Gameglobe – the free-to-play game creator
Gameglobe is yet another surprise from E3, this time coming from Square Enix. Gameglobe is a free-to-play game creation tool that is playable right from your browser. Game creation suites are nothing exceptionally new but Gameglobe promises to be accessible to any skill-level – there’s no need for complex code or fiddly 3D modelling – and super powerful allowing your creation to be exactly as you intended. From the looks of the trailer below, it has got gorgeous visuals to boot!
One basic level is created by Gameglobe’s Lead Programmer Peter Andreasen in minutes. The level started with a large cave being carved into a hillside using a big transparent cylinder. The editor does not pose any restriction on terrain allowing the cave to be carved both inward and downward.
Behind, and slightly above, the cave sat a Pirate village he had created earlier setting a sea-fairing theme.
Mr. Andreasen then opened Gameglobe’s extensive asset browser containing hundreds of prefabricated objects to place in the level. He selected a Treasure Chest, popped a few in the cave and filled them full of gold – lovely. After this, he dropped in a few devious Pirates and a discarded warhammer to make the player’s quest for the gold a bit more exciting. A few “gameplay props” were added such as a level end point and background music. Finally, he had a tinker with game settings including time-of-day, sun height and fog amount.
All that was left was to have a play. He hit “Play”, grabbed the hammer, smashed up the puny Pirate Brigands with a series of swipes and jump attacks, nicked all the gold and completed the level. Blinder!
Beating up Pirates is all well and good but the important thing was that the whole process is breathtakingly easy and quick. From creating the level in just a few clicks and keypresses, the level was ready to play – no required login or extensive load times. If he wanted to, he could go on to tweet the link for that level and anyone would be able to play that level instantly.
One more really cool thing before the trailer – Gameglobe is currently in closed beta so hopefully the final release date won’t be too far off. Builders are restricted to the premade assets from the in-game browser I mentioned earlier but still they have managed to astound the developers with creations thought to be impossible.
“I don’t even know how they’re doing some of these things,” reported Andreasen. “I’m surprised everyday”.
The developers, Hapti.co, are using this surprising feedback to guide its feature and asset development so the final game editor could be a lot more exhaustive than it is now. We shall see in time as Hapti.co plan to move to an open beta within a few months. For more details and to register your interest, visit the official Gameglobe website.
