BYOND v.421: Be my guest!

ID:45455
 
Jul 17 2008, 6:13 pm (Edited on Jul 17 2008, 7:40 pm)
Keywords: software
With the recent release of v.421 (full release notes), we've attempted to make BYOND more accessible to new (and old!) users.

Newbies
  • Play BYOND as Guest without having to signup! Save those valuable keystrokes!

  • Don't worry about installing BYOND ahead of time. The website now detects if it is installed and let's you know what to do when you are ready to play a game.

Oldbies
  • There's no need to login to both the website and the software/pager. When you click on a game in the website, the site is smart enough to use your existing site login for the game.

  • Access all of the common game options (playing, downloading, hosting, etc) right from the webpage for the game. We've expanded the BYOND URL format to allow more options.

  • Users don't even have to visit BYOND.com to play your games, since 421 allows you to distribute your game as an executable file. Internally this simply runs BYOND on your game's URL (even downloading & installing BYOND if the user doesn't have it installed); externally the effect is just like a "true" EXE. This should add an element of professionalism for those of you who'd like to distribute games along indie channels. You can read more about that in this article at DreamMakers.


Although these are minor changes, we're hoping that they'll help us acquire and retain more BYONDers in this age of short attention spans!
Jul 17 2008, 6:17 pm
I like it.
Jul 17 2008, 6:17 pm
Thanks
Jul 17 2008, 6:19 pm
Executable file eh? That's sweet.
Jul 17 2008, 6:20 pm
That's an awesome update
Jul 17 2008, 6:30 pm
You guys out did yourselves this time.
Jul 17 2008, 6:53 pm
"The website now detects if it is installed and let's you know what you are ready to play a game."

This is completely irrelevant, but irks me too much not to mention. Assuming you meant "that"?
Jul 17 2008, 9:30 pm
I love it.
Jul 17 2008, 10:46 pm
"Users don't even have to visit BYOND.com to play your games, since 421 allows you to distribute your game as an executable file. Internally this simply runs BYOND on your game's URL (even downloading & installing BYOND if the user doesn't have it installed); externally the effect is just like a "true" EXE. This should add an element of professionalism for those of you who'd like to distribute games along indie channels." One word,"Awesome!"
Jul 18 2008, 3:29 am
I'm not sure what 3/4 of that meant but, awesome!
Jul 18 2008, 5:19 am
Great update!
Jul 18 2008, 6:06 am
The Dream Daemon update was the biggest one for me. It's going to be great not having to get someone else to test your connection 20 times before you get it right to allow yourself to host.

Dream Daemon will test the connection for you!

Yay!
Jul 19 2008, 3:17 am
Pager wont log in and I can't download any games, not so good for me.
Jul 19 2008, 3:25 am
It appears to be a server problem, Acebloke. My watched games are not showing up at the top of the page. (I tend to think something is wrong when I can't see Last Robot Standing online.) It happened last night as well.
Jul 19 2008, 8:03 am
Just got back and its still down :(

Can't even download anything.
Jul 19 2008, 9:02 am
Great job. I love being able to acess the different guilds of games from the pager itself, it makes things alot easier.
Jul 19 2008, 9:34 am
Sorry about that, folks. We're experiencing some server issues associated with our new update. Things may be shaky for a day or two while we iron out the kinks.
Jul 20 2008, 5:48 am
Ah.. Thats Good Fine Enogh to attract Newbies to Byond..
Aug 17 2008, 8:49 am
The only thing the pager needs now is a 'Ignore BYOND Alert Messages' function. Also, I wish you can customize your pager more then you can now. Like, order your friends list by how you want them to be, instead of ABC order. And set what size the pager is when you start BYOND.