Brick Hill Spotlight #1: Ty_ & BrickPlayer

The first edition of the Brick Hill Spotlight series, including the user Ty_, & his creations!

Brick Hill Spotlight's Logo

Hello Brick Hill users, and welcome to the first post of a new Brick Hill Spotlight series! Brick Hill is a place full of imagination, creativity, and overall abundance of product from all parts of the community, whether you forum, design, trade, or rant in our discord. There is lots to show for the Brick Hill community, and in doing so we've decided to bring back the formerly User Spotlight series!

Enter Brick Hill Spotlight, where we'll be sitting down with an exceptionally great user as usual, and checking out some of their greatest contributions to Brick Hill! So let's wait no further, and jump into the first edition!


User Spotlight

There's no doubt that the brick hill client and it's set building features have brought out many great developers and games. With the use of such tools users have been able to create some fun times, whether it just be attacking each other or partying.

However some have gone above and beyond in this Brick Hill experience, one of those users being Ty_, who recently has remade both the current client and workshop of Brick Hill completely in unity, allowing for an easier and more smooth experience!

Screenshots from BrickPlayer & BrickBuilder respectively

These clients are no easy task, and the work Ty_ has done to make playing Brick Hill better is outstanding, I got in touch with Ty_ to ask him some questions regarding his work and how he got into making such product, those are down below.

How'd you come across Brick Hill & what kept you?

"I was introduced to Brick Hill by my friend, Spotwich, in June of 2019 I believe. What interested me was the fact that Brick Hill is/was considerably smaller and it's community closer together in comparison to other games I typically played, so it was a lot easier to be able to make friends, and make creations that people actually noticed (rather than get drowned out in a sea of thousands upon thousands of other creations) - Had BrickBuilder not amassed the mind-boggling (to me) usage it has today, I likely would have gone off to do other things ages ago. Of course, nowadays I have many friends in the community, along with BrickPlayer, so I'll probably be here to stay for a good while."

What inspired you to create BrickPlayer / BrickBuilder?

"I enjoy making stuff, so I decided to give workshop a try and see what I could make with it. I wasn't a huge fan of how it functioned, and I was also looking for a project to work on at the time so I decided to try and make my own map editor for it. Made a mostly functioning editor then got bored and shelved it for a few months until I decided to finish it up earlier this year and release it to the public. People loved it and the rest is history I guess. To be completely honest, BrickBuilder (and now BrickPlayer) are the things that really kept me "active" in the community."

How'd you get into programming, and what motivates you in doing it?

"I've been interested in programming since I was a little kid, inspired by things like Minecraft and its modding community, though it wasn't until I was 11 or 12 that I started actually figuring out how to program. The problem solving aspect of programming is super satisfying to me, and it's very rewarding seeing my creations that I toiled over for nights on end come together."

What advice would you have for others that're looking to make similarly ambitious projects or games?

"I'm no good at advice, but I suppose if there's one thing I'd like to say, it'd be to not give up. Sounds cheesy, I know, but you wouldn't believe the amount of times I've nearly given up on my projects. I've taken a couple long breaks from BrickBuilder, one from August 2019 to January 2020, and another from March 2020 to around June 2020. I also quit working on BrickPlayer once, too, in July. I eventually decided to come back to it around a month later and remake it from the ground up, and it's a good thing I did. You are guaranteed to run into roadblocks when working on projects like these, and it's very easy to lose motivation. However, if you push through and keep at it, it will be absolutely worth it in the end. Of course, you also don't want to burn yoruself out, so it's good to take breaks now and then."

What's next for the future of BrickPlayer / BrickBuilder or other projects?

"I've had many ideas for BrickBuilder that I've been hesitant to add (plugin api, creation sharing, team editing, etc) as I'm not so sure how Iong I really have, though after I get BrickPlayer in a more stable state I may come back to BrickBuilder and look into some of those features. It's been a long while since I've really worked on BrickBuilder so I'd like to come back to it soon and do something worthwhile."

That's all for our interview with Ty_, and all for our Brick Hill Showcase this time, if you're interested in downloading BrickPlayer, BrickBuilder, or other applications related to it, websites are available to find such information here for BrickPlayer, and here for BrickBuilder. If you're interested in playing the current client in a better engine make sure to check it out and hop into some sets!

Thanks for reading, Maxed1