Blast Works lets you build all kinds of stuff

For a while, all we've known about Blast Works's editor mode is that it was feature-rich and awesome. Gametap's Jared Rea (formerly of Joystiq!) got to mess with the editor during a hands-on preview, and found not only an edit mode, but an incredibly versatile shooter creation engine.

Apparently, ships made of "over 100 pieces" are possible, and feature user-defined hitboxes and gun placements. Levels feature custom backgrounds, which can be layered for parallax effects, and populated with enemies designed and placed by the user, which shoot bullets that are also user-drawn. Any drawn element can be used for any other, so enemies can be placed in the background, or used as the protagonist's ship, or anything else.

We really hope to see a community built up around trading custom ships and levels online, through which we could be shooting forever.