One Last Hurrah
Hello all! It’s been a while, but I figured now might be a good time to catch everyone up on what’s been happening with Mondrian – Plastic Reality, an arcade brickbreaking adventure through art history. Never heard of it? Well, please go check it out on Steam! I think you’ll have a pretty good time with it.
Anyway, long story short, after taking a year or so off from updating, I’ve been working on Mondrian – Plastic Reality’s final update, “The Last Exhibit” for about eight hours a week over the last four months or so. Sure, that doesn’t seem like a lot, but the amount that’s been getting done is wild. If you’re a big fan of making user generated content, this update is especially for you. There’s a lot in store, so let’s dive in.
Introducing Speedpainting
One of the most exciting features that’s been added to Mondrian Maker in this update is the ability to open your level as a Speedpaint. This simply hides your level and reveals it one block at a time as the paintbrush cursor creates it. The primary use of this is to let you record a video of your level’s creation process to share anywhere you like. Just a neat little toy but one that adds even more flavor to an already-packed level editor.
And that’s not all!
Mondrian Maker is getting some gigantic overhauls across the board. There are two new block shapes: right triangles and quarter circles. Scale and Angle values are now controlled via easily accessible sliders, rather than their little Up/Down arrows. All values in the editor can be typed in by clicking on them. The title and artist text entries are bigger and tab in the correct order. Context buttons have received a total design overhaul. Controller input has been improved across the board and is a much more pleasant experience. Oh, and bug fixes. So many bug fixes. A STAGGERING number of bug fixes. Basically, this might as well be a whole new Mondrian Maker.
Improved Documentation
While the old Instructions panel in Mondrian Maker was a beautiful feature, it unfortunately had many problems. The documentation fell out of date very quickly, the text was quite small, and unfortunately with Mondrian’s engine not having dedicated UI tools, smooth scrolling through pages of documentation became an insurmountable challenge to achieve. So now, documentation for both Mondrian Maker AND Mondrian Studio is being compiled into a conveniently-included PDF manual. While a preview version of the manual is included with the latest beta update, there is still quite a bit missing and so this will also continue to receive updates as the betas continue. I’ll also be making this manual available as print-on-demand in higher quality for anyone who’d prefer it in paper form.
And the rest of the game?
Yes, I’m well aware there is more to the game than the level editor, and it’s all been getting some love across the board. Achievements are now a lot more… achievable. Some of have been cut entirely, and many have had reduced requirements, with more changes on the way soon. Lots of bug fixes related to holiday events have been implemented. I’m planning an overhaul to Museum exhibits to only include a handful of current spotlight artworks but adding another handful of new ones. All of these will be rendered in Blender to have accurate perspective based on where you place them. So… it might take a while to get this fully implemented.
I’ve also begun working on some new levels that show off the new block shapes. These are getting added to Steam Workshop, and eventually mod.io, one at a time. The plan is for 10 or so new levels by the time the update is done. There are a couple so far, and I’ll get back to them soon.
At the moment I am eyeing a February/March release date for “The Last Exhibit,” after which I’ll be backing up the source code and packing it away forever. I’m currently in the process of frying some much bigger fish, but I want to leave the game, and especially the level editor, in an incredible state in case anybody finds it in the future.
It’s been a… well, it’s been a run, but hopefully the game can say goodbye with a bang and leave players with plenty of content and creation tools to enjoy for years to come.
