So I know a number of people who read this journal are familiar with, and in some cases avid fans of, the sex game Onyx I’ve written. Some of you are even on the beta list, in fact.

I’ve just started work on version 3.1, which is intended as a free upgrade to 3.0. The principle goal of 3.1 is improved compatibility with Windows Vista and Windows XP 64-bit editions (I’ve had a number of complaints that it sometimes crashes or behaves erratically in Vista 64-bit), improved visual appearance under Vista with the Aero interface, improved compatibility with Ubuntu Linux, and minor visual cleanup under Linux generally. 3.1 will also improve memory usage slightly under OS X 10.4, thought that is honestly not a big deal; Onyx doesn’t have a very large resource footprint as it is.

I’m also going to be adding a handful of new features. The two biggest of these are likely to be a way to increase the size of the card display (for those of you who play the game gathered around a laptop), and a way to Opt Out of an action and also tag that action with “Never play this particular action again.” There will be a new menu item “Reset all blocked actions for this deck” as well.

I’m also likely going to double the number of cards in any one deck, from 400 to 800, if I can do it without too much rejiggering. Yes, I’ve had people write me and tell me thay’ve run into the 400-action limit, you creative bastards, you.

So: For those of you who already play the game and have some ideas about features you’d like to see now or in the future, here’s your chance to let me know! Respond here in comments, or in email at onyxbeta (at) symtoys (dot) com, if you have ideas, suggestions, or things you’d like to see. If you are not on the current Onyx beta list and would like to be, say so here or in an email; please include information about your computer platform, memory, operating system, and so on.

If you have never played Onyx but think you might like to try, here’s a special deal for you: Register the game between now and July 31 and get $6 off the normal registration price by using coupon code LJ-31BETA. Comment here if you’ve got ideas or would like to be part of the beta team. (if you want to see the 3.1 beta you’ll need to comment or drop me an email at the onyxbeta address.)