BYOND Strategy Tech Tree: 161

I just started Grand Theft Auto: Vice City for the third time.  I was doing really well on the second run.  I had all of the packages I could access,  extra health from the pizza delivery missions and my cabs could hop.  Unfortunately, I was running off of a single save...  I saved over it after forgetting to take the neigh-indestructible car from the early "Guardian Angels" mission.  GRRRR!

Congratulations to NakaTeleeli on his 1000th video (such as it is) and to IndyMogul on the third anniversary of BFX.

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.

VcentG's Wyllshire Road has been added to the guild.  Previously submitted to BYOND Action due to the perceived degree of micromanagement, the game's RTS defense mechanics have landed it here.  Players are tasked with fending off hordes of apocalyptic creatures with a barricade of surviving humans.  The game can be played alone or cooperatively.  Check it out.

Grim Prospects is now listed in the guild.  It lacks sound effects and could use better AI, but I released a version for multiplayer testing.  I'll probably submit the game to BYOND Casual and Single Player Games once the kinks are worked out.  A bunch of matches will have to be played before I can reasonably offer a tangible version on The Game Crafter.

Grim Prospects is a card game where players each own a small mining crew that is struggling to get by.  The rights to tunnel segments must be forfeited to opponents.  Workers must be fired and sent to loiter near opponents in the hopes of attaining a job.  Finally, players may send some of their remaining workers to take their tunnel segment back by force while protecting what was forfeited to them.  The cycle continues until someone runs out of cards.  Whoever has the most valuable tunnel at the end wins.

Happy with a steady increase in players, EGUY has announced that his tile-laying game, Deus Rex, will be receiving an update. He's "looking to add more elements where forethought and skill can make a significant difference in play."  In a strategy game.  Go fig. ;)

Now if only that steady increase in players involved a higher rate.

With little more than faction names and random art for Belligerence, D4RK3 54B3R is now teasing FrostBurn as his Get Something Done Challenge entry.  I perked up at the mention of tech trees and early/mid-game units in the schedule he recently posted, but he just winked at me when I asked for details.  I saw the lobby server up so, after being teased some more, I asked him again.

FrostBurn will be a full-fledged RTS.  With the help of IainPeregrine's GSDC, D4RK3 54B3R is highly motivated to complete it. =)

Belligerence is on hiatus.  Apparently it was a TBS inspired by tabletop war games that used match credits and microtransactions to purchase new units.

His game is progressing ahead of schedule, but Geldonyetich has stated outright that his untitled GDSC entry is a vehicular action game rather than an RTS variant.  That means Tech Tree might go weeks without any links to his blog! *GASP*  Perhaps that's the secret to getting him to release something.

Oh noes!  My next project might be a single-player action adventure with random world generation.  I'm slightly worried about creating the art, but the environments are coming around thanks to royalty-free textures from Spiral Graphics... Granted, my square borders would probably make pixel artists groan in disgust.

My strategy efforts will probably be limited to sessions of Grim Prospects.