[MUD-Dev] [sweng-gamedev] BYOND game development system (fwd)

[J C Lawrence]

------- Forwarded Message
From: Ronald Hayden <ron at deadron.com>
To: <sweng-gamedev at incagold.com>
Message-ID: <B6A6E09A.A76F%ron at deadron.com>
Subject: [sweng-gamedev] BYOND game development system
Date: Wed, 07 Feb 2001 11:23:07 -0800

It's been very politely and sensibly suggested that if I want to see
something besides null pointer discussions I should talk a bit about
the game system I'm using, which is called BYOND
(http://www.byond.com).

BYOND is an excellent little system originally aimed at
non-professionals who want to create multi-player MUDs, puzzles,
turn-based strategy games, etc.  In other words, non-twitch games.
I say originally because over the past year it has matured into a
tool that is now also usable by quasi-professionals.  That is, it's
now possible to create a game with the system that could generate a
revenue stream.

BYOND started out as a pure MUD engine, and was originally called
DUNG (Dantom's Universal Network Gaming engine).

It uses a clean OO language that is a cross between C++ and Java
with all the confusing stuff thrown out.  Pretty similar to
SmallTalk and Objective-C in approach, with dynamic binding,
introspection, heterogeneous objects in lists, and the ability to
extend or override methods from any object in the system, whether
built in or home grown.  Supports classic syntax or (preferable to
me) a Python-style no-brackets approach.  For those who have grown
up on C++ and want to deal with pointers, templates, operator
overloading, and multiple inheritance, the language would probably
not be attractive.  For those, like me, who prefer pure OO
languages, it's very ideal.  No need for a language war here though:
this is what the system uses, and it's either appropriate for you or
it isn't.

The graphics model is interesting because it is both sophisticated
and primitive.  It is sophisticated in that they support their own
icon format which allows for directions, animations, unlimited icon
states, overlays and underlays all combined in a very flexible easy
to use package.  It is primitive in that they use a tile-based model
(each tile being 32x32 pixels) with no support for pixel level
handling.  If they had started the project recently they probably
would have created a more flexible graphics model.  But the project
was started several years ago, and the original conception was that
the graphics only needed to be rich enough to support classic
MUD-style games.  As a result the system is not good for most styles
of action game (though I have managed to do both action and
pixel-oriented games with it), but is ideal for turn-based strategy
and puzzle/card games and the like.  My personal bent is turn-based
strategy.

Where the system gets really interesting is the extremely flexible
infrastructure support.  You can create:

  -- Client/server
  -- Peer to peer
  -- Single-player
  -- Web games
  -- Web pages that interact with your client/server games

Amazingly, from my point of view, the first three types of games
listed here require absolutely no code changes.  Any game you create
will automatically run in any of these modes.  If you run a
client/server game, all activity occurs on the server.  This is good
for keeping things simple and for prohibiting cheating, bad for
optimizing performance.

You also have many options for information display within the game.
You can't draw text over the graphics, but you do have a full web
browser view as well as a text output area.  The web browser is an
IE component and functions as an external browser as well as being
fully integrated into the game.  For complex information interfaces
(character generation, help system navigation, etc) you can output
web pages with embedded links or forms that will call game
functions.

A recent addition to the system is support for financial
transactions.  BYOND provides a Pay-Pal like system where people can
use their credit card to add money to a wallet, and you can prompt
the player within a game for payment.  BYOND also supports a
merchant system, allowing you to sell books or other game-related
items through them.

The system is a week or two away from a mini-publicity blitz.
There's more I can discuss if anyone is interested, and/or you can
try out the first real game my team has been working on, DragonSnot
(free, and available at http://www.deadron.com).

I've been banging my head against game development as a hobby for
years, and this is the first system that has really made sense for
me.

-- Ron
------- End of Forwarded Message

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