I have been busy fixing bugs, such as room connection issues that the Beta testers have found. In preparation for the upcoming first Early Access release, scheduled for the end of the month, I have been busy implementing missing features as well. Two of these features are the Asset Web Search and Package Import/Export with built in support for  Steam Workshop.

The built in Asset Web Search is used to quickly find free assets to use in your maps – including search options for “free for non-commercial use” and “free for commercial use” options as well as the normal fair-use option (i.e. free for personal use). The search integrates directly in the program and assets you find can be immediately added to your Library. There are several built-in searches that are known to provide good results, so this will make finding assets for your games very simple.

In the screenshot above you can see the Export dialog (still work in progress) – this allows you to export any or all of your maps and assets. If you remove all assets – there will be buttons to quickly do this – than only those assets required to export the maps you have selected will be included. In this way you can distribute your maps and know that someone can open them up in Arcane Mapper while minimizing the amount of data you need to package. Of course you may distribute assets from your Library and not include maps. In addition, you will be able to include documentation with your package, if so desired.

You will also be able to upload your packages to Steam Workshop directly from the tool as well as import any packages that you have access to. During import you can also select which files you want, though they are all selected by default.

With these two features it will be easy for the community to share assets and to quickly find free assets to use when creating your maps. This is important, there will be no paid asset pack DLC for Arcane Mapper – as I have said many times, Arcane Mapper is a tool first and foremost, not a set of Asset Packs or paid DLC.