Troy Goodfellow's Gods At Play looks like it's going to be useful reading for BYOND Strategy developers.  Rob Zacny's latest Keys to the Kingdom was also of interest.  Unfortunately, the activity of the developer forums never really spilled over into the guilds so I might just post the links in Tech Tree.  I'll have to pretend that it's a credit to my column rather than a comment on my guild leadership.

BTW, the HDH Invitational's Round of 8 is starting to be posted on YouTube.  Me likey.

This edited version of Along The Tech Tree comes to you from BYOND Strategy, a guild run by unpaid volunteers on a game/development portal and software engine called BYOND.  Tech Tree focuses on recent developer activity.  For play suggestions, visit the guild.

Zxcvdnm confirmed that DDT's Wiz-War homage, Last Robot Standing, is having graphical issues.  Not that Gamasutra readers are likely familiar with the featured list anyway, but the game has been removed.  If it happens to get fixed then I don't mind putting it back.  However, it's old and the developers are gone.

It's still one of the highest ranked games on BYOND...  Frelling nostalgia.

Acebloke posted the results of March and April's AceMedalTable.  Little has changed.  On the bright side, he announced that new medals are planned and he should eventually release a bugfix for his economic/military sim, Wargames.  In the meantime, he will be working on his tactical RPG, Joshtan1, for the Get Something Done Challenge.

I've been playing a lot of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City lately, so Geldonyetich's first progress report on his Get Something Done Challenge entry (unfairly) reminds me of Jeremy Robard.  However, his second reveals that Project Shock now has a design document, a preliminary interface and a random map generator.

Honestly, the game has been through so many redesigns that I'm not even sure how much strategy is involved anymore, but I've grown used to referencing his posts just so we can nag him.  Tee hee.

Hey, you know that Get Something Done Challenge I keep mentioning?  Friday was the last day to send IainPeregrine your initial entry.  The official rules can be found here and further details can be discussed in the forum.  Only a short description of the project (or old source code) was required.  Completed projects will be expected by June 1st.  A list of the entrants has been posted.

I should have released a version of my mining card battle, Grim Prospects, ages ago, but at least I'm making progress.  All of the phases have been implemented, I fixed a bug in my hidden Multiple Game Rooms library and I made a few interface changes (that are not displayed in the screenshot).  I also created a music loop over a month ago, but I don't know if I'll have sound effects added before I start testing.   Either way, I still need to add the timer options, make the AI less random, display final scores and *GASP* play some complete matches.