The new development version of Blokoto is already scheduled to come out in February, which will bring many cool features for builders and players.

Let's dive into the changes that will arrive during this mega update, focusing on getting a better game infrastructure and adding some new innovative features to the game!

And not just that, but we're also going to discuss the features that are intended to come during the next future versions.

Actors

We already had many suggestions related to adding models with the same size of the player, but i've been always against that idea of bringing tiny objects like this, even for details. But, this actual design decision would possibly block builders from creating characters made with the 1/1 scale that match the player scale.

During this update, we are going to add Actors, game elements that you can positionate in your map featuring the same avatar appeareance chosen by the player. They can act as elements in storytelling maps, replacing avatars that would be made with models.

These Actors into the map are not supposed to do so much stuff at this time, but it will have other storytelling updates that will bring a lot more features for them, mostly those related to the dialog system. Our goal is to allow the creators to create stories and lore on their maps in such a dynamic and fun way.

Victory Flag

Do you know when you finish the map and there is only a mere "Congratulations" label written on a text box at the end? Well, we also felt that it is not such a great reward at all. That why during this update we're finally going to implement an official way to complete a map: a Victory Flag!

We already have many plans for victory conditions, and also give an actual reward for winning the games, and then we'll think about on even more rewards for the next updates. However, this update will only bring the time that you got when finishing the map.

Interface Redesign

Several screens of the interface were remade to make the creation process way more intuitive and less messy. From the most important of them, objects now feature a context bar when you click on them, where all of your properties and actions appear on its top (the context menu when fired by the right click of your mouse is still maintained for quick actions), the textures creation tab got a complete revamp to facilitate understanding and interactivity, and the health bar now reacts according to the player's vitality, also in addition to many other screens like warning popups and objects editing.

Stability

You may had some trouble with the game connectivity, mostly when interacting along physical objects like bouncy, parkour and grip blocks. This update features a complete rewrite for the way the character interacts physically with these objects, getting a better communication between server and player. This way, this update will bring a greater stability when dealing with the players connection.

Performance Improvements

This Blokoto version will be released under a new version of its engine (Godot 4.6) and with many performance improvements because of its using of new proper features to certain implementations in the game, like the model editing and avatar parts, that now make use of stencils instead of re-render the models twice that used to cause an overlapping in the background. This, besides many other corrections related to performance in other parts of the game.

What Comes After the 1.2.0?

While we are still developing the 1.2.0, we're also planning some things for the next updates.

Conduits - The Scripting System

For those who have been tuned with our development in Discord, you may have the knowledge about the Conduits, a visual scripting system inside the games of Blokoto. It is still being planned and studied about, in order to allow the creation of a lot of super fun elements into game. That's why we are already considering the opinion and feedback of many players that previously made the use of scripting on another platforms, and then we're about to start implementing it internally, to finally release it little by little during the following updates.

Conduits can also be sold at the workshop for other players to use on their maps. I won't lie, because i'm really excited about how it will be used by the players, so i want to afford the better experience for everyone.

Quests & Tasks

We're also working on global experience systems (XP) to get a way more competitive and fun game. XP can be obtained completing challenges into the games.

So hey, are you looking forward for this next version? We are too!