When I was young I used to make a lot of levels for Tomb Raider (3? 4?) because I found the process of making sacred-but-spooky feeling places very enchanting. I had no one to share them with, so it was more like just making folk art for myself and my brother. This feeling was not surpassed until Minecraft came out (and then that was not surpassed until I bought land).<p>The levels are fundamentally comprised of square blocks that you push up from the ground, and maybe tilt one of the four sides to make shapes. To make caves and rooms, there is a second set of blocks that you pull down from the ceiling!<p>To get an idea of what this feels like, see this particular tutorial video of theirs: <a href="https://tombengine.com/docs/extended-geometry-update-1-7/" rel="nofollow">https://tombengine.com/docs/extended-geometry-update-1-7/</a>
The homepage says "The open-source engine" but I can't find a link to the source code anywhere on the site. The link that says "Download" is a link to some Windows binary.<p>Edit: <a href="https://github.com/TombEngine/TombEngine">https://github.com/TombEngine/TombEngine</a> that seems to be the code.
This is more interesting: <a href="https://github.com/MontyTRC89/Tomb-Editor">https://github.com/MontyTRC89/Tomb-Editor</a> (the level editor that goes with the engine)<p>What made the eternal life of Quake has been its open source level editor which means designers can have a field day making new levels.<p>The editor is as important as the engine, if not more. Exciting stuff!
Another very cool project in this space is TRX, which is based on a decompilation of the original Tomb Raider 1 & 2 source code:<p><a href="https://github.com/LostArtefacts/TRX">https://github.com/LostArtefacts/TRX</a><p>Of the various Tomb Raider fan engine projects, this is basically the "vanilla, but modernized and well-maintained" historical archival option.<p>I contributed the MacOS port to this one, and last year I dabbled a little in porting an older random git snapshot to the web:<p><a href="https://eikehein.com/stuff/sabatu/" rel="nofollow">https://eikehein.com/stuff/sabatu/</a> (using a fan level, as to not post the original game content online)<p>It's a very rough hack, so it's not upstream at the moment.<p>The TRX team is a wonderful and passionate bunch of people to hang around.
This is so cool! I hope it starts some kind of new genre or creator community. Maybe a souls-like take on TR as well? Or some unexpected mashup with another game? So many ideas come to mind!
Tomb Raider 2 was one of the first games I got for the PlayStation. I remember spending HOURS with my sisters and friends trying to trap the butler into the freezer of her mansion.<p>Good memories.
Been following their Discord for a while. It's pretty impressive looking. I was waiting until TR2 had a decent fan port. Now with the official remasters I don't have time to play them.<p>Still great to see fans taking the games in directions publishers won't, like with MP
I've dabbled a little in game development projects. But how does someone actually get started on a project like re-implementing a game like TR?<p>I suppose the PC release helps, you can disassemble that. Perhaps find editors online to determine the asset structure. But it must surely be an enormous project and no end of trial and error to do it that way.
Not to be "that person" but in the game space there is already a "t-engine"[1], AKA ToME (Tales of Maj'Eyal) engine, for building rogue-likes in Lua. It seems to go by "t-engine" primarily, but it's begging for confusion.<p>[1]: <a href="https://te4.org/" rel="nofollow">https://te4.org/</a>
It's hard to believe the assets they are using are properly licensed.<p>I give this project a couple of weeks (it would have been months but it's now made it to HN).