“I enjoy learning and opening up a new code base I’ve not used before. It’s fun. It’s like exploring.” So says full-stack software developer Danilo Arantes, who’s found a new playground in MML. But this isn’t just a hobby — it’s the continuation of lifelong passions: “I’ve always loved programming, and I love video games. Ever since I was a kid, I’ve been interested in learning about and customising them. What drives me is building out tools for other people to create things, and so I spend a lot of my spare time exploring new topics.”
Danilo first became aware of MML a year ago. It further fuelled a deep-rooted interest in 3D experiences and graphics — but that he’d only really started to familiarise himself with in 2022. And it captured his imagination, providing inspiration for his own long-term goal of creating a specialised game engine. “MML stood out as a cool innovation — a game engine that’s multiplayer from the ground up,” he says. “And I liked that MML was open and could be expanded and experimented with.” Danilo set to work, dived into the code base, and built out three new features on his own custom branch: shaders, instance meshes and materials. The last of those got some serious attention.
“The idea behind materials was being able to add custom textures, bump maps, pictures, or anything you want to a primitive, rather than just a colour,” Danilo explains. For him, this meant fewer trips to Blender and more time coding. The technique was also used as part of an MML maze-creation competition: “I implemented a fully procedural maze with the hunt and kill algorithm. Every time you run the maze, it’s new. There are parameters for all sorts of things, like cells, size and wall thickness. And I did a whole Minecraft thing, with torches on the walls!”
While the maze was fun, Danilo says his focus remains on tools and “expanding MML to do things I wish it did” — which he suggests is relatively simple, because of how MML is put together. “The code base is amazing — it’s really organised, which makes it easy to add and modify stuff,” he says. “In fact, this taught me a lot about how to organise my own code. It’s easy to become biassed by what you know and can imagine when working on your own little projects. But MML gave me plenty of insight into how senior devs do things.”
So should others follow in his footsteps? Maybe, he says: “I don’t think there’s any point in contributing to a project for the sake of it — but doing so can be amazing if it’s something you genuinely appreciate and want to use. For me, learning is the ultimate goal, and if I can contribute, then that’s even better.”
Although Danilo’s contributions to MML have yet to be merged, his passion for the project remains strong. “MML’s vision of inter-compatibility and being platform-agnostic makes challenges like my shader work particularly exciting to tackle. But having my work merged was never the main goal — I do it because it helps me learn and grow as a developer. If something I create sparks attention or inspires others, that’s a great bonus.”
Danilo’s experience highlights the potential of open-source software: it doesn’t just enable innovation — it empowers developers to learn, experiment, and push boundaries in meaningful ways.
