Blockland (video game)

Blockland
Blockland Title
Developer(s)	Eric "Badspot" Hartman, Ben Garney
Publisher(s)	Step 1 Games LLC,
Designer(s)	Eric "Badspot" Hartman
Engine	Torque Game Engine
Platform(s)	PC, Macintosh
Release	November 2004 (freeware) February 24, 2007 (retail)
Genre(s)	Sandbox, MMOG, RPG
Mode(s)	Single-player, online and lan multiplayer

Blockland is a multiplayer computer game built on the Torque Game Engine, in which players build using Lego-like building blocks. It was developed by Eric "Badspot" Hartman and was released on February 24, 2007. The game is not endorsed by, or affiliated with the Lego brand. However, at one point, Lego was in talks with Eric about selling Blockland. It was spotlighted on The Screen Savers February 11, 2005, drastically increasing the user base overnight. Currently the game's community consists of about 28,000 users that have purchased Retail Blockland. Blockland has also been featured on Shack News.

Gameplay

Structures can be built in a single-player or multiplayer setting. Using various tools in the game, a player can add various effects (and other tools) to bricks, such as lighting, emitters, specularity and animated particles, although these are not the only effects available. The game also features a variety of vehicles players can control (and destroy), weapons, saving and loading of buildings, automated construction through macros and a mini-game system. The minigame system enables users to create configurable and self-contained game modes using options and then play in the world they create. These can range from a simple deathmatch to a zombie survival game to Capture the Flag. This system can allow players on a server to be in a minigame while the others continue to build. Any player who buys the game can create a server. A standard server is able to hold up to 32 players. (Although a player is able to host a dedicated server, which is free from the normal game and can hold many players.)

Blockland uses a trigger and event-based system to create basic interactive objects such as light switches, missile launchers, collapsing brick structures, or arcade-like games such as Pong. 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. With the update to v11, a new physics feature was included in an attempt to bring a more realistic aspect to the game. This feature comes into play when a brick is blown up using weapons/events. The physics quality can be lowered to work smoother on slower machines, or can be turned off entirely.

Eventing

A large part of Blockland's building features is the event system, in which players may apply certain input/output operators to bricks that can accomplish different things in-game. It can also control other features Like how it effects the bricks, Which might be very basic but it can do alot without mindless hours of scripting. For instance "OnActivate>Self>fakekillbrick [5]" Makes the brick fakekill itself. So if you have Phyiscs on you'll see them laying on the ground till the "[5]" seconds runs out. Cool is it not? It can do alot more than this but thats just a basic over-view.

Game Modes

There are many different types of game modes and servers that are hosted on Blockland. All game modes (excluding Deathmatch and gamemodes not requiring a minigame) were user created. These include but are not limited to:

Open-Ended Gamemodes - These types of gamemodes are not as competitive as DMs or TDMs and sometimes do not require a minigame.

• Freebuild - An open playmode where players get together to build non-competitively. They may share builds and show them off in these servers. This is the most common game mode.
• Challenge - Challenges involve players having to complete a series of complicated trials/courses in order to win the gamemode.
• Roleplay (RP) - Players fulfill the role of a character or alternate identity and interact with others in a certain setting to accomplish tasks. Most RPs base around different things, such as families and boarding schools.
• Roleplaying Game (RPG) - A more advanced form of roleplay, players will have to juggle situations and stats, such as money and health. Many RPGs are about things like city life and the military.
• Infinite Mining - A mining gamemode in which participants may mine ores and other resources for currency and other items. Items can be bought as well to help make this easier.
• Trench Digging - A gamemode where players can dig dirt and place it where ever they please to construct. Many trench digging servers have a team deathmatch mode alongside.
• City Build - A gamemode similar to "freebuild", except the builds are organized into a city. A very good way to get famous is to make a successful one.

Deathmatch (DM) - All players are on their own in a free-for-all deathmatch, or against a computer-controlled force. Some deathmatches have a number of lives. When you lose all your lives you observe.

• Fort Wars - A form of Deathmatch where players have to go and construct their own fort before they can fight. Some players unofficially join others and base themselves in each others' forts and raid opposing forts.
• Defense - Almost like Siege, except all players fight AI bots. Defense games allow players to upgrade their main fort to fight off more threats.
• Zombie Gamemode - The basic zombie-fighting gamemode that is more open-ended than others. Most are just zombie slaughter servers, while some unique servers may have roleplays or defense games with them.
• Creeper Gamemode - A gamemode where participants attempt to stop a growing biomass of bricks with a special Creepkill spray. The "creeper" will grow on any surface available. Players will die on contact with the creeper.
• Tag - A gamemode where one person is selected to be "it" and the result varies in the 3 different modes, 1-standard 2-freeze 3-last man standing, 1 is the standard regular game of tag, you click someone and they are it, 2 is freeze tag whoever is "it" tag someone and they freeze, when someone else click they they melt, 3 is the hardest it starts of with one tagger but when he tags someone else they are also "it" the last man standing wins!
• Zombie Games - A gamemode similar to Defend Your Castle. Players fight rounds of zombies, each round earning points depending on the difficulty. They can buy weapons with those points such as Shotgun, AK47, and Spear, or field upgrades such as Turrets, Mines, Forts, and lava pits.

Team Deathmatch (TDM) - Users are separated into different teams to battle each other for points. Versions of TDMs can range to Siege, Capture The Flag and others.

• Siege - A team deathmatch in which two opposing teams fight for control of a location or base, usually a stronghold or fort. The first team, called the Defenders, defend the base from the opposing team for a specified amount of time, while the other team, the Attackers, attempts to invade and capture the Base from the Defenders.
• King of the Hill (KOTH) - A type of team deathmatch which involves capturing a single point, usually set in the middle of the map.
• Capture the Flag (CTF) - Where two or more teams compete to capture the opponents flag for points.
• Knife TDM - Two or more teams battle each other to the death, with players given a limited amount of lives. This gamemode is usually played on platform environments where accidents from falling is a possibility.
• Zombies Are People Too (ZAPT) - A zombie survival game that reflects Left 4 Dead 2. In one mode, half of the players are zombies and the other half are survivors who only get one life. In another ZAPT, all players start as survivors, when they are killed by zombies, they turn into one. In the other one, it is all survivors vs. a tank, the most powerful zombie. An alternate, earlier gamemode also exists, commonly referred to as Left 4 Block, L4B, or Zombie Mod.
• Deathrun - Deathruns involve the "Runners" into traveling to the other side of the course as an opposing team controls traps and tries to bring the runners down.

Demo

The demo version of Blockland is limited to 150 bricks. Demo builds that come with the game are under the demo brick limit and allow new players to explore some of Blockland's features. The brick limit also prevents the loading of many of the game's default save files, most of which have at least 10,000 bricks. Builds such as the 'Demo House' and 'Demo Blockland Sign' are available as demo examples of eventing and lettering. The demo also does not allow online play, limiting players to single-player games. However, it is possible to join LAN servers created by owners of the full version. The demo version becomes the full version when a unique activation key is purchased from the Blockland website for 19.95 USD and entered into the game.

Retail

The very first public version of Blockland was v0002. The "Globe and Mail" wrote an article on this early version of Blockland in which Eric claimed the game had gained 20,000 users in the 10 days 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 a retail version of Blockland having removed all of the copyrighted Lego content. The Demo Version also provides a tutorial which is helpful for new users, it goes over the controls, and building styles.

Modifications

Blockland allows users to write add-ons for the game to share with other players. Add-ons uses range from new blocks to total overhauls. 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 about how to modify the game.

This allows users to create almost anything they want, using for instance an editor like Quake Army Knife. Whether if its cars, planes, or air crafts you just need to know the scripting language and simple instructions to create the ZIP Files and you're on your way to showing off your latest creations and playing them with friends.

External links

• Blockland Official Website