Soooooooo....
Honestly wasn't really planning to be in this situation, and certainly not before a 1.0 release of the game, but here we are...
The keen-eyed amongst you may have noticed that there hasn't been an update for a few months, and that's because I have been very hard(ish) at work on a shiny new level editor for Lost Marbles! I will go into much of the details here; what's available, and what's still to come, so buckle in and let me take you through it... :)
First off, I have to give a massive shout out to one of my favourite game series of all time, the Trials games (Big up Trials Fusion). The editor that I have created for Lost Marbles is heavily inspired by the editor in those game, and if I'm honest, my time editing on Trials is almost 100% responsible for my ability to pick up Unreal Engine and start working on this game.
The second thing to note is that the editor is very much a work in progress... I will cover a list of things that are currently unavailable but that will be coming in this post, but for now, just know that this is very much just the start.
Lets Begin...
So the editor update is split into two main segments:
The editor - This is where you create your levels. Spawn objects, modify parameters, and create paths of logic to bring your level to life.
The level database - This serves as a place to upload your own creations, or download levels made by other member of the community. Think of this like the Steam Workshop, except its all done from within the game, and allows for the potential of cross-platform sharing, should I decide to go down that route some day.
From the main menu, you can access the Workshop, and here you will find access to the editor, plus a list of curated search options for the other users levels uploaded to the database.
So what exactly is available now?
Well, the bulk of the work on the editor side of things is done, with mostly just clean-up left. This is what you will have access to in todays update, so expect a be able to create and test your own creations. The selection of objects is still a little limited, but this will be expanding over the coming weeks.
What is still to come?
The ability to share and play other users levels is currently not available. The reasons for this is that I need to make sure that I am 100% happy with everything in the editor (most specifically the data structure of the level saves) before I allow map sharing. This should prevent unplayable maps should anything major change during the final stages of the editor development.
Releasing this early 'beta' should help with this massively, as I'm hoping more eyes messing around in the editor will result in more bugs being found in a shorter space of time. The more I can iron out, the less likely anything is to become a problem down the line.
Some Caveats:
The editor is currently only playable with a controller - As a controller player, this is how I have been testing. Functionality for keyboard and mouse is definitely coming though, but for now, dust off an old controller and give it a try.
The editor isn't 100% finished, so whilst I definitely encourage people to dive into is and start building their first masterpiece, just be cautious that future updates may modify some objects that you have placed, and may need to be corrected by yourself. This may happen if any default properties are changed on any of the current objects etc.
The object selection is limited, but will be expanding over the coming weeks. Please if you have any suggestions for objects, drop them in the Lost Marbles Discord server.