So, the future of RedPower:

I’ve decided to turn RedPower into a standalone game, based on a custom engine.

It’s going to have a feel rather similar to the mod, but quite different from Minecraft. I’m going back to a lot of my old Minia ideas, and my original inspirations.

I’m holding back on revealing the signature content at the moment - I have mobs, player characters, and other things, but I’m not ready to start the hype just yet.

What does this mean for the Minecraft mod? I’m still not sure. I’d like to continue it, but I don’t currently have the resources to. During the main development period of the mod, I was unemployed. It was a full-time job to develop and maintain it. Since I started working, I tried updating it several times, including a major redesign, but constant code churn between MC, MCP names, and Forge kept erasing the progress I made.

With my own engine, there are no issues with code churn. The base game can’t change and invalidate my game design. I’m not stuck in Java, nor in ancient versions of OpenGL. My engine takes full advantage of multi-core CPUs and modern GPUs. It should run well on next-generation console hardware also.

The other big advantage is that I can get my game on Steam, and other major distribution channels. More people see it, and I have a chance at making enough to pay the bills. I don’t like that I have to think like that, but working all week leaves me only a little time on the evenings and weekends to do game dev. This applies even more now that I have a full-time artist working on the game. Those aren’t free.

Anyway, assuming this post actually uploads correctly, I’ll try to keep this site a little more up to date.