Medieval Engineers: Community Edition

  SUMMARY:

• Intro
• Community Development
• Meet the Developers
• Access Community Edition
• Looking Forward
• FAQ

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Hello, Engineers! 

Let us begin at the beginning.

Medieval Engineers is a sandbox game about engineering, construction, and the maintenance of architectural works and mechanical equipment using medieval technology. Players build cities, castles, and fortifications; construct mechanical devices and engines; perform landscaping and underground mining. Inspired by real medieval technology, Medieval Engineers adheres to physics and history using technologies available in the 5th to 15th centuries.

We expect players to use their creativity and engineering skills to build war machines, fortifications, and creations we have yet to imagine! 

Medieval Engineers is the second “engineering” game developed by Keen Software House. The first one is Space Engineers, which sold over 4 million copies.

Almost exactly two years ago (March 17, 2020), Medieval Engineers left early access and Keen Software House announced the decision to end the development of Medieval Engineers and release the game out of Early Access. 

The reason for this decision was simple. We needed to restructure our teams and focus on Space Engineers development. This was the best possible choice for the future of Keen Software House and the future of our flagship title Space Engineers. While I stand by this choice, it left our Medieval Engineers community wanting something more, and that never sat well with me.

Community Development

Immediately following the release of Medieval Engineers from early access we spoke with a number of community members who felt the title still had more to offer. I was inspired by the passion and dedication Medieval Engineers fans poured into the game and by the vision our community has for the project. 

“Just release the source code.”

This, and a host of similar voices, pushed us to do more, to provide a better solution and to continue what many felt was incomplete. 

So, we did.

Continued development, and the enormous effort this would require, would need logistical support, communication channels, a custom build, distribution methods, proper bug reporting and feedback, and the list goes on. While community feedback was moving, the number of logistical challenges something like this presented seemed almost unrealistic.

Thanks to the patience of our volunteers and the investment of resources from Keen Software House we have created a framework for continued, community-led, development.

Development of Medieval Engineers “Community Edition” is now, and will be, at the discretion of our volunteer staff, while Keen Software House will act in a support role. We will provide development resources such as servers, staff support, logistics, and communications support. In addition, we are committed to ensuring that our volunteers have the tools (and freedom) this kind of project requires, to continue to apply their passion to Medieval Engineers in this new “Community Edition”.

• Reporting bugs and feedback can be done by selecting the Community Edition logo from the Medieval Engineers support portal, or by visiting the Community Edition Support Portal.
• Up to date information about the Community Edition build as well as commonly asked questions and news can be found on the Medieval Engineers Community Edition website.
• Communication & News will still come from Keen Software House as the Community Edition developers can take advantage of our Social Media accounts and other news channels such as Discord to share important news and updates.
• Medieval Engineers Twitter
• Medieval Engineers Facebook
• Keen Software House Discord
• Medieval Engineers Reddit

Meet the Developers

The “Community Edition” developers have a long history with Keen Software House, Space Engineers, and Medieval Engineers. These are community veterans, modders, and experienced developers in their own right. We are both humbled and grateful to be a part of such an incredible community and look forward to continued collaboration with these talented developers.

Westin “Equinox” Miller

“I've been part of the Keen community for about 4 years, with the majority of that time spent as a modder for Space Engineers & Medieval Engineers. 

Probably my most well-known work is on the Railways mod for Medieval Engineers and the custom dedicated server framework, Torch, for Space Engineers. 

I have also worked with the former ME dev team to improve the modding API and NPC pathfinding. With about 13 years of programming experience, mostly in rendering and performance, I hope to improve stability and framerate in ME.” 

If you would like to check out more work from Equinox please follow the links below. 

• Steam: https://steamcommunity.com/id/314piwm/myworkshopfiles/?appid=333950
• Github: https://github.com/Equinox-
• Discord: Equinox#3141

Daniel “Gwindalmir” Osborne

“I'm a Software Engineer from California, USA, with 13 years of development experience. I've been part of the Keen SWH community since I bought Space Engineers in February 2014. 

Shortly after, I started modding by implementing a script for a “ring teleportation” mod based on a popular sci-fi franchise. From the knowledge I gained through the development of that first mod, I continued to create, implementing a Jump Drive (FTL) mod before Space Engineers had jump drives. 

When Keen announced the development of Medieval Engineers, I was excited to support Keen in their development, since I love SE and wanted to see what they would do next. While Medieval games were not that appealing to me in general, as development progressed, the game and the creative potential it offered drew my attention and I started modding ME as well.

As time went on, I developed a relationship with the developers of both games and started contributing to the codebases of SE, and now ME. A large portion of the mods I have created has always been things I wanted to see in the game.

Now that I have the ability to work on Medieval Engineers in its entirety, I look forward to bringing out the potential I see in it.”

If you would like to check out more work from Gwindalmir please follow the links below.

• Steam: https://steamcommunity.com/id/gwindalmir/myworkshopfiles/
• Twitter: @gwindalmir
• Discord: Gwindalmir#4453

How to Access “Community Edition”

Become a Medieval Engineer today!

If you already own Medieval Engineers you merely need to opt-in to the “Community Edition” build.

1. Head to your Steam Library and right-click on Medieval Engineers
2. Select “Properties”
3. From the menu popup, select “BETAS”
4. From available options “Select the beta you would like to opt into”
5. From this menu, select “Community Edition”

Looking Forward

Our long-term goal, and the goal of our volunteer developers, is to continue expanding the modding possibilities of Medieval Engineers while also ensuring that the Community Edition stays stable. 

Medieval Engineers: Community Edition will not see major changes to gameplay or changes that are not in the spirit of the original Medieval Engineers design. Instead, improvements, bug fixes, and quality of life changes will be the major focus. Additional features are not currently being considered, but are also not outside the realm of possibility.

We will continue to build partnerships between Keen Software House and our incredible community. It is through these relationships that projects like this are possible. For more details and news on Medieval Engineers Community Edition development, please follow us on social media, join our official Discord, or keep an eye on the official Medieval Engineers website.

Would you like to work on Medieval Engineers with our incredible community developers? Direct your inquiries to MedievalCommunityEdition@Keenswh.com

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How do I play “Community Edition”?
A: If you already own Medieval Engineers you merely need to opt-in to the Community Edition.

1. Head to your Steam Library and right-click on Medieval Engineers
2. Select “Properties”
3. From the menu popup, select “BETAS”
4. From available options “Select the beta you would like to opt into”
5. From this menu, select “Community Edition”

Q: How do I get updates?
A: Once you have opted into the Community Edition build, Medieval Engineers will continue to update normally, just like any game in your Steam Library.

Q: Does the Community Edition have its own website?
A: You can find Community Edition resources here:
Medieval Engineers: Community Edition Website

Q: Where do I report a bug?
A: You can report bugs with Community Edition here: 
Medieval Engineers: Community Edition Support Portal

Q: Why did you stop development?
A: We made the hard choice to stop developing Medieval Engineers so that we could focus our resources on making Space Engineers the best it can be. 

Q: Why Now?
A: This process began nearly two years ago just following our announcement that Medieval Engineers development would end. During that time we have worked with volunteers to not only continue development but implement the systems and logistics needed to make this process sustainable and manageable through continued partnerships with our community.

Q: What if Medieval Engineers makes money?
A: If Medieval Engineers begins to generate revenue that offsets our current costs, we can consider adding paid support staff for the Community Developers. We would not resume development. We would, however, be happy to redirect any revenue to continued community development.

Q: How does this affect various unofficial patches that have been circulating? 
A: One of the CE developers’ goals was to incorporate every fix possible, from all the unofficial patches we were aware of. These previous community “patches” were incomplete and needed to be reviewed and combined. Moving forward, any issues can be reported on the CE Support Portal. We will assess reports for a future release, with the goal of never needing external patches like that in the future.

Q: Will there be patch notes?
A: Of Course. You can find the latest patch notes on the Medieval Engineers: Community Edition website!

Q: How do I provide feedback?
A: Please contact us with your bugs, and feedback here: https://support.keenswh.com

Follow our social media to get the latest news! 

• Medieval Engineers Twitter
• Medieval Engineers Facebook
• Keen Software House Discord
  
  

Hiring

If you’re interested in working on awesome games like Space Engineers, we’d love to hear from you!
Check out the open positions at Keen Software House and don’t forget to send us your English CV/resume and cover letter.

Remote collaboration is possible!

Our team is global.

Finding the best candidates to join Keen Software House means exploring every possible solution, including remote work. While we strive to provide team members with the best possible work-life balance here in Prague at our incredible Oranzerie offices, we understand that it is not always possible to transition, therefore we are very remote friendly. Here’s a map of where our teammates live.

If you want to let me know your feedback, please get in touch via my personal email address marek.rosa@keenswh.com, or use our Keen Software House support site. I welcome all of the feedback we receive and we will use it to learn and provide better services to our players.

 

Thank you for reading this blog!

 

Best,
Marek Rosa
CEO, Creative Director, Founder at Keen Software House
CEO, CTO, Founder at GoodAI

 

For more news:
Space Engineers: www.SpaceEngineersGame.com
Keen Software House: www.keenswh.com
Medieval Engineers: www.MedievalEngineers.com
GoodAI: www.GoodAI.com
General AI Challenge: www.General-AI-Challenge.org

 

Personal bio:
Marek Rosa is the CEO and CTO of GoodAI, a general artificial intelligence R&D company, and the CEO and founder of Keen Software House, an independent game development studio best known for its best-seller Space Engineers (4 million copies sold). Both companies are based in Prague, Czech Republic.

Marek has been interested in artificial intelligence since childhood. He started his career as a programmer but later transitioned to a leadership role. After the success of the Keen Software House titles, Marek was able to personally fund GoodAI, his new general AI research company building human-level artificial intelligence.

GoodAI was founded in January 2014, with a $10 Million investment from Marek, it now has over 30 research scientists, engineers, and consultants working across its divisions.

At this time, Marek is developing Space Engineers, as well as leading daily research and development on recursive self-improvement based general AI architecture - Badger.