Mr. Raicuparta, an individual developer, announced on March 23 that a multiplayer tool for Unity products “Gomps” was officially unveiled. The distribution platform is PC (Steam), and will be distributed as early access in the near future. With this tool, it is said that most Unity games can be turned into multiplayer at the touch of a button.
“Gomps” is a tool that allows any game made with Unity to instantly support multiplayer, except for some. Multiple people can connect at the same time, even in single-player games. It seems that “multiplayer mode” is also possible with a single button.
However, the multiplayer function is limited. Players can enter the game as a ghost and see each other. In addition, it is possible to leave messages in the game world and check messages left by other players. On the other hand, players who have become “ghosts” cannot interfere with the game itself. Also, each player will start a separate single-player game, and progress will not be shared. It’s an image of a game map where everyone can take a walk and write messages as ghosts.
The developer has also released the actual multiplayer using “Gomps”. In the video posted on Twitter, multiplayer was implemented with works such as “Return of the Obra Dinn”, “Firewatch” and “Ynglet”. In “Return of the Obra Dinn”, shaders are also applied to the ghosts, making it a figure that fits in with the distinctive art style. In addition, it can be seen that it can be smoothly applied to both first-person perspective games and 2D works that look down. Even if you can’t play multiplayer or cooperative play, it’s attractive to be able to explore a world that can only be experienced by multiple people.
The above-mentioned video tweet by the developer attracted attention and recorded about 400 shares. There has been a lot of feedback from users, and it seems that the focus is on voices showing curiosity, such as “I want to actually touch it.”
Gomps developer Raicuparta is known for developing user-created VR mods for games such as Neon White and The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe. Regarding “Gomps”, it is likely that the knowledge of mod development that expands the game itself is utilized. “If possible (hopefully), I would like to support Unreal Engine in the future.”
In addition, he said that he is concerned that “Gomps” may be misunderstood as software that implements full-fledged multiplayer such as competition and cooperation. On the Steam store page, etc., detailed explanations are provided to prevent misunderstandings. In this article, I would like to reiterate that “Gomps” does not have a multiplayer function of the game itself, such as cooperative/competitive play.
“Gomps” stands for PC (Steam) for free and coming soon. It will be delivered as early access, and it will take several months to improve compatibility with various games toward the official release. In addition, it seems that enhancement of exchange elements between players is also expected.
