Game Preview: Voxatron - voxel-based, destructible environment, 8bit soundtrack

http://www.lexaloffle.com/voxatron.php

by dstein • 16 years ago

279 65 16 years ago

lexaloffle.com

SpacemanSpiff• 16 years ago

awesome, I look forward to trying it out.

vessenes• 16 years ago

This looks surprisingly fun!

It's funny how different a voxel-based game looks to my eyes than a 3d-pixel game. I suppose the voxels offer a lot less resolution right now, but they just seem to work in a different way. I wonder if they will feel more or less engaging in 3d than a triangle-mesh type game.

eftpotrm• 16 years ago

It looks to me like the low resolution is an aesthetic choice. I've seen many far higher resolution voxel engines 15 years ago running at speed, including one written by a guy at my old school aged 17.

chrismealy• 16 years ago

The perspective is absolutely brilliant. I love it. I feel stupid for not thinking of it.

eru• 16 years ago

Do you mean the cropped edges? Populous 2 looked similar.

jessevondoom• 16 years ago

Wow. Great example of turning a limitation as a strong aesthetic. Can't wait to try it out!

chrisbroadfoot• 16 years ago

Very cool graphics. The explosions are awesome!

waterlesscloud• 16 years ago

I wonder what it is that makes 8-bit music so compelling. Just nostalgia?

InclinedPlane4• 16 years ago

It's more than that I think. 8-bit music began as a poor, low-fi imitation of existing music forms for electronic games, because it was all that was possible given the hardware of the time. 8-bit music has been rediscovered by enthusiasts and independent artists, initially due to nostalgia, and that has led to a lot of innovation, exploration, and discovery. Discovery that 8-bit music doesn't have to be merely an imitation of something else any more than a synthesizer has to imitate a piano or an electric guitar has to imitate an acoustic guitar.

stuaxo2• 16 years ago

Well hang on a sec, I'm sure the original composers also worked this out, they were working with 8 bit sounds for years and years.

Deestan2• 16 years ago

"Innovation, exploration and discovery" were all rampant in the 80-es, especially on European C64 games. Some examples of music that uses the unique noises of the SID chip instead of only imitating existing instruments:

- Arkanoid (Martin Galway): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtcnDPDdtLg

- Gianna Sisters (Chris Hülsbeck): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGxX3lTnHh8

- Commando (Rob Hubbard): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrQuR1LHAVI

- Crazy Comets (Rob Hubbard): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbQoQFLM_1s

rbxbx• 16 years ago

Perhaps I'm a bit jaded, but I'm not terribly sure that it's that compelling, it's just experiencing a lot of popularity now (after a steady push for years prior).

There's many reasons for the current success though, the nostalgia, the gimmick (they're making that with a gameboy! omg!), it's generally really agreeable music to most anyone (ie: safe, passive). Etc.

I don't imagine it sticking around in any significant capacity over time, of course there will always be the devotees, and we'll continue to see elements of it in mainstream pop music.

Blahblahblah.

yters• 16 years ago

Personally I like the LD of old games b/c somehow it left more to the imagination.

Uchikoma• 16 years ago

Want one. Now.

jarin• 16 years ago

I love it, it's like Minecraft HD.

mambodog3• 16 years ago

If you're interested in what can be done with voxels with a more realistic aesthetic, have a look at the Atomontage engine: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CCZIBDt1uM

flawawa2• 16 years ago

There is nothing in the gaming future that excites me more than good old voxels. That game/engine looks amazing.

rorrr• 16 years ago

That's what minecraft should look like.

mambodog3• 16 years ago

I've given it a lot of thought, and I don't think Minecraft would be so easy to pick up and play if in weren't so 'blocky'. At least not without some really good design. The size of the blocks in Minecraft really lend themselves to being able to put together things that approximate real life structures, while maintaining a sufficient level of simplicity.

This simplicity makes reasoning and manipulating the game world less challenging, resulting in the game being more accessible to a wide variety of players.

malkia• 16 years ago

You don't wanna be in the Uncanny Valley - Minecraft is cute, because it's not real - hard from real.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley

Splines• 16 years ago

A thought that crossed my mind some time ago is some consequences of fine-detail in Minecraft. You would be able to create objects of higher complexity packed into a manageable size. Would you pay money to someone who created a really useful (or cool) object in high-fidelity Minecraft?

kevinelliott• 16 years ago

Very excited to see what becomes of the Atomontage Engine. For years I've been annoyed with static 3D environments where walls don't actually crumble when shot at, and windows never shatter. This engine will change the way we react to realism in virtual environments.

Almost so much that it becomes easy to ponder if we're already in someone's 3D simulation ;)

spitfire2• 16 years ago

Years and years ago (In the quake3 era) John Carmack talked about voxels being the future of 3d because of exactly thaty.

Ray-traced voxel based worlds. Personally, I think voxels will be hard to manage for objects/characters. Someone smarter than me will have to solve that problem.

jamii• 16 years ago

Red Faction: Guerrilla and Battlefield: Bad Company 2 both have pretty decent destructible scenery.

timinman2• 16 years ago

That looks fun

timinman2• 16 years ago

That looks fun.

ThomPete• 16 years ago

The last time I heard of voxels was in the late nineties. Good to hear they are back!

wazoox• 16 years ago

The perspective and general look remember me of Battalion, the old IRIX game, see http://www.evl.uic.edu/aej/AndyBattalion.html .

Couldn't find a video, alas. I could power up my Octane ... :)

wccrawford2• 16 years ago

This is yet another thing that I said, 'Man. I wish I'd written that.'

It's not outside my ability, it's just that I never think of these things first. And creating a clone doesn't have the same feeling as a new thing.

I'm betting a lot of other developers feel the same way.

Of course, that won't stop me from enjoying -playing- the game. :D

unoti• 16 years ago

Perhaps it's not too late for you. He's re imagined Robotron as a voxel game. Think of other classic arcade games that could be taken to their roots and reinvented with voxels. Any classic could be interesting: zaxxon, donkey kong, Asteroids...

Deestan2• 16 years ago

Zaxxon would be an excellent candidate for a voxel re-make, as it had 3d gameplay.

wccrawford2• 16 years ago

Oh, I'm sure it's not too late... And I'm working on my own projects in my free time. But it's games like this that finally pushed me into doing that. If I hadn't thought 'Man, I wish I'd written that' I'd probably still be doing nothing about it.

kbutler• 16 years ago

Creativity involves combining known elements, occasionally adding novel elements.

Rather than looking an idea and saying, "Cool, but since I wasn't first, I'm too late" try approaching it as "Neat! What else can I do with that?"

JabavuAdams2• 16 years ago

Minecraft wasn't first to the party. See Infiniminer. Don't give up -- just write it anyway.

6ren2• 16 years ago

This seems like it scales well (important for our 1000 core future). Does it?

6ren2• 16 years ago

Why is this being downvoted? I think it's a very reasonable question. If you don't think it's reasonable, please tell me why.

stuaxo2• 16 years ago

I don't see why it wouldn't ... one bottleneck would be to the graphics card, but this might work differently in our 1000 core future.

sbierwagen• 16 years ago

Interesting how constrained the view frustum is, with the top down view. I wonder how many voxels the rendering engine can handle.

sambeau2• 16 years ago

3,145,728

"Yes, actually there aren't so many voxels to take care of. It depends on the world size of course, but at 256x256x48, that's similar to managing a 3k x 1k 2d map in the same way."

http://www.lexaloffle.com/bbs/?tid=201

sambeau2• 16 years ago

or… 1,048,576

as on the same page he also says:

"Everything in the game is displayed in a virtual 128x128x64 voxel display, including the menus and player inventory"

rmc• 16 years ago

A constrained view frustrum might be a deliberate game choice.

herrherr• 16 years ago

If the author is reading this:

Add a signup form. It's not often the case that I want to be notified when a product becomes available, but this time I would love too.

nihilocrat• 16 years ago

My method is to follow the developer on twitter / tumblr / whatever if I'm really excited, or simply wait for the various indie gaming blogs to pick up the news upon release (which they will).

stcredzero• 16 years ago

If I were Lego, I'd be chomping at the bit to license this and set up a casual chat/social network oriented virtual reality. (Sort of a voxel-based Disneyfied Second Life.) The marketing possibilities for Lego would be huge.

OmarIsmail• 16 years ago

Lego is already developing an MMO. http://legouniverse.com/

jawngee• 16 years ago

I was a big fan of 3D Dot Game Heroes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTP0hVlYRts

MrJagil• 16 years ago

Does anyone know/guess what tools/engines he used?

simon_kun• 16 years ago

This game is perfect for the 3DS

jodrellblank• 16 years ago

It's 3D Llamatron!

ElbertF• 16 years ago

Hopefully a Linux version will follow soon, the author commented on Reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/ewnhi/this_game_needs...

GrooveStomp• 16 years ago

Excellent. I'd buy it. I paid for the Humble Indie Bundle #2 pretty much just because Braid was finally out for Linux, even though I'd purchased it for my Windows desktop already.

Game Preview: Voxatron - voxel-based, destructible environment, 8bit soundtrack

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