Minetest Forums

What is Voxus?

Voxus takes the best elements from multiple games in the survival genre, adds its own and mixes it down to a truly unique game. The game will focus on survival (cooking, drinking, health), creativity (building, decoration) and also throw in some player progression.

What can can we expect?

Items: Primitive (wood, grass, stone) to relics from a past world (gas, canned food, metal)
Vehicles: Mini helicopter, raft, bicycle, motorcycle.
Enemies: Your common enemy are tar monsters, these vile creatures spawn from tar and invade your buildings through small openings.
Exploration: You'll come across abandoned towns, buildings, gas stations etc. as well as explore natural caves and oceans.

How far along is the project?

02/01/2015: Just started out, mini helicopter is programmed, several critters and base items like stone, grass, wood, planks, sticks etc.

22/06/2015: Subgame cancelled, project moved on to Unity.

Who's creating this?

The game is being developed and designed primarily by me, Kenney. Occasionally employees and interns of the Kenney company will be joining in.

What else?

All textures and models in the game will be especially made for Voxus. Major changes will be made to the core gameplay of Minetest.

Sounds great, let me download!

Hold up, it's still in heavy development.

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Got great ideas or want to do requests? Let us know!

A bit about building...

Building in CreaVival isn't as easy as it is in games like Minetest and Minecraft. To start building, you need to create a wooden frame. This wooden frame can then be upgraded several times to create stronger blocks. You can also choose to upgrade using other materials, like metal or cobblestone.

The screenshot already looks very promising, and knowing you other work i'm very curious what that will become.
And welcome in the world of minetest.

Casimir wrote:And welcome in the world of minetest.

Thanks! Very pleased with Minetest and it's modding options, makes creating a game like this a breeze!

Here's a progress update on the models (player, mini helicopter, minecart and mice). They still widely differ in style so I'm currently working on bringing them closer together.

Why are those cubic?
You can use meshes which contain round elements.

I'm not sure if I should say "Good idea" because it seems like you got this inspiration from minecraft.

Krock wrote:Why are those cubic?
You can use meshes which contain round elements.

I'm not sure if I should say "Good idea" because it seems like you got this inspiration from minecraft.

Round meshes or anything not cubic would mess with the style, to keep with the voxel style I won't be using any round elements. These are meshes though. Yeah, the inspiration came from Minecraft...just like, you know, Minetest.

I agree with the cubic elements which i prefer compared to circles and others elements like this...

It's already a good work and the project is amazing, if completed :)

I thought it's not a problem if minecraft give you imagination/ideas... because you create an open source alternative to a minec***t subgame/mods WITH MineTest, so... I really like it personnally ! :D

This looks amazing, really looking forward to the first download!

Thanks guys, really love creating this when I know people will enjoy playing it once released!

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Today I worked on the helicopter model a bit more. The texture has been improved to fit in with the style, as well as optimized to fit in a single 16x16 image. The model itself has been optimized to just 88 faces, where the original was 102.



Overview of currently implemented items: stones (found on ground), sharp stones (crafted from stones), planks (crafted from logs), sticks (crafted from planks), logs (trees), tree seeds (found in trees), grass (found on ground), fiber (crafted from grass), spear (crafted from stick, fiber and sharp stone), axe (crafted from stick, fiber and 2 sharp stones), hay (crafted from grass) and wooden frame (crafted from planks).



Up next is: rope (climbable, crafted from fiber), cotton plants (harvest cotton), cotton plant seeds (crafted from cotton), cloth (crafted from cotton), string (crafted from cotton), hay bales (crafted from grass), coal ore (found in world), torch (crafted from stick, cotton and coal or gas), iron ore (found in world) and camp fire (crafted from sticks and stones).

looks good! great textures and models!

Thanks sparky!

Here's today update:

Worked on the foliage, I'd really love to have lush environments with countless of different types of grass, bushes and plants. Here's a selection of grasses plus the cotton bush, which, you guessed it, produces cotton!



Cotton, cotton seeds, rope, cole ore, iron ore, torch, string, fishing pole, 5 types of meat and even an *ugh* grub has been added.



Then I worked on the trees a bit, trying to make them less square by using visual tricks. It's a work in progress, but already getting there!



That's it for today, will be working on the camping fire.

O.o Awesome. This is some of the best looking stuff I have seen. Great job Kenney, and keep up the good work.

philipbenr wrote:Awesome. This is some of the best looking stuff I have seen. Great job Kenney, and keep up the good work.

Thanks :D

Tweaked the trees a bit more. The leaves are now nodeboxes that are randomly rotated upon generation, which generates a wild and bushy voxel - perfect for leaves! Leaves drop hedges, which are a bit less bushy.



The trunk is also a special nodebox which makes sure trees look like they were grown from the earth, rather than just sticking on top of it.

PS. decided to change the name from CreaVal to VoXus.

I like the new name better. +1 to the trees.

Impressive texturing and style.

This cartoony approach is what Minetest actually needs, unlike my realistic approach to texturing.

nice work on the details, your tree solution is very good.

philipbenr wrote:I like the new name better. +1 to the trees.

Yep, always got stuck on saying CreaVal - just doesn't roll off the tongue as easily.

Jordach wrote:This cartoony approach is what Minetest actually needs, unlike my realistic approach to texturing.

While I'm sure there are many people who enjoy the more realistic style I personally like the more simple or cartoony style better. I feel that it fits the voxels, which are also simple models.

jin_xi wrote:nice work on the details, your tree solution is very good.

Thanks!

The graphics look so good, it's hard to believe that it is Minetest.

That's upped the ante on the design front! I look forward to trying this game.

rubenwardy wrote:The graphics look so good, it's hard to believe that it is Minetest.

Thanks, I assure you this is Minetest ;)

Hello camp fire! Will light up if something is cooking - especially fond of the particles and crackling sound (which you can't hear in the screenshot).

Jordach wrote:Impressive texturing and style.

This cartoony approach is what Minetest actually needs, unlike my realistic approach to texturing.

I agree. I think getting such small textures to look so good has got to be the biggest challenge

Voxus definitely looks awesome.

What else but pure awesomeness can I expect from a professional game development studio? Contribute to core please =)

This is what minetest is for, creating awesome games using the modding API. I can't wait to see what you are going to do with this game. Keep up the good work!

I just realized that you are the guy/studio who released some awesome textures on OpenGameArt. Small world.

hoodedice wrote:What else but pure awesomeness can I expect from a professional game development studio? Contribute to core please =)

Hah we'll see, I'm looking get a few interns at my company soon - hopefully they can contribute to the source.

Evergreen wrote:This is what minetest is for, creating awesome games using the modding API. I can't wait to see what you are going to do with this game. Keep up the good work!

Yep! That was absolutely what made me choose Minetest for my next project instead of creating something from scratch. I get to skip the boring engine creation and get right to the good stuff :)

rubenwardy wrote:I just realized that you are the guy/studio who released some awesome textures on OpenGameArt. Small world.

Yep that's me. I was going to release assets for voxel based games but instead got drawn to Minetest - thus I'm creating my own game for a change.