Eldiron Engine: Version 0.8 Brings a Total Overhaul
It’s been a while since we’ve had news from Markus Moenig, the developer of the Eldiron game engine. The last update, from November of 2022, was in regards to the release of version 0.7 of the engine, which — if you aren’t familiar with it — is a Rust-based RPG game engine.
The thing is, as Markus details in the “Foreword” page on the engine’s website, building a game engine gets complex rather quickly:
I quickly realized two things: first, working on Eldiron was incredibly fun, and second, things got complicated fast. My initial approach was too simplistic—it didn’t allow for all the cool features I wanted to include.
I knew I needed to rework the user interface, add scripting and node-based systems, and create a universal map editor that could handle 2D, isometric, and first-person games.
At this stage, I thought, why not go all in? So, I started working on a new version of Eldiron from scratch.
One of the big changes made during this from-scratch rebuild of the engine was the addition of 3D capabilities, but this left Markus with a challenge: how to implement an easy-to-use 3D environment editor? The answer, it seems, was to go back to the classics:
One of the final pieces of the puzzle was choosing a Doom-style world editor—a decision that made creating worlds and levels both easy and highly flexible. Another major decision was to use Python for scripting while also developing a visual, node-based scripting system for those who prefer to work without code.
The node system is built around Python classes (modules), making it possible to use the same logic in both direct scripting and visual scripting.
In keeping with the retro aesthetic, I also implemented a software rasterizer—if they could do it in 1990, we can certainly do it now!
And as of this week, version 0.8 of the engine — which incorporates all of these changes — is now available! What’s more, Markus has released a video showcasing the engine’s 2D capabilities:
And if you want to see a bit more of the 3D environment editor, you can check out this video:
You can download the Eldiron engine from the project’s GitHub page; builds are available for Mac OS, Linux, and Windows.
