Charting the Route: Fringes March Madness Update Coming

Hello, my small but loyal fanbase... Fringes of the Empire is undergoing many exciting changes under the hood. This post is all about what it means for you. In March, I will release a new update that includes two options when starting the game: a) Play Game - which will play the game that has been available since launch date, made in GameMaker. b) Try out new engine - which will let you open up the new engine and editor. This is not the finished game! What's exciting is the "B" part, above. This means you are going to be able to -- SPOILER ALERT -- see the inner workings of Fringes of the Empire's vehicle system and "campaign editor". It won't be a finished game, and your work will probably not even save, but you can at least try it out and see how slow or fast it is going to be on your system. If you have feedback -- did it crash? was it fast or slow, did you see something you liked or had a question about? -- feel free to post it here in the official Fringes Steam Group. I may do a brief editor overview video, but please keep in mind the game is going to be evolving and some features may change. If you are a modder, this can be considered a preview of the final editor, but I wouldn't go crazy and start your epic just yet! Hopefully later in the summer I will be releasing a version that is much closer to the finished product, it all depends on my availability (I do have another job...) ... if I can find the time I will try to at least get vehicle testing working so you can fly the vehicles around. Later this year, I will be working on a 2D marionette system that will let you (and of course me) create reusable animated 2D creatures. Following that project, and into 2017, add "the roguelike, and the dialogs, quests, plots and starmap locations", followed by a final focus on networking, and finally steam API integration. I plan to offer DLC content expansions (new adventures) as early as 2018, with many episodes planned, and I'm also considering holding modding contests or working with the Steam Workshop to allow user mods to be easily added to the game. (So far you just have to download a user's mod and copy it to a particular folder, but it would be nice to use Steam Workshop and Cloud Saving features of Steam to help modders create and share content.)