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[IndigoFenix]

Anyway, does anyone have any ideas about how the game could be improved on a fundamental level?

I've said it before, but I really think it needs to have more 'structure' to it. Whether that be survival or RPG mechanisms (or anything else) I don't think it matters, but it needs to have a driving force to make the player want to keep coming back for more.

Make the player have to work to build stuff (collect ontons or something), or make them have to explore to survive. On from this, I'd also encourage you to have some sort of 'threat'. I like the idea of sort of 'demons of the warp' that try to stop you from building things to keep it formless.

Yeah, I've been working along those lines.  Basically making the 'hub' more story-oriented and less fourth-wall-breaking, and having the plot advance as you collect ontons.  The hub is still just a world, though, I'm not 'cheating' or adding anything into the hub that anyone else couldn't put into their own world if they wanted to.  I actually have a lore outline that I'm keeping hidden for now, but the basic 'overgame' structure is like this:

New Player enters at the Nexus of Creation, jumps up and reaches the Hub and travels to the City of Acopolis.
City is mostly deserted, player explores a bit and discovers the Palace of Void, but is barred from entry.
Player continues on to the Sky Road, which branches out into player-made worlds.  The first of these worlds are Bethalom, a rather philosophical dream-themed area, and Protea, a typical adventure game that has a bit of lore concerning the creation of worlds and how they are all linked together through the Void, etc.  Player collects ontons by exploring these worlds.
Player ultimately returns to the Hub.  Acopolis is more populated at this point (the population is based on how many ontons the player collected) and the concept of world-building is introduced and explained.  World builders in general can accumulate more ontons quickly than they could by exploring (though exactly how much more may need to be adjusted).
Player builds worlds, and these worlds will be linked to the Sky Road (I will have to do this manually for the first few worlds, after this anyone already on the network can add gates to new worlds they enjoy.  World builders will receive a bonus for linking to new worlds, which should help expand the network.)
After collecting enough ontons, the Palace of Void will open up.  This will be an action-puzzle area that gradually drains your energy as you explore, your total starting energy is based on how many ontons you collected.  The 'real' lore will be revealed as you explore the palace and ascend the Tower at the center.  (I have a basic description of the secret lore written down, but I have to work out exactly how 'complicated' it should be.)
Reaching the top of the tower and confronting the 'ultimate secret' of the BWverse is the end of the 'official' game, but doing so will generally require the player to create a bunch of their own worlds, since accumulating that many ontons by pure exploration would take a ridiculous amount of time.

Not all of this is done, but some of it is.  Nobody's going to be reaching the top of the Tower anytime soon at this rate anyway, haha.

Anyway, I was talking more about 'fundamental' changes, stuff that could be considered when rewriting the game's basic code.

[WillowLuman]

Tried to sign up, but it seems all variants of my username are already taken. Which seems pretty unlikely. Is there a bug?

[IndigoFenix]

Looks like it... give me a few minutes.

[IndigoFenix]

Okay, it's fixed.

[WillowLuman]

Awesome!

[Armok]

Hmm, one HUGE change this rewrite could make: unpin the player and maybe even NPCs from the grid. Smoother movement, hit boxes of different sizes, diagonal moment but pressing two directions at once.

[IndigoFenix]

Hmm, one HUGE change this rewrite could make: unpin the player and maybe even NPCs from the grid. Smoother movement, hit boxes of different sizes, diagonal moment but pressing two directions at once.

I've explored the possibility of removing the invisible grid a couple of times, and it would actually be fairly trivial from a programming standpoint (it is arguably harder to move sprites around on a grid than it would be to just give them XY velocities and be done with it).  The reason why I chose a grid has less to do with the game's internal program and more to do with area construction.

Consider this: you have a tile that initiates a cutscene.  If the player is not tied to a grid, they can potentially be anywhere within a 3x3 tile box upon making contact with the tile.  This means that the scripter might need to add in contingencies for the possibility that the player might not be lined up with whatever it is they are trying to do.  While this seems trivial, it also applies to things like NPCs that need to be in position to do whatever, sliding blocks in puzzles, and so on.  Giving a command to 'walk 3 tiles west when sprite B stands on this tile' is much simpler than 'move 96 pixels west, adjusted for wherever sprite B happens to be positioned on contact.'  Then there's all kinds of other technical problems associated with pixel-based movement: getting stuck in walls if you are moving too fast, randomly-moving sprites jamming each other into inescapable locks, having trouble lining yourself up with a one-tile wide corridor or switch, and so on.

Since the main emphasis of BW is supposed to be on worldbuilding and exploration, rather than action, I restricted movement to a grid, making things easier on worldbuilders.  There are, however, some possible compromises, like allowing diagonal movement, which makes movement feel more natural while still maintaining the design conveniences of a grid, although this means sprites would need diagonal animations to look right, and the most popular sprite-making programs (Charas, RPG Maker VX sprite makers) typically do not include diagonal motion.  There's also the possibility of making it a selectable option for worldbuilders, but that would make the game feel even more disjointed...

Lotus has grid-based movement with diagonal motion that shifts into a free-motion fighting game when you engage an enemy, but I'm not entirely sure if I want to use that.

[Spiderking50]

I just tried signing up to boundworlds, but it just turned the sign up text grey. I then tried going up the stairs onto a black box and it teleported me to a white loading screen and i never made it to wherever it goes. Are these just unlucky bugs or is this game no longer running?

[FallacyofUrist]

This seems interesting...

[DoctorMcTaalik]

Just created my first tilemap for Doctopolis. Dis gonna be gooood.

[Arx]

Yay, playerbase! I should get back to building the Vaults.

[DoctorMcTaalik]

My world, Doctopolis, disappeared from the world listing in the editor after my flash plugin crashed. Is it actually deleted, or can I somehow recover it?

EDIT: Oops, nevermind. I wasn't logged in.

[Nahere]

Is Protea finished? Because I can't seem to find Tim after he runs off.

[DoctorMcTaalik]

Well, I've spent more time than I care to admit on BoundWorlds. But, on the plus side, I have two publicly accessible rooms. They aren't hooked up to any other worlds, but you can get to them from the lobby teleporter thing.

Spoiler: Screenshots (click to show/hide)

I also built a hidden room, which is linked to a secret entrance in one of the public rooms. Well, not that secret; it's hidden in the most cliché manor possible. There's an arguably functional NPC inside, but not much else so far.

[IndigoFenix]

WAAAAH!  I spend a month or so off of Bay12 and look what happens!  People start making stuff!

Heh.  I'm going to have to check these out.