I need to work on updating on this page more often, but I have been updating on the Sandbox Game Maker Facebook Page. There is are so many updates that I’m going to summarize them and then go into a bit more detail below. Please feel free to comment on this news post on our forum.
– The forums and wiki are back online!
– I will be cleaning up the forums and webpage for better organization
– The MOST EXCITING thing is that I have been messing around with a free open source minecraft like game called minetest and I plan on using it as a new version of Sandbox tentatively named SandCraft! Please read below for more information.
– An awesome kid friendly teaser video for D. The Atom Shifter by Christian!
There is so much I hardly know where to start! First sorry the forums and wiki were down for a bit!! My webhost updated the version of php and it broke them but I finally was able to properly update both of them after some unfun battles. I still have some work to do but at least they are functioning.
I’m super excited with my testing of minetest! I have already started working on a “school edition” which will have a lot of extra features over default minetest but still be appropriate for schools. I’m using it in my own school so it will be great to share it with the public! I also do plan on doing a commercial version for maybe $1-$2 to get improved graphics and textures, monsters and AI, quests, skills, and lots more! I plan to use that to create the D. The Atom Shifter game as well 🙂 The great thing about the engine is that Sandbox can actually be used to create structures for SandCraft and it is not restricted to blocks, it can handle complex models as well. It also features Lua scripting which is something I’ve wanted in Sandbox for a long time. Minetest/SandCraft has a modding API which minecraft has said for years now that they would add but haven’t. I’m hoping with the commercial version that I can give back to the minetest developers as well and motive them to help improve the engine even more 🙂 I’m hoping to release a very rough version in the next week or two for everyone to test out.
So some people might be wondering, what about Sandbox? My goal with Sandbox itself is to focus it more as a level editor. People are still more than welcome to develop games on it but honestly I lack the coding ability to help much more on that end. I still would like to do a Sandbox Pro at some point and I have a version to release at some point based on Hirato’s work that features widgets while editing and much improved lighting.
How awesome is that video by Christian? He has just finished up his animation degree so we are planning to do lots more D. The Atom Shifter videos! Our goal is to eventually do a short movie so I have been already doing a lot of writing. You can keep up to date on the D. The Atom Shifter Facebook Page. As a warning some content might not be kid friendly.
So there you have it! Lots of updates and lots more to come! I am working on a roadmap and feature list for SandCraft and I will be super interested in feedback. I will be creating an experimental branch as well for people who want to help me test. Thanks so much as always for your continued support! I hope everyone has an awesome holiday season 🙂 Take care!
-Mike