Dear Splash Damage,
Please strongly consider releasing some form of PC mapmaking tools for Brink. I am in love with Brink, albeit bittersweet love. I can understand much of the logic behind the current maps (designed for competitive clan play), but Brink can do so much more. The movement system has enormous potential for use in traversing and exploring more open and vertical maps - and goodness knows what people could come up with when combined with the objectives system! I dearly want to see how mappers could stretch Brink’s engine, and having a community that produces maps for both competitive and casual play would avoid alienating the latter half of the playerbase.
I could understand (though not agree with) not releasing an SDK if you intended to sell pay-based map packs, but you’ve already announced that the next piece of DLC will include free maps. That implies that you’re taking the route of making the base product as valuable as possible. Please consider how efficient it could be, from a corporate resource perspective, to unleash community modders on the task of making maps. You have a product that is inspiring to modders and mappers because of SMART, which allows them to consider map construction from a whole new perspective. Harness that energy, please. Let us make awesome stuff for, and with, your game. In that scenario, everyone wins.
Thanks,
- C.