BYOND

If you often wander the Internet to find new and fresh indie games, you can save a lot of time with the help of BYOND (Build Your Own Net Dream), a free-to-use Windows application that provides you with not only plenty of indie game titles but also the tools necessary to create your own classic 2D or isometric perspective games.

The program requires no prior experience with gaming clients since it has simple, straightforward features. As soon as installation is over, you can reach the main app window to view a list of all games currently hosted by other BYOND users. You can view descriptions and other similar games, join single- or multi-player games, host your own server to let others join, and see how many people are playing a particular game at that moment.

Multiple tabs are supported. Some games can only be played if you become a BYOND member, through, while others have to be downloaded first. Also, you can filter titles by popularity, activity level, new, downloadable, recent, and installed.

Each game has its own unique set of controls and menu of options. You can create a list of friends to chat with while gaming. Preferences can be customized from the settings panel. For instance, you can instruct BYOND to play sound when receiving a new message, a friend or favorite game comes online, or when your message feed gets updates.

As far as game development is concerned, you can check out the official BYOND website for clear instructions on getting started with your first world, using an action RPG framework, pixel movement, icon importing, using drag and drop instead of code (like in GameMaker Studio), and so on.

BYOND is not sophisticated but easy and fun to use if you're a fan of tiny indie games with great potential and immersive worlds.