Been prototyping a game concept inspired by Minecraft (who isn't?), and only just thought of asking people who loved that game as well for some feedback. I got the game concept down pretty good. It centers around building fortresses and then fighting back an invasion.But I kinda want to explore the theme more. I started down a path of a sci fi look, which looks pretty cool with voxels.
But I'm curious if you all think another theme might make the game more visually appealing?I had inspiration lately to perhaps shift the visual style to more of a retro look, so that you can create your own characters inspired by 8-bit and 16-bit gaming classics. Another game Cube World really did a great job going with a retro look and infusing that with RPG mechanics.Curious what your gut reaction is!
Here's a screenshot comparison of styles.A mini battle scenario I created in Minecraft, using default textures
A mini battle scenario with a sci fi theme using a game engine I'm creating. I tried to break from sci fi convention and use a more color style.
I decided to create a prototype to let you sample more of the visual style we been trying to go for. Curious what you think. Feel free to post your thoughts here or in our forums.
Mind you, this is a prototype build v.01, so nothing is locked in stone. You can't interact with anything and collision detection isn't on. I just wanted to explore what interest visual style we could go far that is inspired by Minecraft, but doesn't feel like a clone.
If you go for sci-fi I think people would give you less abuse for it being a clone of cube world or Minecraft if you went for the scfi-fi style.
I think it would also depend on what your game will be like.
It's looking good, keep up the great work!
Thx! I'll continue to try new visuals to see what works. The one thing I'm balancing is that we ultimately want people to create any theme they want in the game. Whether sci fi, zombie ville, or retro, etc. But we still need a base style one that suggests the open ended possibilities of what you can create. Yeah, that part is tricky!
A sci-fi style sandbox game like Minecraft would be incredible! I think a ton of people would play something like that. Definitely a cool idea. So then the technology tree will be much more vast? Like you'll be able to craft a ton of advanced blocks & items?
Or maybe I misunderstand and it's less of a building game and more like a tower defense type game or something?
I wouldn't use 'voxel' or 'retro' graphics, they are horribly overused.
That's a pretty valid point. I think it's hard for us to avoid "voxel", because it's a game engine. It's like trying to avoid a term like "polygon" or "sprite". It's a choice that defines our whole game. But think a point could be that we just don't emphasize that over and over as if it's the selling point. There's gotta be a hook.
So I been iterating on the hook concept, and I think what's cool about this sort of game design is that we don't have to limit it to just sci fi theme. Our game focuses around BUILD + BATTLE, so in theory if you want to create a lava world with creatures, or a zombie apocalypse in a run down city, you could. And then you could recreate all sorts of battles, like D Day, or even a scene inspired from another battle focused video game.
Still playing around with this, but we been coming up with new scenarios to illustrate my point, so I'll share that with you once I got some together.
That's a pretty valid point. I think it's hard for us to avoid "voxel", because it's a game engine. It's like trying to avoid a term like "polygon" or "sprite". It's a choice that defines our whole game. But think a point could be that we just don't emphasize that over and over as if it's the selling point. There's gotta be a hook.
So I been iterating on the hook concept, and I think what's cool about this sort of game design is that we don't have to limit it to just sci fi theme. Our game focuses around BUILD + BATTLE, so in theory if you want to create a lava world with creatures, or a zombie apocalypse in a run down city, you could. And then you could recreate all sorts of battles, like D Day, or even a scene inspired from another battle focused video game.
Still playing around with this, but we been coming up with new scenarios to illustrate my point, so I'll share that with you once I got some together.
What is the game engine?
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Hello! Wanna play PC games with me? Add me on Steam! LittleBigPancake
A sci-fi style sandbox game like Minecraft would be incredible! I think a ton of people would play something like that. Definitely a cool idea. So then the technology tree will be much more vast? Like you'll be able to craft a ton of advanced blocks & items?
Or maybe I misunderstand and it's less of a building game and more like a tower defense type game or something?
Actually the theme isn't limited to sci fi. It's more like a colored cube approach, so you can build just about any theme in it. We decided to go with an initial sci fi fortress because that works really well with this sort of style:) I'm actually building a few other type of fortresses that are wildly different. One is inspired a bit more by Adventure Time + One Piece.
As for the tech tree, haven't finalized it and tested it yet so I can't really say anything concretely. But what we have so far is based on a tech tree concept, which makes it easy to figure out. You ultimately have to think about which path you want to go down if you upgrade certain things.
Since the impression was that this was a sci fi game, I thought I'd post up a screen of a sample environment created of something quite different. Here's what a lava environment could look like as an example. You can also encounter other types of enemies, like in this case, biocreatures that are fitting for a lava scene. Fire golems, fiery wolves. Monkey's with flaming mohawks. Why not.
Basically with colored cubes you can really design just about anything if you got a big enough color palette. We might reserve the use of textures for unique objects though.
All the positive comments inspired us to put together a Kickstarter campaign. This is a great way to get early alpha access, and also some exclusive bonuses.
It's been scary putting ourselves out there, like performing onstage naked... or some analogy like that... but we hope that everyone finds our idea interesting enough to support. Making games for a living and entertaining people can be inspiring.
If nothing else, feel free to check out our KS page as we put up a lot more concept art, screenshots and info on how we envision our battle system.
This looks awesome. I have to admit I was skeptical about it back when you first posted but the above screenshots turned that around. The art style is much different from Minecraft. I think I might actually back this, it mixes a bunch of my favorite genres. I hope it all goes well, I've seen too many projects fail.
This looks awesome. I have to admit I was skeptical about it back when you first posted but the above screenshots turned that around. The art style is much different from Minecraft. I think I might actually back this, it mixes a bunch of my favorite genres. I hope it all goes well, I've seen too many projects fail.
I'm glad that I been able to turn you from a skeptic to a not quite to skeptic.
I would seriously do a dance on fire if you backed us. We're about to about $5K on our Kickstarter, but got a ways to go.BTW all,
Since people were asking us for just footage of gameplay, I pulled out some shots from our Kickstarter video and made this teaser trailer. It's still very early footage but at least you can get the sense of the scale of battles, which are inspired by such games like Star Wars Battlefront.
BTW - We just uploaded another update. This time revealing for the first time one of the exo-suits you can control in battle. Say hi to Goliath! You can read more about it here.
We just created a Minecraft Import Tool so you can now take your Minecraft creations and put them into our game. You know, to battle it out!
Like many of you, we’re big Minecraft fans here at Wicked Loot. I personally spent countless hours in Minecraft creating massive structures, ships and stuff which inspired me to see whether I can build a voxel game that focused on BIG BATTLES.
Which got me thinking: Could we make it wicked easy for you to take your Minecraft creations and put it into our game? The answer is: Yes!
ORIGINAL POST
Been prototyping a game concept inspired by Minecraft (who isn't?), and only just thought of asking people who loved that game as well for some feedback. I got the game concept down pretty good. It centers around building fortresses and then fighting back an invasion.But I kinda want to explore the theme more. I started down a path of a sci fi look, which looks pretty cool with voxels.
But I'm curious if you all think another theme might make the game more visually appealing?I had inspiration lately to perhaps shift the visual style to more of a retro look, so that you can create your own characters inspired by 8-bit and 16-bit gaming classics. Another game Cube World really did a great job going with a retro look and infusing that with RPG mechanics.Curious what your gut reaction is!
Here's a screenshot comparison of styles.A mini battle scenario I created in Minecraft, using default textures
A mini battle scenario with a sci fi theme using a game engine I'm creating. I tried to break from sci fi convention and use a more color style.
Here's a screenshot comparison of styles.
A mini battle scenario I created in Minecraft, using default textures
A mini battle scenario with a sci fi theme using a game engine I'm creating. I tried to break from sci fi convention and use a more color style.
A screen from the game Cube World, which uses a very retro, vibrant design and color palette for it's fantasy setting.
Any style that stands out for you all?
*insert gif here*
I decided to create a prototype to let you sample more of the visual style we been trying to go for. Curious what you think. Feel free to post your thoughts here or in our forums.
Mind you, this is a prototype build v.01, so nothing is locked in stone. You can't interact with anything and collision detection isn't on. I just wanted to explore what interest visual style we could go far that is inspired by Minecraft, but doesn't feel like a clone.
Download the build here.
Thx! I'll continue to try new visuals to see what works. The one thing I'm balancing is that we ultimately want people to create any theme they want in the game. Whether sci fi, zombie ville, or retro, etc. But we still need a base style one that suggests the open ended possibilities of what you can create. Yeah, that part is tricky!
Or maybe I misunderstand and it's less of a building game and more like a tower defense type game or something?
That's a pretty valid point. I think it's hard for us to avoid "voxel", because it's a game engine. It's like trying to avoid a term like "polygon" or "sprite". It's a choice that defines our whole game. But think a point could be that we just don't emphasize that over and over as if it's the selling point. There's gotta be a hook.
So I been iterating on the hook concept, and I think what's cool about this sort of game design is that we don't have to limit it to just sci fi theme. Our game focuses around BUILD + BATTLE, so in theory if you want to create a lava world with creatures, or a zombie apocalypse in a run down city, you could. And then you could recreate all sorts of battles, like D Day, or even a scene inspired from another battle focused video game.
Still playing around with this, but we been coming up with new scenarios to illustrate my point, so I'll share that with you once I got some together.
We're using Unity, though the voxel aspect is something we're custom coding on top of an open source voxel engine.
Actually the theme isn't limited to sci fi. It's more like a colored cube approach, so you can build just about any theme in it. We decided to go with an initial sci fi fortress because that works really well with this sort of style:) I'm actually building a few other type of fortresses that are wildly different. One is inspired a bit more by Adventure Time + One Piece.
As for the tech tree, haven't finalized it and tested it yet so I can't really say anything concretely. But what we have so far is based on a tech tree concept, which makes it easy to figure out. You ultimately have to think about which path you want to go down if you upgrade certain things.
Basically with colored cubes you can really design just about anything if you got a big enough color palette. We might reserve the use of textures for unique objects though.
All the positive comments inspired us to put together a Kickstarter campaign. This is a great way to get early alpha access, and also some exclusive bonuses.
KICKSTARTER HERE!!
It's been scary putting ourselves out there, like performing onstage naked... or some analogy like that... but we hope that everyone finds our idea interesting enough to support. Making games for a living and entertaining people can be inspiring.
If nothing else, feel free to check out our KS page as we put up a lot more concept art, screenshots and info on how we envision our battle system.
-----------------------------
I'm glad that I been able to turn you from a skeptic to a not quite to skeptic.
I would seriously do a dance on fire if you backed us. We're about to about $5K on our Kickstarter, but got a ways to go.BTW all,
Since people were asking us for just footage of gameplay, I pulled out some shots from our Kickstarter video and made this teaser trailer. It's still very early footage but at least you can get the sense of the scale of battles, which are inspired by such games like Star Wars Battlefront.
BTW - We just uploaded another update. This time revealing for the first time one of the exo-suits you can control in battle. Say hi to Goliath! You can read more about it here.
We just created a Minecraft Import Tool so you can now take your Minecraft creations and put them into our game. You know, to battle it out!
Like many of you, we’re big Minecraft fans here at Wicked Loot. I personally spent countless hours in Minecraft creating massive structures, ships and stuff which inspired me to see whether I can build a voxel game that focused on BIG BATTLES.
Which got me thinking: Could we make it wicked easy for you to take your Minecraft creations and put it into our game? The answer is: Yes!
You can check out a video demo of it here!