Kesstryl

Huh, I didn't know adoptables could have evolutions. It's a shame the artists haven't made alternate forms, or do they know they can do that?

@SingSong if you join, my name is Kesstryl there, and I have a new player giveaway tab so definitely grab a couple pets. Other players also run giveaways in the Giveaway section of the forums.

Gotcha, ok, I just have to let him grown a little more

I added this game into the Games Directory because I thought other people here might find it worth playing. It's not my game, it's just a game that I play that I thought should be on the list.

I think the adoptables are really cute, and a great motivator to get people to post. I haven't quite figured out how to name mine yet though, is there a catch to that?

Magistream is a pet game that has been around since 2006. It features beautifully detailed pixel art; growing stages with egg, hatching, and adult; and hybrids that can only be acquired through breeding mixed species. You can also receive special unique pets from quests and holiday events. Pets grow through clicks, and pets also include bbcode so that they can be posted in forums to generate clicks. Below are some pet examples: View full game

I think the adoptables were a little more popular than you anticipated Seriously, the layout and look of the current site is much better than what I saw yesterday, and to me it's easier to navigate. The games list page is really nice too.

True, and he did make a great elf, but in the books they are supposed to look ageless, so the movies took some liberties there

We already had our grown up Halloween party this weekend (so the kids among our friends and family can have theirs on proper Halloween), and I dressed up as a dryad. I used to love dressing up as an elf, but I'm getting a few wrinkles at my age, and I wanted to try something that would look good with a little bit of aging. I love how it turned out.

After trying the new version yesterday, I do have to say I like this one much better, and yes I am happy to have my adoptables back! I'll try to contribute more or buy a custom adoptable every now and then to help offset that $170 yearly cost.

I always look for game play screen shots, and if it's a pet site, I look for samples of pets. I need to like the artwork, and I like to see how the game is played before I decide to sign up and give it a try. If a game lacks those two things, I will generally pass on signing up because I have a lot of things to do in a day, and don't have time for guessing about games.

I've taken it upon myself to collect the very ones you are talking about. It's the first 50 or so creatures in the Bestiary that have the extra art. I'm guessing it was difficult for them to keep up with doing that, so newer creatures no longer have it, but a lot of the newer creatures has exceptionally detailed pixel art. That site has been around for a long time, but still has a good active following. My main point was you can create a niche game, and who knows, you might generate a good following from the nostalgia crowd, or even introduce younger generations to something that would be new for them. Pixel art can be really gorgeous and inviting. I think you should make the game that you want to make, and let it draw the kind of crowd you want it to draw. If your goal is to just make money, then go with newer technologies and art, but if your goal is to make something you love, then do what you love. I'm developing a text based really old school PBBG and don't expect a huge turn out for it, but I'm loving what I'm doing, and to me that is my reward for making my game. I think when you really care about what you are doing, it will make the product shine more. If you joined up on Magistream, send me a message there and I'll add you to my friends list and send a couple free pets

For me those times would be between 2:30 A.M and 12:30 P.M. I have a four month block from January through April where I will be doing an internship as part of the requirements for my teacher's certification, which will make my Fridays busy. I do anticipate having a spring break in there during one of the months, but for the other three months, I will not be available until about 4:30 P.M. which would be 10:30 P.M. for you. I could try to fit an hour in before I go into the school, but if Saturday morning would be possible during those few months, that would be great. Let me know how all of this sounds, and if you are still interested in my application, I will be glad to forward my resume and any additional information which you require. Thank you

What time on Fridays are you looking at for Skype meetings? I need to correlate that with EST American time to see if I am able to meet at a time convenient for you. If this is possible, I will be glad to forward my resume and anything else you might need to consider for my application. I'm an Education major, and I work as a tutor, which includes English (American, though I can certainly study British English and learn some of the intricacies of how it is spoken). Working with students, and training to work in a classroom setting, has helped me to acquire communication and working with people in a friendly manner. I do love horses too, and my mom worked on a horse ranch when I was a kid, so I have some personal experiences there. Finally, I know how to use Photoshop, and I'm proficient with various applications, and can learn them easily. I do not know Dutch, and also my time on Fridays will be limited, and that is why I'm asking around what time on Fridays you would need to have Skype meetings.

I think nostalgia is definitely bringing a lot of people back to old school type games. There is some really beautiful pixel art out there. If you want to check out a pet game with really gorgeous pixel art, check out Magistream. Edited to add an example:

Mysidia is finally working for me again, I finally logged back into the forums today.

@Onyx I can't remember what the difference was between the gold and silver on Aluriya, but I do remember buying an arabi and tibbur, and custom coloring them through the demo. Was that what the silver ones were? I don't remember there being golds.

I was one of the few that really fell in love with Aluriya, and I really loved the art and also the breeding system that simply merged layers which gave interesting results. I was bummed out when it closed, but I understand when things just aren't working and measures have to be taken. I'm trusting that my pets from there are still in safe keeping somewhere and I'll see them again in one form or another. I am curious if the customs we purchased from Aluriya will be going to this game, or if they will be transferred to Khimeros. I only ask because I had a custom Arabi, and Aethria will have the Arabi.

Welcome Martyn!

I think people are misinterpreting my having obscurity as part of my security to being the only form of security I have. I have already implemented everything that I am receiving advice for about security. I would like to stick to the original topic as I have gone far above and beyond the basics of security for my game. While I'm sure there are always new things to learn about hardening up code and fixing holes to new security threats (something I keep up with as much as possible), the basics of security that a new coder would be learning is something I'm long past. Using obscurity was one tiny part of the process, not the entirety of it. Thank you very much for all of your input. I still have a few things I want finished before any kind of Alpha or Beta release, but I asked because I do have a mostly finished and fully playable game. You can already level up to max level just by killing mobs in the fully working battle system. I'm working on quests and lore right now. I have fully working forums, chat, battle system, pvp, bank, in-game mail, equipment shop, and clans. What I don't have is a lot of art, but this is a text based game. I have avatar art. I would like monster mob art, but that's 151 images to draw for a text based game so I'm thinking of adding monster art after an alpha release as a novelty feature since it's not really needed for this genre of game. So you can see that I have more than just a ribbon with an unfinished road dropping off to nowhere, LOL. I'm just trying to figure out when I should start bringing in a community to help direct this. I like the idea of limited alpha testers, and I thought about having an alpha test site apart from the production site. You all have given me much to think about.

@Anoua I definitely already have all that other security stuff in place like validating all user input, using form tokens, password hashing with salt, etc, and I added in obscuring too because I'm paranoid about stuff like that.

You know, I haven't seriously thought about giving out accounts with low account numbers because the account number is something I was obscuring as part of my security process. The only thing people will see is your character name and character stats and info. Usernames and account numbers are not going to be visible. I don't know how much that will help or hurt. I honestly wasn't going to charge for accounts anyway, it's a completely free game which will have ads. I do plan on implementing something like removing ads for a monthly donation of any amount (a dollar or more) and having character class change being a pay for item, but I wasn't planning on monetizing a text based RPG very heavily because it's now a retro genre that I don't see having a huge player base. I'll eventually add a few cash shop fluff like appearance items, but that's further down the road. The game itself is fully playable right now. I mainly need more art and to flesh out the lore and add some more features.

I'm developing an old school text based PBBG based on players being dragons, so I definitely don't think just because something is old, it's died out. Just as 8 bit games came back in a nostalgia craze, any of the old school type games including forum role play games will always have a crowd. Moving animations are not always needed to be engaging, just have a good game.

Should an Alpha version be released so players can give feedback while a game is developing (assuming you have something that is playable, stable, and secure), or is it better to wait until something is more polished? I've seen so many gamers complain and give bad reviews about games in an alpha or beta state as if they are expecting it to be finished and polished, but I can also see the benefit of having community feedback to give development direction. I'm wondering what all your thoughts are on this.

I wonder if he's using an automtatic IP blocking for the spammers which is causing the problem for everyone, or if liquidweb is doing it. This is very bad. I can't visit at all either.