A creative game developer has worked out a way to incorporate Minecraft builds into his game, turning the blocky builder into a level editor of sorts.
As you can see in this short video, the developer, r00nk, is able to place blocks into a configuration that matches the level size in his game Back Into Orbit (a cutesy, retro-looking isometric shooter), and then very easily import them (in the video it happens instantaneously).
This is how it works, according to r00nk’s comments in the related reddit thread:
In order to make the in game buttons do commands, I use a server wrapper which searches for the docmd keyword. It’s important to note that this is somewhat insecure, because anyone who writes “docmd(banana)” can make the server execute the “banana” command, so don’t try this at home kids, unless you know you’ll be the only person on the server.
r00nk can only export and use levels made with certain types of blocks, not the full arsenal of what Minecraft has available. It’s still an impressive feat, especially if you take it as a proof of concept. If you could get this working on a large enough scale or with enough ease, it could be one of the smoothest level creation tools since the days of Warcraft III.
Game development, especially at the indie level, is as often about what’s fun and interesting as about what’s efficient, and r00nk has definitely shown some serious chops here.
Comments
2 responses to “Dev Turns Minecraft Into Level Editor For An Indie Game”
This would have taken more effort than just writing an editor in his existing engine, and is less usable. I get the whole “creative solutions are fun” thing you’re going for but this is just wasted effort.
While it’s good to see his enthusiasm for innovation, for the game he is making this is complete overkill and actually increasing the time it takes to compose maps. You can achieve the same thing using a bitmap and only half the time. (You’re only placing one pixel per wall and lines are faster) If he was making a full 3D world game rather than a 2.5D isometric one it would make sense and this is the kind of area that VR will shine. Imagine actually being inside the game world, placing assets and using your hands to orient and fine tune like you would building anything in real life.