User-generated content has been in the gaming industry for decades now, with mods for games likeHalf-LifeandCounter-Strikebeing some of the earliest examples. While modders can break down a game into its core components, add something new, and build it all back up to produce a fresh experience, somevideo games let players create their own levelsin the game itself, using the tools provided by the developers to do so. The recently announcedKing of Meatis one such game.
Announced during Gamescom Opening Night Live,King of Meatis a 4-player dungeon-crawler that tasks players with battling their way through an array of colorful dungeons. WhenKing of Meatlaunches, it’ll allow players to create their own dungeons by using the in-game level editor. Glowmade studio head Jonny Hopper recently sat down with Game Rant to shed a bit more light on this feature.
King of Meat’s User-Created Content
King of Meat’s Level Editor Is Designed to be Accessible
Creating a level from scratch can be a pretty daunting task for players, especially those who don’t consider themselves too creatively gifted. But thankfully,King of Meat’slevel editor is designed with accessibilityin mind, so that any player, regardless of skill, can create something they’re proud of. As Hopper explained,
“The idea of the system is that it’s very hard to make something bad. That’s the baseline: you start off by placing rooms, and that’s essentially a play space. It’s a room, it’s got a configuration, but you’re able to change all the floors, add a load of bad guys, add a load of traps. Then you can redecorate all of that and you can go mess with the logic. If you want to, you can go—room, room, room, room, go—and that’s a level. It’s a legitimate level.”
Based on Hopper’s comments, it seems as though players will be able to create dungeons with relative ease. If all players want to do is create a simple dungeon with a handful of rooms that are filled with an assortment of monsters, then that’s somethingKing of Meatwill allow. But if players want to put a bit more effort into theircustom dungeon, then there are plenty of options to explore:
“Then you can go back round and think about changing the floors, you can set everything on fire, and add some hammers and some spikes. Then you can dive straight in. You can start your level there and it’s instant to test it, so you can iterate and test without ever feeling like it’s work, and go into Logic Mode, which is how everything’s connected.”
One of the biggest drawbacks of some past games that have revolved around user-created content is that they can be tricky to navigate. It sounds likeKing of Meatwon’t have this problem, with its level editor allowing players to instantly switch between a creator mode and a testing mode.
King of Meat’s Level Editor Has Complexity For Those Who Want It
While it sounds relatively easy to string some rooms together, add some traps and enemies to them, and call it a day,King of Meat’s level editor does feature a more in-depth mode should eager players want to challenge themselves and get into the weeds of dungeon-making.Glowmade’s studio headbriefly teased this system during his interview,
“Here you can set up the conditions and how stuff reacts, but you don’t have to. We want to have that stuff for the experts, though we also want to make it so that every time you place the object, it should just do the thing it’s expected to do without any fuss…It is granular, but we don’t force you to be really deep with it.”
Based on Glowmade’s comments, it seems as thoughKing of Meat’s level editor could strike the perfect balance between accessible and complex, hopefully giving the game plenty of life post-launch.
King of Meatis currently in development for Nintendo Switch, PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.
