Daedalus is a unified, open-source editor for the Aleph One engine — Bungie’s Marathon 2 engine, freed. Maps, shapes, physics, terminals, resources, compile and publish, with the game running live in the viewport. Everything that used to be six separate apps, in one.
1
Editor for the whole pipeline
6
Separate tools it replaces
0
App switches from edit to play
GPL-3
Free and open source, on release
| Task | Bungie, 1995 | Open source today | Daedalus |
|---|---|---|---|
| Map editing | Forge | Weland | Map editor, live world viewport |
| Texturing | Forge visual mode | Vasara (in-game) | First-person texturing, draw + visual at once |
| Shapes & physics | Anvil | ShapeFusion | Shapes and physics panels, same project |
| Merge / split | Forge (merge only) | Atque | Compile and decompile maps, terminals, resources |
| Terminals | Forge text dialogs | Hux | Terminal authoring with live preview |
| Playtest | Save, quit, launch Marathon | Save, quit, launch Aleph One | Play in the editor viewport |
Every editing function is rebuilt from scratch directly on top of the Aleph One engine — no code borrowed from the tools above. Every existing map, shapes, physics and scenario file opens as-is; nothing you have made is left behind.
Daedalus is designed and built by Alexander Davis, who got his start in game development at 11 years old, building for the original Marathon Trilogy in Forge and Anvil. He brings a 25+ year career in UX/UI design, the last 17+ years of it in the triple-A games industry, back to the engine where it began.
01
The engine runs in the viewport. Change a polygon height, walk through it. No editor has done this for Aleph One before.
02
Top-down draw mode and first-person visual mode are two views of one live world, not two modes you switch between. Texture walls from inside the level while the map updates beside it.
03
Sprites, collections, monster and weapon definitions sit next to the map that uses them. Edit a physics value and the running level picks it up.
04
Merge maps, terminals and resources into a scenario, or open a finished scenario and take it apart. Forge could only ever go one direction.
05
What used to be a chain of five apps and a folder of intermediate files is a build button. When it is ready, export publishing files directly, or push to Steam Workshop and it is live in Marathon Infinity.
Daedalus treats Marathon as a scenario, not a ceiling. Swap the shapes, rewrite the physics, author your own terminals and ship a game that has nothing to do with the Pfhor. When it is ready, export the publishing files directly, or let one button push it to Steam Workshop, where anyone with Marathon Infinity on Steam can play it.
Input
Map · Shapes · Physics · Terminals · Resources
Build
Merge, compile, test in viewport
Package
Scenario, plugin or total conversion
Publish
Direct publishing files, or Steam Workshop → Marathon Infinity
Downloads are hosted by the Aleph One project at alephone.lhowon.org — thanks to them for keeping every scenario available. The original trilogy is also on Steam, free.
Compiled builds for Windows, macOS and Linux. Released under the GNU General Public License v3.0.