Hey everyone! I've been working on Heartlands for over two years, and I'm going to use this thread to post updates, new features, weird bugs and behind-the-scenes stuff as the game keeps growing.
Heartlands is a multiplayer 2D side-scroller / platformer where every single thing in the world is made by the people playing it. The blocks, wallpaper, skins, emojis, NPCs, instruments, sound effects, weapons, the worlds (realms) themselves with built-in tools.
It's in a free public alpha right now and playable in your browser at playheartlands.com or as a Windows download on itch.io. However, I'm in desperate need for some genuine feedback. So, please feel free to share your experience, ideas, bugs you've found, etc while keeping in mind this is only v0.2~ Alpha Test :)
Origins of this game: This game was a concept I had back in 2009 where players made the world with shapes and colors. This is where I cut my teeth on networking/multiplayer online games. Long story short, a couple years back I made an online browser mspaint like game, where players would paint across a giant canvas. I kept expanding it with more tools, eventually making an entire pixel editor, and then adding a platform engine I had been working on, and then it kept growing from there until we got here!
The core loop
Make stuff → place it in a world → play in that world with other people.
Everything in Heartlands is made in-game. You don't leave to open Aseprite, Audacity or Photoshop unless you want to, every tool is built into the game. Your creations get saved straight to your creation menu (TAB) and dropped into your hotbar. Left click places them, right click breaks them.
In the future you'll be able to give your creations special actions/events to really bring the creations to life! Claimed regions and Realm Updates are also coming soon, which can have special properties and custom events (you'll be able to make your own game within Heartlands).
🎨 Pixel Editor
The main creation tool. You use it to draw skins, blocks, wallpaper, weapons, mounts, instruments, emojis and a bunch more - basically every visual thing in the world passes through here. Each creation type has its own dimensions (most blocks are 38×38, skins are 64×64, ridable mounts are 126×126, flyables are 196×196, emojis are 25×25, and so on), and the editor adapts to what you're making.
👕 Skin System
Skins aren't just a sprite — they're a full animation set across several modes:
- Normal: Standing, Dash, Swim, Jump, Double Jump, Fall, Run, Climb, Wall Slide, Ice Slide, Damaged
- Crouching: same states but as your crouched version
- Flying: Idle, Up, Down, Dash, Forward
- Actions: Emote 1, Emote 2, Emote 3, AFK, Mount, Swing
🌍 Realm Creator
Worlds in Heartlands are called realms, and anyone can own one. There are official realms run by the server, and player realms you can visit, build in, or run yourself.
Every realm has a full Realm Admin menu - spawns, permissions, whitelists/blacklists, default skin, and a lot more - so owners can run them however they want. Some people run roleplay realms, some run parkour realms, some run pure build-space realms where anything goes.
🤖 NPC Creator
Design NPCs from scratch! Their look (they wear skins you've made), their behaviour, and how they interact with players. This is where player-made characters turn into something you can actually populate a realm with.
...and more
A few other things worth knowing about:
- Warp Menu — save your own warp points, share them, use other players' shared warps, or drop a portal so other players can follow you
- Instruments — Piano, Guitar and Drums, each with its own key layout. Guitar uses Q W E R T Y for strings with num-pad keys shifting pitch, Drums have a two-row layout, Piano uses Z X C V B N M for white keys. Because the sounds are player-made, every in-world jam session sounds different.
- Notifications — social-media-style; you get pinged when someone wears your skin or interacts with something you made
- Leaderboards — top builders, top creators, most playtime, newest creations and skins
- Combat — Currently only Melee weapons
- Effect Options — cosmetics for your nameplate, chat font, chat colour, icon next to your name
Current Version: 0.2.7 Alpha
This is still very much a work in progress until v1.0. This is still the ground work for much more that I'm working on, so MUCH will change from now until then. I do not foresee a wipe on any creation or realms, so whatever you make stays!
Links
- Play in browser: playheartlands.com
- Windows build (itch.io): wizirdi.itch.io/heartlands
- Discord: discord.gg/wNFXrZ6
- Twitter/X: x.com/wizirdi
- YouTube: youtube.com/wizirdi
- Instagram: instagram.com/wizirdi
- TikTok: tiktok.com/@WizirdiGames
Thank you again for checking it out!