Roughly twelve years after he started working on it, Build engine creator Ken Silverman has published a working version of its unfinished successor: Build2.
This is a big deal given what an impact games built on the original Build engine (including Duke Nukem 3D, Shadow Warrior, Blood, and William Shatner’s TekWar) had on the game industry in the ’90s.
Now, devs can get an idea of what Build2 games might have looked like — and how things might have gone differently if Silverman had seen the project through. He’s published a build of the engine that anyone can download from his website, along with an editor and some script samples.
Also, YouTuber CuteFloor published a video (embedded above) which affords you a visual walkthrough of the engine and what it can do.
According to Silverman, he started working on Build2 in the summer of 2006, and actually brought it to a summer camp in 2007 to A) teach kids how to make 3D games and B) get some hands-on feedback. This continued for another two years until enrollment dropped off at the camp, and Silverman apparently lost interest.
His decision to now share it online comes not long after 3D Realms resurrected Silverman’s Build engine by releasing a playable preview of Ion Maiden, a new game being developed by Voidpoint on the original ’90s engine.
FUN FACT: There’s a bunch of other interesting odds and ends on Silverman’s website, including KenVex, a failed second successor to Build that Silverman also published online this week.
Update: Contacted for comment, Silverman tells Gamasutra that it was CuteFloor who inspired him to release this version of Build2.
“It was CuteFloor who mentioned to me in December 2017 that people keep asking him what I did after the Build Engine,” Silverman wrote in an email. “He originally wanted to make a video of Polytex and I was like, ‘What? No. That’s already been done.’ I liked his ‘History of the Build Engine’ video on YouTube (probably because it features my music : P), so I told him about Build2, gave him a private copy to play with, and came up with the idea of a simultaneous release. It seems to have worked a treat, as we are both getting lots of hits. Ion Maiden was kind of a surprise – I had no idea it was going to be released when it did.”
Silverman went on to write that he welcomes anyone who wants to mess around and make things with the Build2 editor, as it’s “a very usable engine in its current state.”