


There also might end up being something of an "echo chamber" effect as time goes on, where the more heavily populated/popular game types top the rankings forever, making it harder for new developers to muscle into that "tier".

Adding in specialized, themed hubs mitigates that issue, as evidenced in other games that use a similar sorting system.

But then, maybe i've missed something. If so, I apologize for this post.

I actually really like it, but I'd like it if they would tone down the white a bit something like off white would be better for our eyes.

Indeed. I really like that page as well but I didn't include it in my rant because I'd rather have the old scheme than encourage this one.

RedI wrote:

The appeal of Byond initially is to create a game of your own, and have it available to the community for free..

Correct me if I am wrong, but non-members can still create hubs. Thus, your game is still available to the community through this site.

Money grab or what have you, it's not going ot be an easy feat trying to promote a new game WITHOUT Byonds assistance throught the website, which is the only place that offers the client to play these games.

If your game is good, you can easily do what many other non-BYOND indie developers do, promote your game. Just because you use BYOND doesn't mean you're restricted to only advertising here.

By the way, you can create an .exe which would download BYOND on the persons' computer if he or she doesn't have it.

New visitors to the community will not be aware that there are many excellent games that are simply not being promoted because they havn't paid Byond to do so.

Can you name some of these "excellent" games? Heck, if these games are so excellent, I'll buy the author a membership.

BYOND gives you everything. Free developers tools, a hub, even a blog. They give us a lot more than what most indie game-making tools do. Yet, people still find ways to complain over $18. I guess this is what happens when a company is too generous throughout all of these years?

BUT, I need to stress that I don't really approve of a sudden change(after all these years of support) that forces people to pay to use Byond as an Advertising Company to promote their games.. I'm limited in time or i'd go into more detail, but this is my quick opinion.

Go advertise elsewhere. You still are provided a hub, go Google "indie game forums."

Or better yet, lets make everything free. That way Tom can lose money and BYOND will eventually shut down. That would make all of us happy!

Syntty wrote:

I have only one problem... The site bugs for me where ever I go. Here is a picture to show you a part of the problem.

http://img156.imageshack.us/i/layoutbugs.png/

Could you post which Chrome version your using?

You should try clearing your entire cache, that worked for me.

Even if they are Rip's I would like to play them. I really don't like the new site at all, the old one is the best, and will remain the best.

Can you please MAKE another link for people who want the old website?

Nobody is forcing a gun to your head and making you play certain games. Good, original creations are being advertised above crappy, uninspired fangames precisely because they're extremely unpopular and have few players.

The original games need the extra exposure and BYOND needs to show it isn't just for Zeta rips. If people still want to battle against punching bags and gravity machines they can still do so by searching for Dragonball games. All the hub entries are still there.