Devlog #1 - Release 2024? How To Make Own Creations In-Game?

Welcome to Devlog #1 for our new devlog series before release in 2024!

Our game release is approaching, so from now on, we will publish a devlog every two weeks that focuses on individual game features.

We start today by looking at the Asset Store, the modding system that allows you to share your creations with your friends as easily as in the game Spore. This system is at the core of the game, and it gave us headaches for months last year, and it is still in progress. We also look at all the things that went wrong during his work; after all, we are a small team. In the end, I'll talk about the next Steam Next Fest and the release in July 2024.

What is the Asset Store and Modding in Nimoyd?

From the beginning, I wanted Nimoyd not to become like Minecraft or Fortnite, where it's difficult to share your creations with others. It is possible to create your own mods there, but it takes a lot of effort and some tech knowledge. Our modding system, therefore, consists of two parts.

On the one hand, like in the game Spore, it's super easy for everyone to create new content by using the in-game editor to build buildings, sofas, doors, walls, or other silly things that we can then easily share with our friends.

Our Asset Store is, therefore, not just a store where you can download new content such as skins or weapons or where complex game modes will be available like in Roblox or Fortnite. Like in Spore, I wanted us to be able to look at creations, no matter how small, and for you to be happy when your super fancy sofa has been downloaded 100x, 1000x or 100,000x without having to deal with complex modding systems like Steam Workshop, Roblox or Fortnite.

At the same time, it raised the question of how we should deal with complex mods. As much as Spore was ahead of its time, it was not possible to change the animations of the 3D creatures, the game modes or the coding for me and my friends who were trying to expand Spore into a strategy game at the time. Without hacking the game build, there was, at least back then, no way for us to fundamentally change the game “Spore” into, say, an MMO or RTS game.

In this respect, it is possible to change Nimoyd further in another external tool than in the in-game editor I showed earlier. With this tool, which we call the “Modding Tool” (working title), you can basically change everything – from 3D props like trees to 3D characters like Nimoyd and the associated 3D animations. We are also expanding the system so that you can use LUA scripts to change not only the AI but also the camera and game modes. For example, if you plan to turn the game into a first-person game or an RPG, or a car racer, or an RTS, you will be able to do it, eventually. Think about Roblox, how it started, and where it got over time.

So, how do you create a simple asset?

Let's start with a simple asset. Let's say you want to create something pointless but entertaining. You do this in our editor.

We call this in-game editor “Template Mode.” (working title) You can use the normal “Building Mode”, which you use to build normally in the game, to switch directly to Template Mode, where each of your creations can be saved not on the terrain, but as an independent template. Here, you can access all assets of the building mode because you are normally in the game, even if certain buildings such as power plants, defense towers, or water pumps are, of course, restricted in template mode (currently) because you do not have to generate electricity while creating the template .

Once you have the template, you can create screenshots. So far so good. Although the template is now local to your hard drive, it is still far from visible to others. You can use it yourself in your game, but it is not yet usable for others. Yes, with these templates it should be possible to design entire cities, let's say if you don't feel like generated cities but would still like the cities you create by hand to be randomly placed.

How do I share my assets with others?

The next step is your own “asset store” or workshop, as we call them. Here you can see all assets created by others. The game “Nimoyd” is, technically speaking, also an “asset” (or mod), but strictly speaking it is so large and forms the basis of the asset store and the entire game that we specifically hide it, as each of your creations is essentially added to our “vanilla” asset – or replaces some of it. When you open the game, this is the moment these assets are downloaded.

In this overview, there is a button with which you can create an “asset”. By “asset,” we mean a mod, which is simply anything you use to change a game. Think an the Steam Workshop, where a Skyrim mod can be a single text change, but also a total overhaul of Skyrim with space whales and stormtroopers.

The rest should be self-explanatory. Name, images, categories, description.

What if you want to sell your assets?

Let's get to the price. You can offer every asset you create either for free, like in the game “Spore”, or for a price. Have you created a beautiful room or a fairytale castle? Wondering if anyone would want it for $1? Why not try it out?

We're still fine-tuning this feature for a number of important reasons, not just Steam and payments. Internet, hackers, scammers. But the idea behind paid content, which we know from Minecraft or Roblox, is that Spore missed something here. If it encourages creators to create bigger and better content, then it's cool for all of us. If it keeps the community active for years and doesn't fizzle out like Spore's initial success, it's cool as long as it's not abused.

By the way, one reason why we have the Asset Store and do not use the Steam Workshop is the ease of use of our system. For the normal gamer who can't code or doesn't feel like coding or technical details, our modding system is simply easier to use than Steam Workshop. Steam is cool, obviously, compared to no modding at all. But ease of use is not one of the Steam Workshop's strengths, not least because it has to be compatible with tens of thousands of games.

What if I want to replace all of Nimoyd's 3D models?

Depending on how successful the game is, we will continue to expand our external modding tool, for example so that you can convert the game into an MMO. The reason for this lies, frankly, in our team size.

However, at the moment we are already using our modding tool every day to modify our own game with new 3D models, animations, tools, weapons, armor or translations. Yes. Nimoyd is, strictly speaking, a very large and comprehensive “vanilla mod” (or “vanilla” asset) of our modding system.

Two things about this:

On the one hand, you can change the game openly, for example by changing descriptions or the attack values of an axe, in CSV file format. The file is then modified.

Let's say you want to swap the character Nimoyd for a talking horse. You can do that then. We use the common Unity formats for this, and you have to take a few game structures into account based on the results of our game. Furthermore, it is very easy.

On the other hand, your changes need to be uploaded to our cloud so that your change is recognized as a separate “asset” in the Asset Store that we saw earlier. To do this, you use an extension that we built for our modding tool. In the screenshot you can see buttons like “Commit” and versioning, which are so easy to use that one of our non-techie artists uses them every day.

Yes, we are building on Unity. Since Nimoyd uses Unity, it was obvious that the modding tool that is supposed to handle 3D models and other assets that come into the game later is also Unity. You don't need a Unity license for this. A free version is sufficient.

What else did we do?

In the video devlog you can see that we are of course working on a number of other things that are important for the gameplay. I have therefore added a lot of funny videos of normal bugs, but also of multiplayer bugs, to this devlog.

With the release date just a few months away, stability and optimization are the focus.

When is the release? Steam Next Fest?

I originally wanted us to feature Nimoyd at the Steam Next Fest in February 2024. But our new marketing people were tough on it. Why? Time for press, streamers, public. Of course it makes sense, but I still think it's a shame because I wanted to show an alpha demo so slowly.

However, we will be at the next Steam Next Fest in July 2024.

And a few weeks later we will probably release it on Steam. Hey.

Therefore: Over the next few weeks I will gradually reveal and explain further game features.