The time has come, everyone. Mondrian – Plastic Reality’s final, major update. I’ve spent the last six months pouring over this one, building features, cleaning bugs, and adding in long-missing core functionality. While this is indeed the final feature update, I’m not putting the code on ice just yet, in case anyone runs into any issues. But if any pop up, once they’re cleared, that will be that, and it will be time to say goodbye. But don’t worry, some new stuff is getting cooked up at Lantana Games, and I’m excited to share it with you all at some point.

In the meantime, let’s dive in and see what’s new!

First and foremost, you’ll notice a new “manual.pdf” included in the install folder. This is a brand new book I’ve written which covers every single aspect of Mondrian Maker and Mondrian Studio. At close to 40 11×8.5” pages long, it’s a doozy, but no details are missing. This book takes the place of the old Instructions panel in Mondrian Maker, is more up-to-date, and even has pictures! If by some chance you’d prefer to have the manual in your lap than in a desktop window, you can purchase a paperback edition at Barnes & Noble. Preorders are open for the next couple days!

Mondrian Maker has received some massive changes this update. From a new menu bar, to new block shapes, a new Speedpaint mode which you can use to record your level being created block by block, Nudge Snapping which will keep your blocks on grid when you Nudge them around, updated UI elements, loads of bug fixes, and improvements specifically targeting Steam Deck, Mondrian Maker is officially the best its ever been. Honestly this should be called Mondrian Maker 2, it’s that much better. But luckily this just is, and always will be, Mondrian Maker. Please go try it out and upload some works to Steam Workshop or mod.io!

Features

• Steam: Cloud Saving is now fully integrated. In particular, your save file, Museum layout, game settings, Mondrian Maker settings, local leaderboards, and even your Active and Inactive Levels will all sync across your various devices. Make sure you have Steam Cloud enabled for the game under its Steam Properties and you should be all set!
• Menu: Holiday events are no longer network-bound.
• Menu: Restored Fullscreen/Windowed mode toggle.
• Menu: Restored Windowed resolutions, which will properly resize the game in Windowed mode. Fullscreen will still fill the game to your native screen resolution.
• Menu: Added “Download” and “Skip” buttons inside the Workshop Subscriptions popup. This way, you can skip downloading Workshop files if you don’t need or want to.
• Menu: Added an alternative “Download Workshop Content” button to the Options menu.
• Game: Added Right Triangle and Quarter Circle Blocks, plus powerup and obstacle variants for each.
• Game: Added particle effects for popped Right Triangle and Quarter Circle blocks.
• Workshop: Uploaded several new levels to Steam Workshop that take advantage of the new blocks! These are also available on mod.io & as a free download on itch.io.
• Maker: Added two new block shape selectors for Right Triangles and Quarter Circles.
• Maker: Added Right Triangle and Quarter Circle block selectors.
• Maker: Click any value (Scale, Angle, Red, Green, or Blue) to bring up a number entry box. Type in any value from a slider’s minimum to its max!
• Maker: Added a “Nudge Snap” checkbox. This snaps blocks to Grid setting when nudging to help prevent misalignment.
• Maker: Introducing Speedpaint mode! Now, when you Open a level, you can check off the Speedpaint box under the “Open Level” button. Doing so will paint your level one block at a time, and all sliders will move along with each individual block. You can use this to capture a quick video of your creation being built to share on social media (and it’s great for GIFs!) or just behold your masterpiece being constructed one block at a time. Note that there is a half-second delay before the Speedpaint begins, giving you some breathing space for editing your video. You can press any key, controller button, or mouse button to cancel the speedpaint and just load the level. Since the Paintbrush cursor that’s shown during a Speedpaint is not attached to your mouse cursor, rather each block as it appears, we recommend moving your mouse off-screen during a Speedpaint so it doesn’t show up on top of the final result.
• Maker: Added new Keyboard Shortcut for making a New Level (Control-N).
• Maker: Added new Keyboard Shortcut for changing Color Harmony (Control-H).
• Maker: The “Instructions” panel has been replaced with a new list of “Quick Links,” which includes a brand new Mondrian Maker and Studio PDF manual, free of charge. When clicked, this manual will automatically open in your web browser, Adobe Acrobat, or your other default PDF reader. “Free Admission” players get a Black & White version of the manual, while “Lifetime Pass” players get full-color. A high quality print version of the manual is available from our Shop.

Changes

• Menu: Changed game mode thumbnails back to originals.
• Menu: Removed unused Background Quality option.
• Menu: Updated social icons.
• Menu: Removed Discord button.
• Game: Reduced the requirements for several Achievements to more attainable goals based on Global Steam stats:
  • Brickbreaker Apprentice: 50 Blocks
  • Brickbreaker Professional: 250 Blocks
  • Brickbreaker Artisan: 1000 Blocks
  • Demolitions Apprentice: 10 Bombs
  • Demolitions Professional: 250 Bombs
  • Demolitions Artisan: 1000 Bombs
  • Locksmith Apprentice: 10 Locks
  • Locksmith Professional: 250 Locks
  • Locksmith Artisan: 1000 Locks
  • Cardshark Apprentice: 10 Wildcards
  • Cardshark Professional: 250 Wildcards
  • Cardshark Artisan: 1000 Wildcards
  • Phalanx Apprentice: 10 Shields
  • Phalanx Professional: 250 Shields
  • Phalanx Artisan: 1000 Shields
  • Watchmaker Professional: 10 Minutes in Time Attack
  • Watchmaker Artisan: 25 Minutes in Time Attack
  • Survivalist Apprentice: 1 Round in Sudden Death
  • Survivalist Professional: 3 Rounds in Sudden Death
  • Survivalist Artisan: 5 Rounds in Sudden Death
  • In the Name of Self Defense: Destroy 2000 Blocks with Bombs
• Game: Removed some Achievements entirely, including:
  • Pumpkincraft
  • All achievements related to earning a Top 10 place on the leaderboards
• Maker: Increased size of Title and Author text labels and entry boxes.
• Maker: Increased size of text for Show Grid and Grid Snap labels.
• Maker: Updated Main Menubar to have clicky, bubbly buttons with charcoal shadow in line with the rest of the UI.
• Maker: Updated Block Selector to be brighter with charcoal outlines in line with the rest of the UI.
• Maker: Removed fading block selector buttons in favor of block selectors that are always present.
• Maker: Replaced the Up & Down arrows for Scale & Angle selection with sliders.
• Maker: Added some color highlights to sliders and mouse over states to turn them white.
• Maker: Redesigned Context Menu buttons to be in-line with new Main Menu buttons and the rest of the UI.
• Maker: Vertical and Horizontal Level Flip buttons are now a bit darker and have proper rollover states.
• Maker: Improved controller compatibility across the board
• Maker: Added Right Click and B-Button as controls for closing the block context menu. These can be done from anywhere, not just while the cursor is hovering over the block.
• Maker: Keyboard shortcut for Share Level is now Control-L.
• Maker: Removed the Event Submission button from the Share window.
• Museum: Rotated out majority of the old Spotlight Artworks, but 30 now remain in a couple “Classics” collections.
• Museum: Rendered “Classics” pieces in 3D so they angle better on their respective pedestals.
• Museum: Increased font sizes on Level Select plaques.
• Museum: Updated button styles on Level Select plaques.
• Museum: Simplified wording of Difficulty descriptions.
• Studio: Adjusted the method for scaling image captures. You should see no difference other than being able to copy or save out a properly-sized graphic regardless of your screen resolution or playing in Fullscreen or Windowed mode.
• Studio: Since 180° and 270° didn’t do anything different, the “Rotation” slider under Custom Framing is now limited to just 0° and 90.
• Credits: Updated and removed some web links.

Bug Fixes

• Menu: Fixed Adventure Mode starting when selecting options in other submenus.
• Menu: Fixed Quick Play speeding through the process to start a game.
• Game: Fixed the Art Hallow’s Eve “Spooky Gem Hunt” randomizer getting stuck on either Trick or Treat.
• Game: Fixed “Big Gem Hunter” achievement remaining locked even if achieved.
• Game: Potential fix for controllers rumbling endlessly when activating a Wall Lock.
• Maker: Fixed sliders locking in place temporarily if the cursor goes over another slider.
• Maker: Fixed mouse over on Grid Selector and related buttons not displaying the Hand Cursor.
• Maker: Fixed tab order of Title and Author text entry areas.
• Maker: Fixed Block Alignment not closing when clicking on the key block.
• Maker: Fixed Mondrian Maker exiting when pressing Escape to close Alignment.
• Maker: Fixed Block Nudge activating Free Move and soft-locking up the editor upon placing the selected block back down.
• Maker: Clicking the Horizontal or Vertical Level Flip buttons with a Context Menu up will now close the Context Menu.
• Maker: The Context Menu will no longer open on an overlapping block when placing down a different block.
• Maker: Fixed Context Menu buttons not changing when in Rotate/Scale mode.
• Maker: Fixed Phasing context menu not working at Relaxing difficulty.
• Maker: Fixed Up Arrow not glowing when increasing Phase time on a block.
• Maker: Fixed several buttons, including in the top menu, not reacting to controller input.
• Maker: Fixed Miniswatch colors not saving when cleared.
• Maker: Fixed Miniswatches not storing colors when using a controller.
• Maker: Fixed Top Context Arrow not highlighting when selected.
• Maker: The Color Shuffle Toggle button can now be pressed normally when using a controller.
• Maker: Color Drop mode now switches off if the Main Swatch is clicked without the button being held down.
• Maker: Fixed button responsiveness in the Open, Save, and Play menus.
• Maker: Fixed hand cursor not appearing consistently when the cursor is over interactive elements.
• Maker: Fixed the Save/Open/Play scrollbar not being draggable while holding down the Confirm button on a controller.
• Studio: Fixed the Scheme Width slider being able to have a higher Current Notch value than its Total Notches.

Little known fact: I coded the first prototype of Mondrian on April Fool’s Day, 2015. What a joke, huh? Five months later, Mondrian – Abstraction in Beauty launched to Positive reviews, and was accepted into the Indie Arcade exhibit at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Around the start of 2017, I had begun coding everything that would define Plastic Reality: the level editor, the photo mode, the lessened load times, the characters, all of it. From the road trip to Washington DC to the countless demo nights and conventions the game was brought to, this whole series has been adventure.

I can point to any number of reasons as to why Plastic Reality was not the success that Abstraction in Beauty was, some logical, and some pessimistic. But all that being said, YOU have been the most encouraging aspect of this game. Seeing the works the community has come up with over the last five and a half years has been a gift most game developers only dream of. I hope to see some fresh creations up in the Workshop again very soon! Thank you for being a part of the Plastic Reality community, no matter how small it’s been.

If you’re seeing this post, played the game, shared a level or two (or twenty) on Steam Workshop, left a review, or all of the above, thank you. It’s been a ride to get the game to this point. With everything else getting cooked up at Lantana Games now, it just felt necessary to get the game into a state of which everyone who worked on it could be proud.

If you’re just discovering the game for the first time, it would mean the world if you could check out everything on offer and leave a review, positive or negative (though obviously positive is preferable, but if for some reason it’s negative, the more workable the feedback, the better!).

Wait, what’s that? You haven’t played? Well good news! Free Admission now has its own dedicated Steam Page, AND the game is 90% off for the next week! So go check out the demo, and if you like it, please leave a review, drop us a buck, and upgrade to the Lifetime Pass!

Over the next few months, you’re going to notice our social channels – our video channels in particular – become very active. That’s because a huge library of shorts is being put together, which feature all manner of content creators and fellow game developers hosting bite-sized tutorials on Mondrian Maker and Mondrian Studio. Speedpaint shorts are also going to be mixed in as well, for a bit of variety, and hopefully also some creator compilations and maybe an unboxing or two. Please be sure to follow all these, like the videos, repost where you can, you know the deal! And be extra sure to follow all the amazing guest hosts who’ve come on board for these. If you’re interested in hosting one yourself, there are still spots available, so please get in touch!

As for what comes next for Lantana Games, well it’s no secret that the next project is being built in Godot. I can say that it is going well – VERY well in fact. I’ve taken quite the liking to GDScript, and the engine has nearly every tool I’ve ever needed as a developer. You’ll still have to wait a while to hear anything specific about this project as I’d rather play things close to the chest until things are good and ready. But believe me, it will have been worth the wait.

Thank you all so much again for your continued support and, of course, for playing. Now go Be Creative!

– Danny