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