| Blockland | |
|---|---|
 | |
|
Beta Release: |
?/?/2003 |
|
Freeware Release: |
11/15/2004 |
|
Retail Release: |
2/24/2007 |
|
Slogan |
"That game where you build stuff" |
|
Publisher: |
None (Freeware), Step 1 Games (Retail) |
Blockland is a building game with similarity to legos. Released by Eric Hartman, using the Torque engine. The player is a Blockhead in which, you get jets too (playertypes disable that feature or give the player jet fuel) plus, the players get tools that is a Hammer, Wrench and a Printer. In version 11 a physics feature was added into the game which gives it a more realistic aspect. This can be seen if you use weapons on certain bricks. The player can tone it down or disable it completely if the player has a bad PC.
Demo[]
Included on the official Blockland website is a free download of the demo version of Blockland. While allowing players to experience many features from the full version of Blockland, players are limited to building 150 bricks. Some saves which come with the game are under the demo brick limit and allow new players to explore some of Blockland's features; builds such as the 'Demo House' and 'Demo Blockland Sign' for example are available as demo examples of eventing and lettering. Included in the demo is a tutorial in which the players can learn the basics of Blockland. You may also jump in to several pre-created maps for you to explore and build in. The demo also does not allow online play, limiting players to single-player games. It is, however, possible to join LAN servers created by owners of the full version. The demo version is upgraded to the full version when a unique activation key is purchased from the Blockland website and authenticated through the game.
Eventing System[]
Included in the game since version 9, there has been a trigger and output eventing system. Users can create their own events through the use of TorqueScript. There are 50-55 events included in the game by default, 25 input and 27-30 output. Outputs can affect the player, player's client, the brick itself, another brick, or the minigame. All interaction with events is done through a GUI. Players can also download more events using the game's Add-On system.
Multiplayer[]
Any player who buys the game is able to host a standard server, able to hold up to 32 players. Although, some more advanced players are able to make their server hold up to 99 players, or even more!
History[]
A prototype version of Blockland, known as 'Vanilla Blockland' or 'Blockland v0002', was released November 2004. The "Globe and Mail" wrote an article on this early version of Blockland in which creator Eric Hartman claimed the game had gained 20,000 users in the 4 years since it "became big". At one point, Lego offered to buy Blockland from Hartman and give him a job working on the game for at least a year. After not hearing back from Lego for some time, Eric went ahead with working on a more complete, retail version of Blockland, having removed all of the copyrighted Lego content. The retail version of Blockland was completed and released on February 24, 2007.
Modifications[]
Blockland features an add-on system to aid users in managing custom content, such as weapons, vehicles, types of brick effects, player commands and game modes. This allows users to write add-ons for the game to share with other players. Add-ons range from new items to total overhaul modifications. These add-ons are packed into a zip file containing the scripts and media required for the add-on. The add-on can then be placed into a folder for Blockland to automatically load into the game (provided it is packaged correctly) as it starts up a server. While Blockland is not open source, all of the default vehicles and weapons in the game use the add-on's system so players can examine working examples to help them learn how to modify the game. Types of add-ons created by the Blockland community include weapons, interface additions/modifications, gameplay modes, vehicles, custom event-system inputs/outputs, and building environments.
Shadows and Shaders[]
Read more at Shadows and Shaders.
Recently it was announced that a new update will be coming out, removing interiors and terrain but adding more dynamic lighting to builds. A link of the update announcement is here. And a video can be found below.
Blockland Day Cycle Preview
All info in this page is by Wikipedia.