ClockStone Software, the dudes and/or ladies behind Avencast: Rise of the Mage, have today announced the release of the game's development kit. What this means is essentially you can tinker with the game like crazy.

The kit includes complete reference documentation of all Avencast's engine commands and parameters. Here are some key features:

• The level editor
• The graphics import and export tools
• Visual effects editor
• All the scripting and configuration files in an unencrypted version, so you can modify:
• Quests
• Monster behaviour and attributes
• The hero’s skills and attributes
• Items, equipment
• …every other game content

Quite a complete kit; the developers state that, in theory, it's possible to make an entirely new game with all this at your fingertips. Pretty darn cool. And indeed, this isn't for the casual game developer and/or programmer (if there ever was such a thing), but could nevertheless be a good (and free) means of delving into the world of game design, especially with the step-by-step tutorials!

The dev kit can be downloaded here and the official forum for Avencast mod devs can be found here.