We just open-sourced the Pixels client!
For the non-technical people: the frontend is the part of Pixels you see and interact with. The game view, menus, buttons, UI, and controls.
Developers can now download it, change it, build mods, and connect their version to our sandbox. This doesn't mean the entire game is open source yet. The backend still controls the shared world, game logic, and game data (that part is nearly ready to open-source as well 🙂)
What is coming next...
1. The backend
We are going to open-source the Pixels backend next. This will let developers change much more than the visuals and interface. They will be able to create entirely new mechanics in-game!
2. Creator tools
We are building tools that make it easier to create new objects and content without needing to manually edit everything in code. Players will be able to create new quests, new in-game items, scriptable objects, and way more!
3. One-click hosting
We are also building a hosted service for forks of Pixels - this will make it much easier for contributors to host a fork of Pixels that other people can play! This is basically the Realms feature we had talked about ages ago! (The work here is nearly done already - very exciting!)
The goal is simple: click a button and deploy your own version of Pixels in our cloud.
4. Community voting
A new voting experience is coming in the next few weeks. Players will be able to vote on proposals they want to see considered for the official game. The Pixels team will review proposals before voting opens. A proposal winning a vote does not automatically guarantee that we will ship it, but it will give us a much clearer signal about what the community wants.
5. Payments and rewards infrastructure
We are retooling stacked to allow you to add payments and rewards and stores inside of forked versions of Pixels!
6. A rework of PIXEL staking & experiments with UGC payment systems
This will come later, but we are going to experiment with reworking our staking system to help rewards builders, creators, and contributors to open Pixels. Expect a redesign of our staking platform that integrates this as well.
Links to the open-source repo below!