Planets³, The Next Phase of Voxel-Based Sweetness

While I’m reaching out to Cubical Drift right now, what I know of Planets³ (pronounced Planetscube) has me pretty excited. It strikes me as a Minecraft with a bit more thought put into it. Please don’t get me wrong, I love me some Minecraft and I’m glad they don’t have a “This is how long you’ve played it” counter. It would be measured in months of my life gone. Possibly a year of actual gameplay and knowing that fact kind of makes me cringe if only I hadn’t had so much fun.

It hits all the right notes. Rather than trying to come up with another clever way of describing the exact same thing, I’ll just let their PR guy give you the good stuff:

“Planets³ is a beautifully presented, unique mix of adventure, RPG, dungeon crawler and building. Set in a multi-player universe, players can shape their own adventure and visit multiple planets, each composed of nearly 30 trillion blocks. Truly breath-taking landscapes and environments will be achieved through voxel-based graphics and the “Long Distance Display Engine”.

While not necessarily an example of leveling up your gear, there is a definite sense of increasing B.A. going on here!
While not necessarily an example of leveling up your gear, there is a definite sense of increasing B.A. going on here! To think you could just be a space marine with a giant sword if you wanted too as well.

Progress through the game is achieved through “levelling-up” their character, embarking on various story-driven quests, tool-building and habitation and vehicle crafting. All of these things contributing to ever-deeper exploration of the planets in the vast universe.

Planets³ also offers side quests allowing players to unlock secrets of the game’s world and to find special items only reachable in secondary storylines.”

What grabs at me the most is that it’s an actual RPG. With the predefined level areas, there would be a sense of progression in the game with gear and locals rather than just different regions adding another kind of weather. (Sorry, I haven’t played Cube World yet so I can’t comment on that.) Also, the view distance is supposed to be crazy.

"We have developed specific multithreading algorithms to be able to display a massive number of blocks with a large (almost infinite) viewing distance in real time. This allows you to see other planets from the surface (by night and without clouds!)." -Planets³'s Kickstarter
“We have developed specific multithreading algorithms to be able to display a massive number of blocks with a large (almost infinite) viewing distance in real time. This allows you to see other planets from the surface (by night and without clouds!).” -Planets³’s Kickstarter Also, freaking amazing!

While the draw distance is a huge thing for me, I have to wonder if it will run smoothly on machines not made for maximum gaming. I’m sure it’s cool and all and they have their programming math-voodoo stuff, will it actually pan out? Man I hope so!

So dig, build, craft, explore, possibly leave the planet for another one? Sign me up son! I’ll be backing their Kickstarter myself. It’s fairly cheap to get into their Alpha’s and Beta’s so I’d recommend checking it out and backing that game up!

Follow all of their propaganda:
Planets³ Website
Kickstarter

Jonathan Amarelo Sig

14 thoughts on “Planets³, The Next Phase of Voxel-Based Sweetness

  • March 9, 2014 at 04:12
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    Wow this game looks sick. I’ve played Minecraft tons, Cube World and Trove. This game blows the second two out of the water… Thanks for posting this because I would never have seen the kickstarter for it if you didn’t.

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  • March 9, 2014 at 04:15
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    I messaged some of my editor contacts at IGN to preview this game on their site too. Hopefully that will help get all the backers for it. 😀

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    • March 9, 2014 at 13:27
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      Awesome dude! I’d love to see this game make it through the Kickstarter grinder.

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  • March 9, 2014 at 09:04
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    Drawing planets at a distance isn’t hard; just create a sole texture map of each face of the world. Then distant worlds in the night sky are each only 3 texture maps joined in a cube. Easy.

    Just remember to update the texmaps occasionally in response to player’s changing of the world.

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    • March 9, 2014 at 13:30
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      Yeh, but what if another player is on the other planet destroying it or something at the same time it’s in your sky? I don’t know man; I’m glad you have faith in the system, but I still feel a little hesitant to believe.

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  • March 9, 2014 at 14:34
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    One of my buddies told me he thinks this game concept looks phenomenal but he’s not giving them any money because a) he’s been let down by other dev’s when it comes to content patches being released, b) he’s been let down by other dev’s, having games stopped being worked on, and c) it’s a 3 year wait until release.

    I told him he has every right to be picky because he’s been let down before. But this game is a massive undertaking for what is in the concept and I would expect 3 years or more. Two years or less and this game would not be as epic. However I do share the same thoughts with him: I am weary of “will they finish this game” with every game I back, not just this one. That’s the risk everyone takes with kickstarter.

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        • March 9, 2014 at 15:00
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          You can FB message me and I can edit your comment if you wish.

          While I can give you the fact that sometimes things don’t get finished… sometimes it’s not that much money.

          In a world of returning things and reselling stuff you’re done with I can’t fully relate. Once I give my money to a company/storefront it’s gone in my mind. If it doesn’t pan out, that’s just too bad since it was my decision. Being more frugal is definitely the answer to the losing money aspect of Kickstarter, but it’s a gamble man and that’s just how the cookie crumbles.

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  • March 10, 2014 at 15:47
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    Yo. So I sent Cubical Drift some questions on their Facebook page and they responded very promptly. Here was their response to my question about content updates:

    “Hello Jeff,

    Even if there is no “content” update for a month, you will be able to follow our progress monthly with our dev news letter and other updates during the months of screen shots/videos our on web site.
    We have a planning of 1 news by week on the web (could be a video, a screenshot, a concept, an interview, an event with the studio etc …) and 1 dev news letter (by mail) where we will make a “resume” of the month.

    We will even open a forum to discuss with every one about ideas or feedback.

    We really regret that some devs make “profits” and disappear after that, it is a shame, really, because with the money they get the could have done so many great things!

    We have absolutely no advantage to do that as Planets³ is a 5 years project (if you take in account the 2 opus and the different platforms) and we want to implement every features we have in mind today.

    Even if we can not give you proof of that today, I assure you that we will not let you done. Because for us Kickstarter and the first alpha is only the beginning of Planets³ adventure!

    the only proof we can give you today is that we answer to all messages we get.

    Bests,
    Michel Thomazeau – NeoM
    Planets³ project director
    CEO Cubical Drift”

    I also asked them in another e-mail if they will provide VR support. At the moment they have no plans for that. It will be a last minute thing if they do.

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  • March 10, 2014 at 15:57
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    Wow they are very responsive. I literally had a IM conversation on Facebook with their CEO just now. They have our support on Kickstarter. 😉

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    • March 10, 2014 at 16:39
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      I’m telling you man, these guys seem like awesome guys! Having talked to them myself, I just want to back them lol.

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      • March 10, 2014 at 18:45
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        IGN posted the video today. I knew they would! 😀

        Reply

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