Alongside an update on wartime game development, Ukrainian studio 4A Games has released Exodus SDK, full modding tools for Metro Exodus on PC and the game engine that it runs on. This not only allows users to create mods and new levels for Metro Exodus, but also to create standalone content using the game engine.
“This isn’t just simple mod support,” 4A writes, “we’re giving you our full Editor as it was the day we released Metro Exodus, with the ability to create standalone content run from a basic executable. We’ve integrated Mod.io support, so it’s really easy to manage and share your content. If you also know visual script, our Visual Script Editor leaves the doors wide open with possibilities, so get creative!”
To help people get to grips with Exodus SDK, there’s both public documentation for the tools, as well as some tutorial levels and a full shipped level from the game that 4A are providing as an example. This will allow people to tear things apart from the full game to see how it ticks.
The only limitations that 4A Games has put in place is that, to use the Exodus SDK, you need to have Metro Exodus or Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition installed on your PC, and accept an EULA that prohibits using this for commercial purposes or profit. “We’re not looking to enter the engine licensing business,” they say, “this is purely something meant for the community, and we hope you get inspired to create some really wild things.”
They continue, “We’ve been building this engine since the studio opened in 2005, and it’s seen a lot of iteration and improvement over the years. It’s still not perfect, and we continue developing it daily, but we’re really proud of our team’s efforts and we hope that you’ll enjoy getting your hands dirty with it.”
It’s really a rather fantastic effort from 4A Games, inspired in part by seeing Metro mods and themed levels being made for other games and with other engines.
4A Games is a Ukrainian game developer, and while they’ve been somewhat out of the spotlight without a game formally announced, they are enduring the same hardships that the rest of the games industry in Ukraine is. Alongside the Exodus SDK announcement, they shared a little more about how the studio is managing.
Some team members have lost homes, others have joined the Armed Forces to defend the country, and as such the company is being as flexible as they can.
“As a company, we’re doing everything we can. We provide financial and logistical assistance to the team scattered across Kyiv and beyond. We’re also proud to support and amplify personal efforts of our staff who are volunteering, making donations, delivering medical supplies and food, and a lot more – most of all those who are fighting on the front lines.”
Development on the next Metro game is ongoing, but there are a lot of hardships:
The next Metro game is also changing for the better. And not simply because of the circumstances we find ourselves in. We’ve never hidden the fact that the Metro series has always carried a strong political and anti-war message. Yes, we’ve always wanted to entertain and immerse you in our post-apocalyptic world but there’s also been a bigger story to tell. And the war in Ukraine has made us re-think what kind of story the next Metro should be about. All the themes of Metro – conflict, power, politics, tyranny, repression – are now part of our daily-life experiences. So, we’re embracing them and weaving them into the game with a renewed purpose.
It’s the most important thing for us right now.
We also need to manage our expectations – as for our Kyiv studio and Ukraine-based personnel, it’s now being made under the most extraordinary and horrifying of circumstances. Some days start with our morning stand-ups and a coffee. But some start with air-raid sirens and missile strikes. Some days we take the Metro to work but other days we’re forced to shelter in it. Each day we try and live our lives with as much normality as we can muster, and yet we’re dealing with power and water cuts, families who need re-locating, friends and colleagues volunteering or being called to the front. Our “new” normal… it isn’t normal, by any stretch of imagination. It’s life during wartime, and it inevitably shapes the games we make.
Source: 4A Games
