The game was a big hit in the summer of 2006, and now Valve and Ubisoft are supporting the community-modernized version!

KingDavidW, a modder at wiltOS Technologies, announced that development of the Dark Messiah of Might and Magic Community Edition has officially begun. He’s working on an RTX Remix version while also integrating online co-op features into the game. wiltOS Technologies has received Ubisoft’s and Valve’s blessing to create a proper Community Edition, which will likely land on Steam with integrated Steam Workshop support, making mod installation significantly easier.

Thanks to Valve’s support, the game will be updated to a newer version of Source (while still remaining based on Source 1, not Source 2). With both companies backing the effort, modders should get far more stability via a new SDK, plus direct code access to expand the game and fix long-standing issues. Deep-rooted crashes tied to the original game’s outdated, mutex-less locking mechanisms should finally be addressable. All existing mods are planned to be integrated into the new base as well, though that will take time.

Inspired by the relic system in Dark Messiah of Might and Magic: Elements (originally released on Xbox 360), the team has introduced runes, collectibles scattered across levels that unlock gameplay modifiers (harder, crazier, or easier). Three can be found in the prologue of the Restoration Mod, and one appears in Arena mode. Another modder, QWERTY, is also bringing Elements multiplayer maps back to PC. Meanwhile, the Alien Swarm TileGen system has been converted into a fully functional, multi-level, 3D tile-based procedural dungeon generator. The project still needs community mapmakers to upload content before it can be opened up to players.

The co-op mod has also gone through significant SDK code refactoring to align with the Advanced SDK. New characters are in the works as well: a third modder (Riddick) is building the Undead Assassin, while his colleague StickyFingaz is working on a new assassin armor set. The mod launcher has been updated with multilingual support, and translators are now needed to finish the job. Finally, wiltOS is preparing a new content delivery system meant to prevent redundant assets from being reloaded between mods.

wiltOS Technologies has also released a new teaser trailer for the RTX Remix version and opened access to it. Anyone can download it on GitHub, but it requires both the Dark Messiah Mod Launcher and the Dark Messiah Advanced SDK Base Module, each provided by wiltOS.

Source: WCCFTech, Steam, GitHub