We are still working on the next large Modbox update – coming mid June. Largest change is the expansion of the mods system – including a Dungeon mod with a completely different entity set:
Large new changes coming:
– Haptic feedback! For when shooting / hitting
stuff
– ‘Game mode’ system. The default
game mode for creations is ‘Sandbox’,
where there is no health / inventory, and you can
spawn whatever while playing. We are adding additional
game modes that you can choose for your creation to
have to set it’s rules. Rules like allowing
teleporting, default tools and options, and eventually
additional systems like health / inventory. Eventually
you should be able to join a server running the
‘deathmatch’ game mode with a
score/health system, that uses a variety of mods for
its level
– New ‘Main Menu’ – the
current Modbox menu is the UI cube that comes up in
edit mode. We decided we needed to make a simple
‘main menu’ for loading creations, going
from edit to play mode, joining online games, and
setting options, and the UI cube is now just the
‘edit menu’ for editing. This is part of
the change in making it easier for people to consume
content, without having to dive into the complexity of
editing creations.
– New Mods: Target Practice (with
scoreboard/highscores), and new ‘sports
pack’ mod. We are hoping to get the Dungeon mod
released for mid June, but we are still working on the
actually game mode gameplay for it (along with working
on what a ‘game mode’ is). Our
goal for our own mods is to develop stuff thats fun to
build levels for – so we are planning a Dungeon
mod and a possible ‘Escape Room’ mod to
develop internally
– Hopefully some tutorial videos on advanced
building
Multiplayer:
I was expecting a open beta of multiplayer to launch this month, but it has been delayed. I think it’s important the game has depth and is incredibly fun when just playing by yourself – so I am focusing on that before focusing again on multiplayer (core of the networking works, it’s just a matter of a ton of polish and bug fixing). The last version of Modbox had a lot to offer players who wanted to edit and create their own content – but not enough for people who wanted to just consume, so I am hoping to address that with this next update (with a lot of new content / game modes). The date I am aiming for the multiplayer beta is now end of June
ModboxSDK
To create mods modders will use the ModboxSDK. As an example Brian Lindenhof created a spectator camera and a twitch chat window all with the SDK:
Messing with the #ModBox SDK 😀#VR #Gamedev #HTCVive
(@Alientrap) pic.twitter.com/pYbq6UtHck— Brian Lindenhof (@TheShadowBrain) May 10, 2016
We’ve developed Modbox entirely with modding in
mind, ‘eating our own dogfood’ to develop
the modding tools while we developed the game from the
start, so modding the game really allows you to add
anything.
We will be keeping the ModboxSDK closed for the next 2
months so we can better refine how modders can make
content, and decide what to include/exclude. If your
interested in trying out the SDK – and have a
lot of Unity/C# experience –
use this form to apply to check it out.
Thanks for the interest / support of Modbox! This is a
long term ambitious project for us – so any
feedback at this early stage definitely helps. Let us
know what you think on the
Steam forums,
– Lee