We will do our best to always have a free version of Multiverse Designer. Our roadmaps include expansion of assets and addition of several features requested by community, this objectives can only be achieved through crowdfunding alternatives.

We plan to have a monthly content that could lead to a subscription, but please remember that we will always have a basic free version. You will be able to buy the latest content, but free versions will play fust fine.

Well, let’s understand the problem first. There are hundreds, perhaps thousands of RPG, each with their own rules and sheets, spells and items. Putting even a basic version of all these rpgs in Multiverse Designer would be impossible. So we decided to create a RPG rules tool/language. This tool is called Criteria. It is a fully developed computer language, tailored specifically to create RPG rules. The game will ship with some RPG rules, but we expect that our community will be able to create more rules in the future. Criteria has no oriented genre and it is completely generic. Theoretically, any RPG rules could be made with Criteria. Criteria was designed to be easily expanded, if needed, for any specific RPG. 

Using Criteria, it will be possible to define initiative, HP, attributes, skills, feats, magic items, spells and rules to use them. Criteria works along with MD Maps, pieces, the character editor and the campaign editor.

Criteria has access to the players position and there will be a way to describe area effects and spells based on rules. Probably not in the first version.

Yes! It is already fully working. Map pieces and enemies will be hidden from players, not only behind corners or walls, but also behind columns, and even behind other enemies! Fog of war can be enabled and disabled by the GM, of course.

We work with a system of pieces that are always multiples of 3m (10ft) cubes. Pieces can be grouped together to form bigger pieces and saved as “mini maps” that can be imported anytime, even during a network/multiplayer game. These mini maps can have enemies/monsters. Entire rooms can be loaded within seconds and transmitted to the players in real time. You can even create the dungeon during the game!

We give special attention to the scale of objects. Furniture, props and everything is at the correct size.

This is the most difficult part for us, since we had no crowdfunding to start. We did our best to put good content in the game. The good news is the majority of the PCs and NPCs are customizable and most have 5 to 10 different variations including armor, clothes and physical appearance. We have about a hundred PCs/NPCs/monsters – counting variations – and the list is growing. 

One good thing is that every creature has at least a basic idle animation. Most creatures walk run and point their weapons. We plan to release specific animations, like dragon breath weapons, melee attacks, bow attacks and so on in future editions.

Yes! We created a tool called “Environment” that allows you to create an infinite number of textures and grids for floor and walls. Some examples are grass, stone, bricks, marble, steel, cloth…

Also we will always strive for realism and movie-quality in Multiverse Designer. 

Yes. We already have about 150 trees and grass kinds of tiles. All of them animated, grass moves with the wind, also trees and other kinds of nature props are not static. Very soon we will have rivers, oceans, lakes, caves, open spaces, etc. We will listen to the community to create sci-fi, modern, apocalypse…

Yes! You can set darker maps, lighter maps, indirect lighting maps, sun light maps. Every map has a light scheme. The game will come with several light schemes ready to use and you will be able to modify them or create your own. 

Also, all lights are full 3d, movable, real time calculated lights. Approach a torch and you’ll see your shadow stretch. Every fire source like candles, fireplaces, braziers or torches emit real-time light.

The game will be shipped with several “effects”, like fire, lighting, gas, etc that could be placed by the GM just like any other prop in the game. We plan to release an effect modding tool in the future and most importantly, link this effect to Criteria game rules. Stay tuned!

Yes. We are planning to use external videos for modding tutorials and we will have a basic starting tutorial. However the game interface is designed to be simple to use. The only exception, of source is the map creation tool, that has extensive keyboard and mouse commands to easy the task of creating maps. We will try to have an ingame tutorial but if this is not possible we will always have external video tutorials on our website and in social media.

We are looking into that and we have to clear out how license will work. Since this is basically a free game we could only start with free licenses. More on that in the future.

Maybe in the future. As of this moment, we understand that any kind of video/audio chat will be much less efficient than to use say Google or Zoom or Microsoft, all of which use very large servers with almost unlimited bandwidth. There’s no point in competing with that.

Doors will open and close however the GM chooses. For instance if you have a double door, you can open one, say, 30% and the other fully open… This works in real time and in multiplayer. The GM has total control over how much a door could open.  We plan to have secrets doors to do the same. In the very near future we will link rules with architectural pieces in order to automatize traps, doors and secret doors to work together.

We sure want our game to be anywhere. However steam is the most simple choice to start.

All files in multiverse designer were designed to be shareable. Maps have an mdmapr extension, chars have an mdchar extension and so on. Just copy and paste the files on the correct directories, maps for… maps, characters for characters and so on. Currently you’ll be able to share criteria game rules, maps, map parts (even a single piece!), light schemes, environments, characters/monsters/NPCs and campaigns. Campaigns are collections of characters, maps and human players. There will be documentation or tutorials on how to do this. More on our Discord channel.

Dice rolls will be tied to the game rules. Criteria is able to tell that a determined rule needs a d20 and another may need 5d6, picking the 3 best dice. Player dice are seen by anyone. GM can roll their dice secretly or openly. Any dice rolled by any player will be logged in the journal along with the reason for the roll. 

We are planning to have player multiplayer versions for android and ios, in the future. GM tools and Map creation, at least for now, will be restricted for Windows. Linux and Macintosh versions may follow, but that will depend heavily on the community interest. And we are VR enthusiasts here. We are definitely planning a VR version. Don’t you want to be IN the dungeon??? We certainly do. 

Well, what we can say is this: WE WILL LISTEN TO YOU. We have great ideas for the future but we don’t want to be away from our users. Open spaces, caves, pre-historic worlds, modern worlds, meta-humans… these are all in our scope.

We have some ideas in that area. Sound effects will happen, but only very basic things will be in the first version. We do not want to put “fixed” music inside the game, this will be very limited. 

We are working on a very good solution. Unfortunately, this is a secret project so I will tell you nothing for now. More on that in the future!

Yes, probably it will be a simple pointer or object, perhaps with a special light or effect. This will be probably included in the first version.

Yes, but not now. We are focusing on many things and this kind of feature has to be decided – again – by listening to the community.

BIG. Incredibly BIG. Well, at least, bigger than one person. Two, in fact (one is an intern). We were joined by a third about a month ago. This is a work of love. We are doing this without crowdfunding, using our own resources to build this from RPG players to RPG players. All of our assets, for instance, were made by us or free to use commercially, because we simply do not have resources to buy assets right now. We give many thanks for people who put their 3D models on the internet with cc attribution. Please click on the Toopan Games icon in the main screen to see them all. And of course many thanks to Epic free content and Unreal. This software would not be possible without it. 

From May 2020.

Yes, of course. Probably in the first version. Druids have companions, wizards have familiars, paladins have followers!

Well, props can be scaled, fire/torches can be scaled – (their light increases), PCs and NPCs can be scaled, but wall pieces cannot, since that would mess with the snap to grid system.

Grid on the floor, yes, thanks to the environment tool, but no hex walls. The wall pieces use a 3m cube side and all walls snap to it. So no hex walls at this moment. Again if there’s a significant number of people who want it we’ll find a way to do it. 

Yes!

We simply do not have time to customize everything. But we plan for custom controls, dice, custom PCs, custom effects everything, in fact. There’s no such a thing as too many custom options.

We will do internal play tests in july and august 2021. In fact we are currently searching for people who want to help us with the play tests (if you are interested, please, click here and sign up!).

After that we’ll probably have an Early Access version which will probably still have some bugs. We are planning for a q4 2021 release.

Unreal has no official way to import external textures and it messes with the game optimization. However we will probably have it some way or another. Characters, however, are another story. For a character to work with our software it has to be already imported into Unreal Engine. If you want to use a specific character with our software you have to import it to Unreal using the standard “mannequin” unreal skeleton, make it public as a cc – commercial attribution (you can use several websites for that, sketchfab for instance) and point us to the link. If your work is good and could be used in the game, why not? 

We firmly believe that the future of role playing games is digital. We hope most companies allow us to “publish” and sell their content. More on that in the future!

Most definitely yes, but not in the first version. In fact, there’s not many words in the software. Our interface is mostly icon-based.

NPCs can be freely rotated. Most props can be freely rotated. Some props can be put anywhere really. Try to put a bread asset on a vertical wall. It will stick there. Walls and floors can be rotated 90 degrees only, because of the snap system.

Well, probably yes. Characters, pieces, maps, lights environments are free to be reused again and again.

Characters in rules and characters in maps are linked by name. That way you can have a map and use this with different RPG rules, for instance. Maps in campaigns are also linked by name. That means you can reuse a map in another campaign, a character as a player character or enemy and so on. 

Because that will make it very difficult to create a map. Our walls not only snap to each other, their bricks are perfectly aligned. Remember you can change the brick size in a wall, the color of the bricks, the distance between them and so on. That is the power of the environment tool. But most props can be freely moved!

GMs have a very smart free camera. If you use wasd keys, it works just like a camera in a rts game. Press any mouse buttons and you have a floating camera that goes anywhere. Press the middle mouse button and you orbit. Press F to focus on a piece. Select pieces with a box… the list goes on and on…

Players on the other side are tied to the character they are controlling. Using the middle mouse button they can change from isometric view at a distance (diablo-style) to third person style and to full first person style. They cannot see beyond their character field of vision, of course (unless your GM has turned fog of war off).

Of course. This would not be an real editor without it.

Of course! Just go very high and look down. The software will adjust the field of vision so that you’ll have a top down map view, 2d style.

Each piece has a list of properties. Characters have full size and width. Torches can be lit/unlit or have it´s fire increased or decreased. Doors have options to be made of wood or iron, and to be fully opened or partially opened. Grates can be reversed into arches, enemies can have weapon changes, all of this is accomplished by properties. Also every architectural piece has an environment. That way you can have white marble tiles surrounded by green marble tiles, for instance. And everything can be done during a game session. Lit torches, open doors, transform a little goblin into a giant…