Some of the guilds on BYOND are designated as "banner guilds". BYOND uses the games they feature as choices in the banner rotation across the site.
BYOND Strategy is one of these guilds and its featured games can be found here. Unfortunately, I find that not enough developers take advantage of the list. Perhaps the boost in advertising isn't great enough or they can't be bothered to meet the requirements.
Tech Tree is a list of links about games in BYOND Strategy, a guild run by volunteers on a game/development portal and software engine called BYOND. Those curious about notes or YouTube videos I've cut out can view the original version.
- The Feature Checklist has been updated with a requirement that unlicensed content is not welcome. It's still possible for fangames to be listed in the guild, but they can't be featured. Technically, this was always the case in BYOND Strategy, but it was not stated outright like it should have been. The tyrant who wrote the checklist felt like being more thorough.
- Speaking of that tyrant, BYOND Strategy is now featuring my recently updated robot-crashing game, Gears & Peers, and my daemonic wargame of adaptable units, Flesh and Drone. I didn't wait around requesting second opinions in Tech Tree for weeks. I added the games myself while telling people to call me on any abuse of power. As usual, both games have been added to the list of review requests in the Disclosure forum.
- IainPeregrine posted the results of Game in a Day 2009.
- Oasiscircle came in first with his defense game, Turtle Towers. I'm usually wary of games created for contests. However, I reasoned that this one had enough polish to be listed in the guild and Oasiscircle's willingness to continue updating has assured me that I made the right decision.
- Jp's turn-based tactical game, Gears of War, came in third and has been added to the guild with the news that it might be worked on further.
- D4RK3 54B3R's RTS, Empyrean War, was awarded for being complete. There doesn't seem to be a hub page, but D4RK3 54B3R has offered a direct download.
- Last week, Calus CoRPS made me aware that some games are available to download again. =)
- 172.16.0.1/Calus CoRPS' turn-based tactical battle, Fortay is again featured.
- 172.16.0.1/Calus CoRPS' turn-based world conquest, Infamous Zipcom, is listed.
- Nategrant and Oasiscircle's base defense game, Palace, is listed.
- Ginseng's RTS, TribeWars, is listed.
- Lendgens's RTS, War, is listed.
- Mobius Evalon is slowly making progress on Board Game Chat. The basics for Go and Backgammon have been finished, but it looks like some of the source might have to be rewritten for piece tracking.
- Techgamer is still working on his strategy RPG, Strategy and Subtlety. Updates will eventually include an item system with randomized stats, enemy loot drops, improved maps, AI tweaks, HUD notifications, and bugfixes. There appear to still be positions open, but Redbutton is now providing at least some of the art. (BTW, there's a test server up as I write this and AI if nobody's on.)
- AZA's Build A Space Game contest is looking for prize donations. Contestants may have something to look forward to after 3 months of creating space-based games with themes of either horror, asteroids or scavenging... Other than the games themselves, I mean.
- Aside from Gears & Peers, I've been working on my boardgame, Genetic Fork. The Game Crafter
just got some new parts. Together with some dice swapping (used to get specific colors), I've managed
to add another $5 to my game's cost. Normally, that would bother me,
but I'll also be offering a lite version and the trade off for better
dice and composite pawns seems worth it.
Meanwhile, those offended by my games in the BYOND Strategy featured list can laugh as I attempt to get my Williams-inspired arcade game, Wrangle, Warp and Weep, featured in BYOND Action in the face of criteria that I have no control over.
