It's been three years since this 8-year project finally launched, and we're still adding content. ...but It was around this time last year when Krinkels and I decided that a true Madness game doesn't deserve the name if fans can't make their own content. The spirit of Madness has always been its creative community, and while Krinkels builds the foundation, it's the contributions of all of you that gives it so much depth. That's why we began the long journey of putting Workshop support into M:PN, and early this year we released a ton of tools for modders to start customizing the game. But! It's our launch anniversary today, so I'm showing off what's next.

The Scene Editor

This is the big one! Our roadmap ends with fully developed custom stages, but it starts by giving modders the opportunity to practice world building. We're only a team of two and that means breaking this gargantuan task up into manageable chunks.
That first chunk is custom Playground rooms. The focus here will be on level geometry, doors, and cover, along with character and item spawning. In the first image above, you see the beginnings of the Proxy/Marker system, which dictates the placement of all non-geometry game assets, from waypoints to start positions. That big green cube, for example, is how you tell the game where to place the Playground's control room. While this system is being used and tested live, I'll be getting things ready for further updates, such as custom doors + cover, interactive objects and access to the event system (a trigger/action manager that makes complex levels possible), dialog cutscenes, and full missions consisting of multiple stages.
On Monday, we'll be releasing the sample room shown above to showcase how easy it is. Then, later this week, after I've had a chance to coach a few lead modders on how to use it, we'll make the Scene Editor tools available. Thanks again to the modders, the players, and the fans, both old and new, who make game development such a rewarding experience for us. I'm really excited to see what you folks make next. You're why we haven't stopped doing this.

[ 2024-09-29 17:32:17 CET ] [ Original post ]