UK indie developer Freejam has announced that their newest development product, Gamecraft, is now available on Steam in Early Access. Freejam previously released an online game titled Robocraft, which at present has 13 million registered accounts.
Gamecraft is intended to let people build games without actually coding. Using a building blocks approach, Gamecraft is very visually oriented. Simply put down blocks, configure the block’s individual properties, establish connections between the blocks, and off you go. With the Early Access release, Gamecraft has put out an update for “Blueprints” functionality. Blueprints allow creators to remix each other’s games or even collaborate on a larger project.
As game director Mark Simmons explained, “With the recent blueprints update, I can upload one of my designs, someone else can download it and use it at their level. Or they can take my design, expand upon it and then create something else. At the moment myself and a few members from the community are collaborating on a train track set where we are each designing various track pieces, trains and carriages. It’s easy to collaborate and we are looking forward to seeing how the community create together.”
Simmons went on to say, “Unlike other game making platforms, we want Gamecraft to be accessible, powerful and fun to use. It’s important that we get that right and as we work towards online multiplayer, players will also be able to build entire games together which will lead to better games for everyone to play.”
Food For Thought
As was mentioned, there are elements currently missing, but soon to be added. The current Early Access reviews make comparisons to Media Molecule’s Dreams title for PS4, suggesting that this is going to be more of a “hobbyist” sort of product instead of something like Manticore Games’ Core platform or RPG Maker.
