The Endless Mission News

Still with us? Excellent! That means we still have a job. Over the past couple of weeks have been all about UGC creation tools that can still generally be considered “games,” but that’s all about to change - today’s the day that we start crossing the line from games to software. Hold onto your pocket protectors, it’s about to get nerdy.

… Well, more nerdy than it’s already been, anyway.


Over the past two weeks, we’ve looked at creation tools that can still be very much considered games, from their interfaces to the ability to boot the game up solely to check out what other people have made without doing any creating yourself. Game Making Tools, on the other hand, forgo all the fancy bells and whistles and devote themselves entirely to being a tool for creation. Their UIs have far more in common with editing tools such as Microsoft Visual Studio or Photoshop, and their communities exist online on websites, blogs, and message boards, as opposed to inside the software itself. Likewise, the games that people make with these tools are exported from the software and can be uploaded independently - you don’t even need the software to play their creations. The end result is that users have far more versatility in what they can create using these tools, as being able to manipulate the code itself and use your own custom-built assets are a given. What separates Game Making Tools from straight-up Game Engines like Unreal or Unity is the fact that they usually will be optimized with a specific game genre in mind (RPG, Fighting, etc.). However, that hasn’t stopped some developers from using these tools to create unique experiences as well.

They’ve made a lot of iterations of this particular Game Making Tool… and like any true JRPG, the sequel numbering is completely ridiculous

RPG Maker is a line of software that allows users to - big surprise here - create their own Role-Playing Games. The first one came out in Japan all the way back in 1992, but it was never localized for the US; that wouldn’t officially happen until RPG Maker XP, 13 years later in 2005. Whatever version you get and/or struggle to translate, it usually comes with the same batch of items and tools: A tile set based map editor, a battle editor, and a scripting language (formerly Ruby, but now JavaScript) so you can set up custom events or alter the gameplay entirely. They also come with a large amount of premade assets for you to get started, but you can create and import your own at any time.

Spoony Bards not Included

RPG Maker has always been a popular tool for game making. The way it’s set up makes it easy for anyone to get started, while still being powerful enough to create professional-level games. Once you’re done, it’s easy to package games up and make them available to download and play on computers, smartphones, and other platforms. Additionally, the scripting language is very versatile. Don’t let the name fool you: RPG Maker isn’t good for just making RPGs, but adventure, survival horror, and even action games as well.

Sure, that editor menu looks intimidating, but let’s be honest: The ones you have to browse through while PLAYING an RPG are usually just as bad.

If you want to see some excellent examples of the kinds of games (RPG or otherwise) you can create in RPG Maker, we’d recommend checking out LISA: The Painful RPG, OFF, To the Moon, and Yume Nikki. And when you’re ready to dive in and start using the software itself, you can get it the latest version, RPG Maker MV, on PC now or wait for it to come out on all current-gen consoles later this year.

What’s the coffee cup for? Well, if our knowledge of Adventure Games is any good, probably something really, really convoluted

Do you remember the good ol’ days of Adventure Games? Your Zorks and Space Quests and Monkey Islands? Where quirky characters, absurd storylines, and completely illogical puzzles were king? Well, good news! They never went away, they’re just being made in Adventure Game Studio now!


Now you too can create games like the Sierra and Infocom classics!... Though ideally with less nearly impossible puzzles that can render the game unwinnable without warning? Please?

Created by British programmer Chris Jones in 1997, Adventure Game Studio is a free(!) and open source(!!) software tool that anyone can use to create their own point-and-click Adventure Games. You bring the art and story, and AGS can handle the rest. Creating full animations for characters, making background environments possible to navigate and interact with by the player, custom code scripting, and even debugging and testing can all be handled entirely within the software. Once you’re done, package it up and share it online with the incredibly active AGS community. They even run a “AGS Awards” every year, giving quite a popularity boost to whichever games walk away with honors.

The real puzzle in this game is who built the world’s most structurally inconsistent pillars there

As it is a free and open source software, AGS has been used by many developers to make high-quality titles, both free fangames and commercial releases. Some good examples that are worth playing include the Rob Blanc Trilogy (created by none other than Ben “Yahtzee” Croshaw… yes, the Zero Puncuation guy), the Blackwell series, and Gemini Rue. And if you wanna give Adventure Game making a shot yourself, you can download the software on their official website: https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/

Super Smash Bros. ain’t got NOTHIN’ on this…

The fighting game genre is no stranger to weird and wild crossovers: You have Marvel vs. Capcom, Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, the myriad of guest characters in Soul Calibur, and of course Super Smash Bros. M.U.G.E.N takes this tendency and extrapolates on it to its most extreme conclusion. First released in 1999, M.U.G.E.N (Japanese for “dream”, “fantasy”, and “infinite”, for the nerds in the crowd wondering) is a Game Making Tool for fighting games. There have been a good number of fighting games built from the ground up using M.U.G.E.N, but the main draw is that a prebuilt fighting game framework is already included, with the only thing missing being any fighters. Thus, for budding designers who aren’t ready to tackle a full game, they can instead focus on creating individual fighters and uploading them for others to use.

Needless to say, people leaped at this opportunity.

You need an 8K resolution monitor just to see who the heck you’re about to pick

M.U.G.E.N uses C for all of its scripting, so anyone with the art assets and a little bit of coding knowledge can put whoever they want in the game, complete with their own unique fighting mechanics and gimmicks. People began by recreating characters from all different fighting games and porting them over to M.U.G.E.N so they could all face each other (while keeping whatever mechanics they had from their original games intact) for the first time ever, but why stop there? At this point, virtually every character in pop culture has been recreated as a fighter in M.U.G.E.N, not to mention countless original characters as well. There are multiple databases online where these characters are uploaded, and you can pick and choose which ones you want to download into your own game to play with, resulting in a near-infinite number of possible mashups... Most of them completely ridiculous.

Tragedy struck when Ronald McDonald misunderstood what they meant by combos and tried to offer Link a Big Mac with fries and a Coke

M.U.G.E.N is unique among Game Making Tools due the framework it provides - You can go through all the steps of creating a game (design, art, programming, testing, etc.) condensed into a single fighter. This makes the software perfect for people looking for bite-sized design exercises that don’t require a massive commitment of time or resources just to reach a playable state. Unfortunately, while the M.U.G.E.N community is still alive and kicking today, the software itself hasn’t been updated in years, with the original site hosting having gone offline long ago. Thankfully, it’s still possible to download it if you know where to look, so if you ever wanted to finally settle the classic argument of who would win in a fight between Agent Scully and Hermey the Dentist Elf, you know what to do!

… Wait, that’s just us who had that debate? Man, maybe our office culture is weirder than we thought…


Game Making Tools sacrifice a simplified interface in favor of giving users far more control over the details of what they create, often with very impressive results. Whether you’re just tinkering with a personal project or are planning your first commercial release, software like this is the perfect place to start. Come back next week as we shift gears and enter the weird and wild world of mods!

CONTINUE TO PART FIVE

https://store.steampowered.com/app/827880/The_Endless_Mission/

Image Sources: techvalleyspacegame.com, rpgmakermvtutorial.com, rpgmakerweb.com, archive.org, adventuregamestudio.co.uk, wikipedia.org, @ZombieCSSTutorials, forum.blockland.us

It’s that time of the week again, makers! Today, we’ll be looking at another “style” of UGC-Focused game and some examples of it in chronological order. Ready? Then let’s go!


Last week, we looked at software where you created games by using a very game-like interface, with an emphasis on creating your own content and playing through the works of others. Sandbox Creation Games are very much like that, but they take it one step further. You still have gamer-friendly controls and an emphasis on creation as well as sharing, but these games don’t stop at “just” making games. These give you the ability to create anything - sweeping worlds to explore at your own pace, stories that you watch unfurl, communities to mingle in, and so much more. You can still create games, of course, but you are often given much more flexibility in the kinds of interactive experiences that you can create, rather than be limited to a specific type or genre of game. The only limit is your imagination.

And maybe your patience.

Hey, nobody said this would be easy.

Get ready to never be able to take Half-Life’s G-Man seriously ever again. Among many, many other things.

Created by Garry Newman (big surprise there, given the name) in 2004, Garry’s Mod is a sandbox game that runs on the Source game engine - the same engine that Valve uses for their major titles like Half-Life, Portal, Team Fortress 2, Left 4 Dead, and more. As such, when playing Garry’s Mod, you will be able to spawn in any asset from a Source game you have installed on your computer (and whatever you download from other folks as well) and play with them as you see fit, messing with their physics, animations, programming, rigging, and whatever else you can think of.

That’s it.

That’s the game.

Just your typical day in the world of GMod.

By default, Garry’s Mod has no rules or objectives, not even a single-player mode to introduce you to how things work. You are truly left to your own devices to decide what you want to do. For many, just goofing around with friends is enough, tossing around random characters and objects and watching the physics do the rest. However, for the more ambitious, GMod’s lack of constraints allow for limitless possibilities. GMod is frequently used as a soundstage for creating movies, also known as “Machinima”. Such movies range from genuinely high quality to exploiting the quirks in Source’s physics engine to create some… truly unique experiences.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHxyZaZlaOs
Cinematic. Perfection.

Surreal animations aside, the ability to edit code in GMod also means that creating entire games wholesale is not outside the realm of possibility. In fact, several popular games, such as Prop Hunt and Trouble in Terrorist Town, saw their start on GMod. All of this has made Garry’s Mod a very popular piece of software for PC gamers. While trying to get into the creation side of things may be hard due to lack of direction, it’s always easy to load it up and play a few rounds of Prop Hunt with friends. Or just make random NPCs ragdoll everywhere. That too.

It’s the little things...

Get ready to rock your blox off

Roblox, released in 2005 by the creatively-named Roblox Corporation, is not a video game. Rather, it’s a “technology platform for developers to develop games on,” according to the creators themselves. Schematics aside, Roblox is all about creating your own blocky-looking avatar and exploring the worlds and games that other players have created… or just making your own, of course.

Go ahead, tell the two guys wielding RPGs that their game is just a Lego knock-off. We’ll wait over here. Behind lots of cover.

Roblox actively encourages users to create their own content, up to and including letting players write their own code scripts using the Lua programming language. Not only that, but users are fully allowed to sell their creations to others in-game, either by offering specific cosmetic items or individual toys for sale, or by requiring the purchase of a game pass in order to access their game or world. The Roblox developers get a cut, but the rest of the proceeds from the sale go directly to the user who created it. As many Roblox players skew towards the younger side, this can easily be a child’s introduction not only to the concept of UGC, but the ability to make an income from it as well.

And without any awkward questions from the FDA about what’s actually in what you’re selling, to boot!

Roblox is still going strong today, boasting over 90 million active users monthly. It is also unique among the software we’ve covered in that it has a heavy massively-multiplayer component to it - all of the most popular worlds and games are multiplayer-focused, and you’ll spend lots of time interacting with other users in the community directly like an MMO, rather than simply through comments or reviews. This can make creating and sharing UGC on the platform an intimidating prospect for some, but if you can handle the digital stage fright, you’ll have a very large audience who can give you direct and immediate feedback (and maybe even a few bucks) for whatever you create… So long as you can find a way to stand out and get peoples’ attention, of course.

The game that launched a thousand YouTube accounts

… Okay, seriously, does this game even need an introduction? It’s Minecraft!

*sigh* Fine, fine, but only because we like you.

Originally inspired by another indie title called Infiniminer, Minecraft is the game that put the “sandbox survival” genre on the map. You are dropped in a massive procedurally generated world with nothing but the clothes on your back and the ability to break down the blocks that make up the world and use them as you see fit. What do you do next? That’s entirely up to you. Go diving into caves to fight monsters and mine resources. Build a glorious castle. Use the mysterious Redstone to create complex machines. Invite your friends to explore the world together. The power is yours.

Of course, you probably knew all that already. After all, Minecraft has sold over 100 million copies, and is the best selling PC game of all time (and second best-selling game of all time period, behind only that other blocky classic, Tetris). It’s been released on nearly every platform known to man, woman, and Creeper. It managed to popularize not one, but two major game genres - Sandbox Survival and Battle Royale (a popular type of multiplayer server for Minecraft, Hunger Games, was a Battle Royale-style game before the likes of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds or Fortnite hit the scene). In other words, you’d be hard-pressed to find someone who doesn’t know what Minecraft is.

And even fewer people who don’t have a primal fear of THIS little jerk

What Minecraft brings to the table when it comes to sandbox creation is also something that needs little introduction. If you’re playing the game in the default mode, Survival, the creation process has the interesting quirk that you can only build with what you’re able to find or craft. Having to go through the process of earning the building blocks for your creation certainly isn’t the most efficient method, but it’s all the more satisfying when you finish your project. Play in Creative mode, however, where you have infinite resources, and nothing is off-limits. There’s always the classic “build gigantic structures that others can gawk at in amazement,” of course, but for those looking for something even nerdier, there’s Redstone and Command Blocks. These can be used to build and code complex machinery, up to and including full-blown computers. And that’s not even getting into the topic of how mod-friendly Minecraft is, allowing players to create unique experiences like the aforementioned Hunger Games mod (don’t worry, we’ll be covering Minecraft mods in more detail in a later article).

Can’t wait until we can honestly say that you can play Minecraft inside Minecraft

Another benefit that Minecraft can claim over other Sandbox Creation games is how popular it’s become in the classroom. Teachers have realized the educational opportunities that Minecraft can provide, from History (recreating ancient cities for your students to explore) to Math (“You have 15 iron and 10 sticks, how many pickaxes can you create?”) to Economics (setting up a barter system for materials) to Engineering (Redstone, just… Redstone), and have capitalized on using Minecraft in a learning context in their schools. As a matter of fact, the fine folks here at E-Line Media actually collaborated with teachers in the past to create a special version of Minecraft exclusively for the classroom, called MinecraftEdu!

“A Creeper blew up my homework!”

Microsoft would later follow this up with their own take on the concept in the form of Minecraft: Education Edition, while the things we learned while creating MinecraftEdu proved to be invaluable when working on The Endless Mission. All in all, not bad for a game that was made by one guy came from space!

All those floating islands, and not a single railing in sight - OSHA would be displeased

Released in 2014, Project Spark was Microsoft’s answer to the Sony-Exclusive LittleBigPlanet (which we discussed in detail last week). It sought to one-up LBP in several ways, from allowing for fully-fledged 3D games (LBP games by default are primarily top-down or sidescroller games) to having incredibly detailed control when modifying the terrain and individual assets. It also put much more emphasis on the creation portion, with all the base game assets available from the start without having to play through Story Mode to unlock them, and heavy emphasis and support on using the software to create things other than games as well, such as art and movies. It even made some really clever use of the Kinect: You could give your characters custom animations by acting said animations out in front of the Kinect camera, for instance.

You could also custom edit the AI for all assets as well, for all you code junkies out there.

The game was free-to-play, but with very limited assets available at the start. You had to pay real money to get each of the many DLC packs available before you could start building the really creative stuff, a design decision that proved to be very polarizing. Eventually, Microsoft decided to make all the DLC available for free, but it did little to encourage people to try it out.

Project Spark also found itself at the center of a bit of a controversy surrounding the “return” of Conker, an older IP that people had been clamoring for a sequel for quite some time. When the highly-anticipated return was revealed to simply be the Conker’s Big Return DLC pack in Project Spark rather than an actual game, it left a bad taste in a lot of folks’ mouths. Exacerbating matters further was the fact that Project Spark was primarily billed as a family-friendly game while the Conker franchise… isn’t.

Not Pictured: All the profanity, gore, and offensive jokes that people actually think of when they think Conker.

Ultimately, though, the biggest hurdle for Project Spark was that it just plain never caught on. Project Spark only saw middling sales and community even though it was on three different platforms (Xbox One, Xbox 360, and PC). When Microsoft announced that they would not be releasing any more assets and would instead be relying on “the community” to create new content, pretty much everyone saw the writing on the wall. Several months later, the Project Spark servers were shut down completely - the game can no longer be downloaded, and even if you do already have it, there is no longer any way to share what you create with the world.

Project Spark is a case study in why nurturing a healthy community for your UGC-focused game is critically important. UGC only thrives when there are many different users all creating and sharing their creations with each other. If you make decisions that alienate your playerbase, or if the software is unable to gain traction in the first place, your game may be very short-lived indeed. Rest assured, maintaining an active and engaged community in The Endless Mission is a major priority for us!

This game reminds us of the time our lead designer dreamt he was eating a five pound marshmallow, and when he woke up his pillow was missing…

Okay, now we’re on the real cutting edge of sandbox creation games… This game’s so new, it technically isn’t even out yet! Dreams is the next game by Media Molecule, the same guys responsible for LittleBigPlanet. Unlike that game, Dreams makes it clear that it’s about all kinds of creations, not just games. Want to craft a sculpture? Paint a masterpiece? Film an epic movie? Dreams gives you the tools to do all of this, and leaves the rest up to you.


Dreams: It’s for the birds

At the moment, Dreams is only available in Early Access, meaning that nothing is quite finalized yet and they’re still receiving suggestions and feedback from thousands of users. Even while it’s still in Beta, however, the things people have put together are nothing short of stunning: Immaculate recreations of classic games, interactive art exhibits, haunting and atmospheric musical compositions, and so much more.

Additionally, Dreams puts a heavy emphasis on the community sharing their creations and building each other up. When exploring other people’s work, there’s an “Autosurf” option that’ll shuffle up a random selection of content that you then experience in rapid-fire fashion. This helps to show off the sheer breadth of what can be created, and gives players the chance to discover something brand new that they might not have found otherwise. And if you find something that you love so much you want to use in your own creations? You can just download it, and Dreams will handle giving the proper credit for the components you used automatically when people check out your completed project. It’s the “Works Cited” page your high school lit teacher wishes they had.


The first person who makes Yakety Sax in this thing is gonna get ALL the Likes

While there are some areas that they are still actively collecting feedback on and working to improve - the beauty of Early Access! - there is no denying the amount of freedom Dreams offers, nor the kind of helpful, engaging community it’s fostering. We can’t wait to see more of Dreams in the future, as it’s looking to be an excellent companion piece for The Endless Mission.


Sandbox creation games have really taken off in recent years, as technology makes it easier and easier to use a game-like interface to just make… well… anything! But we’re not done yet: Tune in next time as to see what happens when you decide to strip away the gamer-friendly interface and get into the real nitty-gritty of making games!

CONTINUE TO PART FOUR

https://store.steampowered.com/app/827880/The_Endless_Mission/

Image Sources: Steam, KnowYourMeme, GIPHY, Roblox, Joann.com, Minecraft, @Legomasta99, nathannagele.com, Micrososft, WindowsCentral.com, Destructoid, Playstation, RoadtoVR.com, Kotaku.

Welcome back! Last week, we did a quick overview of what User Generated Content is, the many forms it can come in, and some tips on how to start making your own. Since you’re all still here (and didn’t run away screaming), that means it’s time to dive in and start looking at the history of UGC - where it came from, where it is now, and where it’s heading in the future. For this discussion we’ll be examining different types of “UGC-focused” games one at a time, looking at examples in rough chronological order. Ready? Let’s begin!


First up, there are Games about Making Games. The term may sound a bit... recursive, but the distinguishing aspect of these games is that the presentation still feels very game-like: The interface is streamlined for ease-of-use, usually for creating a specific type of game (and frequently it will explicitly be games or levels that you are creating). Assets are predefined or created using an in-game drawing tool rather than imported, and often based on some pre-established theme or style. While the ability to do some amount of coding or scripting may be included, it will be totally optional and players can create fully-detailed UGC without touching a line of code. Finally, the ability to share your creations with others will be one of the major selling-points, to the extent that playing other peoples’ creations will be given equal focus to making your own.

Pinball Construction Set (1983) PCS got re-released a couple of times - this version had a particularly trippy cover

We talked about this game a bit last week, but it’s time to give it a proper introduction - Pinball Construction Set, created by Bill Budge in 1983, is considered one of the first games to put an emphasis on UGC in the form of creating your own pinball tables. In addition to having a full suite of pinball features you could drag and drop onto the table, the physics of the table, such as gravity or friction, could be adjusted as well.

From humble beginnings…

Despite being pretty darn primitive by today’s standards, PCS was absolutely revolutionary at the time it came out, earning massive sales, glowing reviews, and numerous awards. The publisher, Electronic Arts, would go on to create numerous pseudo-sequels from different authors, including Music Construction Set, Adventure Construction Set, and Racing Destruction Set. Even as recently as 2008, the game received honors at the 59th Annual Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards for the influence it had on gaming. Best of all, Budge himself shared the source code for the game on GitHub, allowing a whole new generation of gamers to experience a real classic. Check it out.

LittleBigPlanet (2008) If you’ve played this game before, you’re already hearing Stephen Fry’s soothing voice

Despite the impact that PCS made upon release, it wouldn’t be until a quarter century later that the next major “game about making games” would be released, courtesy of Media Molecule. LittleBigPlanet puts you in the role of an adorable (and customizable!) little Sackboy or Sackgirl as they explore their creativity-fueled world in a sidescrolling platforming adventure. As you play, you collect various bits and bobs that you can then use for the game’s big draw - creating your own massive levels that you can share online.

See that menu? Yeah, that’s just the customization options for ONE asset. LBP is complex, yo.

LittleBigPlanet did a lot to bring back games of this ilk in a huge way after their extended absence, and it received high acclaim from both fans and critics alike. The game would have numerous DLC packs and sequels, introducing new, even more detailed editing tools and features. While the first game you were more or less confined to making platformers, the sequels would make it easy to create games in a massive array of genres, not to mention a surprisingly detailed scripting engine for programming AI characters.

if(ReaderUnderstandsTheNonsenseAbove == True) {output (“You are a huge nerd.”);}

LittleBigPlanet was not without its flaws, even after the vast improvements its sequels brought - the real-time physics engine made it very hard to create games that required precision, as you were never quite sure if whatever crazy contraption you built would work properly every time, and the “Sackperson” aesthetic meant that every game had a cutesy homemade look to it, even if you were trying to make, say, a sci-fi or horror game. Even so, the creations made in this game were nothing short of incredible. Media Molecule would go on to set their sights even higher with their next game, Dreams… which we will go into in next week’s article.

WarioWare D.I.Y. (2009) The box explains the intent of the game with all the subtlety you’d expect from Wario

With LittleBigPlanet jumpstarting interest in UGC on a game-sized scale once more, it wasn’t long until other companies started getting in on the action. Nintendo was one of the first to introduce their own take on the concept, creating a UGC-focused version of their very popular and very weird WarioWare franchise.

Pictured: A WarioWare game tasking you with picking a nose in under five seconds. Liberties taken with the context of this gif: None.

Trying to explain WarioWare to someone who’s never heard of it can be downright surreal, but let’s try it anyway: The ever-greedy Wario has decided to give up on his wild graverobbing “archeology” adventures and instead earn tons of cash by starting his own video game company. However, he’s taken the mentality of “quantity over quality” to its (il)logical extreme, as each game is only five seconds long. As such, the player is tasked with playing anywhere between 10 to 25 of these “microgames” in a row, having only scads of time to figure out what you’re supposed to do in each game (jump over a car, eat a hot dog, escape a rolling boulder, etc.) and then do it. As of D.I.Y., many of Wario’s employees from the previous games have left him due to… well… him being Wario, so now he has turned to you to help him make more microgames.

Due to the brevity of the microgames, D.I.Y. was able to give players a lot of control over the details of what they create. Players could create their own sprites and artwork, as well as compose completely original music for their microgames. The fact that the game was available on the Nintendo DS also meant that a lot of the more intricate work could be done using a stylus and touch screen, as opposed to relying on a controller like in LBP. However, the most unexpected addition was a very in-depth scripting system for coding your microgames. Not only was it surprisingly versatile while never being hard to use, the game even included a separate mode called the Dojo where you did exercises and solved puzzles involving the scripting system. That’s right: They turned writing the code itself into a game! How meta.

Admit it, you know you want to have the sound effect for popping the balloon be “Voice > Blood-Curdling Scream”. We won’t tell.

Unfortunately, while the game was well-received, it never got anywhere near the sales or popularity that LittleBigPlanet did. Being strictly limited to just five-second microgames put a serious hamper on what kind of stuff you could create. While more WarioWare games would be released, none of them would include the UGC that D.I.Y. introduced. Don’t worry, though, Nintendo wouldn’t give up on this concept entirely, as we’ll see in… oh… about three minutes from now.

Gamestar Mechanic (2010) We totally have no idea who made this game, but we’re sure their Community Managers must be incredibly funny, intelligent, and handsome

Alright, shameless plug incoming in 3… 2… 1… Did you know that The Endless Mission is not our first foray into game creation software? Back in 2010, E-Line Media teamed up with Institute of Play to create Gamestar Mechanic: A browser-based webgame about turning game players into game makers. Players would take on the role of Addison - a newcomer to the world of Factory 7 who wishes to climb the ranks and become a Master Mechanic. However, a rival mechanic has gone rogue, and it’s up to Addison to team up with other Master Mechanics to put a stop to it and save Factory 7. Along the way, Addison learns about the key elements of game design that are needed to create an enjoyable experience, and the player earns sprites that they can then use when creating their own sidescroller or top-down games. Created games can be published on the website for other users to play and leave comments and reviews on.

We were… not subtle about the educational component for this game, no.

GSM differentiated itself from other games of its ilk by us choosing to focus on the educational side of game-making. The Quest mode where you earned sprites was very upfront about making each game you played through an opportunity to learn something about good game design, and while the program is available to everyone, it was created with the help of teachers with the specific intent to be used in classrooms around the world. Even the choice of platform for the game was deliberate - by making it a browser-based game, all one needs to play is a computer with an internet connection and Flash installed, something that any school computer lab can manage.

GSM’s level editor is entirely drag-and-drop. Game design has never been easier!... Or more shades of yellow, apparently.

However, the same things that make the game accessible to the largest audience possible also limited the complexity in what we could do and what games we could allow users to make, and with Flash slowly getting phased out completely, Gamestar Mechanic will have to evolve in order to stay alive. Still, the game is Free-to-Start, and we’re always looking for new members in the community, so if you’d like a (very) small taste of what to expect from us in The Endless Mission, feel free to check out Gamestar Mechanic at https://gamestarmechanic.com/!

… Okay, shameless plug over. That wasn’t so bad, was it?

Super Mario Maker (2015) You Freakin’ Make It Then, If You’re So Gosh Darn Smart

Hey, we said we’d get back to Nintendo soon enough.

Nintendo would return to the world of UGC in 2015 with the release of Super Mario Maker. As the name implies, Super Mario Maker was all about creating and sharing levels based on the Super Mario Bros. franchise of games. Four different games from the Mario franchise were available for you to create levels in, and you could switch between the four styles on the fly. Ever wanted to see what Wiggler, who wouldn’t appear until Super Mario World, would look like in the original Super Mario Bros. style? Now you can!

Not Pictured: The salty tears of the hundreds of players who are unable to defeat your brutally hard monstrosity of a level

Dozens of unofficial Mario level editors can be found online if you know where to look, but Nintendo cutting out the middle-man resulted in a game with far more versatility and possibilities than any of the unofficial editors could offer, not to mention a thriving community where you could share your creations and get feedback. Plus, as a Wii U title, the Tablet Controller’s touch screen made placing a multitude of sprites a snap. Sure, you may have been limited to “only” creating Mario levels, but Mario platformers are popular for a reason, and the amount of creativity that users displayed despite these limitations were nothing short of amazing.

Of course, astute readers who know their gaming history may have caught what the game’s biggest roadblock was in that last paragraph: It was a Wii U title. Even though Super Mario Maker got glowing reviews and sold millions of copies, the Wii U’s audience was not large enough for it to make a bigger impact. Thankfully, Nintendo knew a good idea when they saw one, and a sequel, Super Mario Maker 2, is due out on the much more successful Nintendo Switch this June. Feel free to play that game on your TV while you’re playing The Endless Mission on your computer!


That about wraps things up for the history of Games about Making Games. Check back next week as we look at games that set their sights a bit higher and consider making games to be just the tip of the iceberg!

CONTINUE TO PART THREE

https://store.steampowered.com/app/827880/The_Endless_Mission/

Image Sources:
Wikipedia, Engadget, xgn.nl, Simone Di Giorgi, MarioWiki, Kotaku, VistaPointe, Vice

Greetings, everyone! In the weeks leading up to the release of The Endless Mission, we’re going to spend some time on this blog talking about the history of User Generated Content, or UGC for short. UGC is the lifeblood of The Endless Mission, so it probably goes without saying that understanding the history of what came before was quite important to us. Before we dive in, however, there are a few questions that need answering first, which we’ll spend the rest of this post covering. Pay attention now - there’ll be a test later.*

*No there won’t.


User Generated Content is any content that is generated by users.

Yup.


Wait, you’re still here? Dang, so much for this blog writing thing being an easy gig…

In regards to video games, User Generated Content is what happens when a game provides the player the means to create their own content that they can then use in the game. Character creators, level editors, and mods are all examples of this kind of content creation. The means that the game provides to do this is generally referred to as a “Content Creation Platform” or something similar, but the stuff that players then create in it is what is given the name UGC. Nowadays, virtually every game that allows you to create UGC also provides you with a way of sharing your stuff with other players over the internet. After all, feedback is important if you want to make your creations even better!


We’ll be going into more detail about this later, but the first commercially released video game that allowed for UGC was Pinball Construction Set, created by Bill Budge all the way back in 1983.

A game so old, it remembers the Reagan Administration

This was quickly followed by the level editors featured in Excitebike in 1984 and Wrecking Crew in 1985, proving that UGC was possible not only on computers, but consoles as well. Things would only get bigger from here, but these games were the first.


There are lots of ways for a game to allow for the creation of UGC. Some common examples, in roughly increasing order of complexity, include:

• Customizing the appearance of your player character
  
• Importing images from your computer to use as icons, banners, sprays, etc. in-game
  
• Building objects in-game such as vehicles or houses that you can then show off to others
  
• Level Editors that allow you to create maps/stages/tracks for others to play and compete on
  
• Scripting engines that let you program basic behaviors, allowing for the creation of AIs or more complex game modes
  
• Full access to the code of the game itself, so that users can create mods for the game
  

For the record, our goal with The Endless Mission is to allow our users to do all of the above-listed things. We’re nothing if not ambitious!... And maybe a little crazy. That too.


While the definition of a “Game Mod” can vary depending on who you ask, in general, a mod is any sort of file or program that a user creates and then adds into the game itself, altering the content of the game drastically. Some mods will change the gameplay, while others will replace character models with something entirely different. The one thing that ties them together is that the mod is usually created outside of the game and then added in by the player later, which is what makes them different from most instances of UGC that are created via in-game editors and the like. That, and they have a tendency to get kind of… weird.

We all remember that part in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild where Goku fought Shrek while using Spongebob Squarepants as a shield, right? No? Just us?

As mods are clearly content that is created by the player, they can easily be seen as UGC. However, unlike most UGC, how accepted they are by the company that made the game can vary. After all, creating mods requires tearing the game apart and messing around with the code, something that some companies aren’t fond of. Some games, like Half-Life and Skyrim, thrive on their Mod Communities supported by the developers themselves, while other companies will ignore mods or even actively try to shut them down. Finally, note that mods are usually reserved for games that have limited means of UGC in the first place - if a game is already a very flexible Content Creation Platform (such as, say, The Endless Mission), then mods of this sort are pretty much wholly unnecessary. After all, anything you’d normally need a mod to do, we already plan on letting you do in-game already!


Questions like this are hard to answer, as they can be very subjective. What is enjoyable and considered “good” UGC can vary greatly from person to person. That said, there are still some general ideas and good practices you should try to employ when creating UGC, such as…

• Know the Rules - Any game where you can share content you created with others online will have rules about what is and isn’t okay to share. Follow them. Nothing ends a career in UGC creation faster than getting perma-banned for uploading inappropriate or offensive content. Don’t be that guy.
  

Pictured: That Guy (note his avatar’s name in the upper-left)

• See What Others Have Created - This doesn’t mean “blatantly rip-off others’ ideas,” obviously, but browsing through the UGC made by other players can help provide inspiration for your own stuff. Maybe there’s a popular kind of character people keep making that you’d love to do your own spin on. Maybe someone’s level uses a cool mechanic that you want to see more of. No one creates in a vacuum, and using the creations of others as a launching point for your own content is a completely valid approach, so long as you put the effort into making it uniquely yours.
  
• Share Early, Share Often - Feedback from others is critical in the creation process. Having many pairs of eyes looking over your stuff can go a long way towards making it accessible and enjoyable by all. For instance, one of the biggest pitfalls budding game designers fall into is creating levels that are notoriously difficult because it’s easy for them, which is only the case because they’re the ones making it. Having folks who aren’t familiar with your work experience it can give you the perspective you need to make it better.
  
• Iterate, Iterate, Iterate - Just because you’ve posted your UGC online for all to see doesn’t necessarily mean you have to be done with it. Based on the feedback you receive (see above), there is nothing wrong with going back in and making changes. Your creations are always a work-in-progress, and coming back to a project later once you’ve learned more can help breathe new life into it.
  
• Don’t Stop Creating - World-class animator Chuck Jones once said “Every artist has thousands of bad drawings in them and the only way to get rid of them is to draw them out.” Don’t get discouraged if the content you create doesn’t feel up to snuff compared to others - just keep at it. The more you create, the better you’ll get at creating. Everyone has to start somewhere, and as long as you keep trying and keep improving, the UGC you make can end up amazing. Who knows? With the practice you get creating UGC, it’s possible to turn your creativity into a professional career!
  

From goofy webcomic to official publication - Yes, this is the same artist


Content Creation Platforms and User Generated Content are incredible features that allow players to become designers. Many folks in the game industry got their start messing around in level editors growing up, a tradition we are excited to continue in The Endless Mission. Be sure to check back next week as we dive into the history of UGC, starting with games that put creation at the forefront of their design!

CONTINUE TO PART TWO

https://store.steampowered.com/app/827880/The_Endless_Mission/

Image Sources: GIPHY, The Strong National Museum of Play, @goku, The Amazing World of Gumball, Tyson Hesse/IDW

Hellooooo!

We had so much fun at PAX East and EGX Rezzed -- from players to the press, we met some amazing people and the response was incredible! We've put together a few highlights below for you to enjoy.

We also want to give you a quick update on the state of the project -- we're getting close to our launch of Early Access! We haven't announced an exact launch date, but it will be in the next few months, so get ready.

As always, thanks for the support and we can't wait for you to get your hands on The Endless Mission very soon!

Best,
The Endless Mission Team

p.s. We've got some exciting stuff planned for E3... Details on what/where/when to follow ;)

https://youtu.be/FrJt1YtHVSc
"No offence meant to any of the wonderful #indiegames and #indiedev we interviewed at #egxrezzed but The Endless Mission by @ELineMedia completely blew Badger's mind. In his own words 'This takes Rezzed for me'" Stoffel Presents
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Booth 15110 for the most chill deep dive experience of your life on one half and possibly the coolest game ever on the other @endless_mission. Alekazam
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Started day 3 with a cool game where you build a game while you play a game. Hot damn talk about meta. Welcome to The Endless Mission.
Mad-Eye Yokai
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Saw your game at EGX rezzed in london, looking awesome guys. Gonna love supporting your project!
Danduw