Cube World now in open alpha!

[Sicklyboy]

Okay. Let's assume that this "rather distinct graphical style" choice is entirely coincidental then (which it isn't - it's been chosen because Minecraft became insanely popular and the Cube World creators are simply capitalizing on that) because that somehow makes sense .

I'm still going to have to go on and say, however, that the graphical style doesn't define the game, nor is the graphical style the game itself, in its entirety. The graphical style is an aid to the game.

 

[Foxi4]

I'm still going to have to go on and say, however, that the graphical style doesn't define the game, nor is the graphical style the game itself, in its entirety. The graphical style is an aid to the game.

Neeeever said that it does. What I said was that the graphical style for the game was chosen because of Minecraft's popularity despite the fact that the game has nothing in common with Minecraft in terms of gameplay mechanics. In other words, it's there to say "Hey! Look, our game looks like Minecraft! You like Minecraft, right? Play it!".

 

[The Milkman]

Okay. Let's assume that this "rather distinct graphical style" choice is entirely coincidental then (which it isn't - it's been chosen because Minecraft became insanely popular and the Cube World creators are simply capitalizing on that) because that somehow makes sense .

Half-Reading posts again? I didn't say it was coincidental. I said it makes no sense that a A-RPG would be trying to intercept a Sandboxes audience.

By your logic apparently, anyone using voxels is trying to copy minecraft, which clearly makes much more sense.

Neeeever said that it does. What I said was that the graphical style for the game was chosen because of Minecraft's popularity despite the fact that the game has nothing in common with Minecraft in terms of gameplay mechanics. In other words, it's there to say "Hey! Look, our game looks like Minecraft! You like Minecraft, right? Play it!".

DEAR GOD! ITS THE SAME GAME!!!

 

[Rydian]

No, because voxel does not mean "the entire world and all scenery is made up of adjustable cubes in a grid".

For example the Delta Force PC game was done using voxel rendering (grass, etc.), but that game looks nothing like Minecraft.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delta_Force_(video_game)

 

[Arras]

Neeeever said that it does. What I said was that the graphical style for the game was chosen because of Minecraft's popularity despite the fact that the game has nothing in common with Minecraft in terms of gameplay mechanics. In other words, it's there to say "Hey! Look, our game looks like Minecraft! You like Minecraft, right? Play it!".

Automatically generated destructible terrain might also be easier to make look good in cube form. That's a guess, though.

 

[Foxi4]

By your logic apparently, anyone using voxels is trying to copy minecraft, which clearly makes much more sense.

No, by my logic, everybody who uses voxels in a way that's purposely similar to the way Minecraft does is trying to reach towards the Minecraft target audience. I think I've repeated it five times by now. There's a whole lot of games that use voxel graphics and look nothing like Minecraft - "using voxels" does not necessarily mean "looking cube-like".

Automatically generated destructible terrain might also be easier to make look good in cube form. That's a guess, though.

To a certain extent, yes - that's also the case. The bigger the cubes the smaller the arrays to hold their locations. For example, if a cube in-game is going to be 20 voxels tall/wide/long, it's going to be 20*20*20 voxels = 8000 voxels or if the cube is in fact empty, it'll be only the surface walls, but only one of those voxels has to be fixed to the array - the rest can "float" around it since the distances are fixed... and in human speak, bigger cubes = less complex terrain generation and less used resources.

 

[Rydian]

Automatically generated destructible terrain might also be easier to make look good in cube form. That's a guess, though.

Ehh, I'm not buying this one that well. WORMS did it without cubes (it was down to the pixel level) years ago (hell, there was an SNES version with a terrible UI), and there was also that one battlefieldfrontwarzonekillstuff game a few years back (when the GeForce 8800 GT was the bomb) that had 3D destructable terrain in a war zone, and it was polygonal.

 

[The Milkman]

No, by my logic, everybody who uses voxels in a way that's purposely similar to the way Minecraft does is trying to reach towards the Minecraft target audience. I think I've repeated it five times by now. There's a whole lot of games that use voxel graphics and look nothing like Minecraft - "using voxels" does not necessarily mean "looking cube-like".

See my above post. Tell me those two look a like.

 

[Foxi4]

See my above post. Tell me those two look a like.

They're not identical, no, but they look alike which is the whole point. This isn't some "realistic game" genre where looking as close to the original as possible is a good thing, this is a deliberate art design choice made not for the sake of making it a wholesome and original game but to tap into the Minecraft fanbase, I'm really dumbstruck how I seem to be the only one seeing this.

 

[Silverthorn]

People should just stop cloning Minecraft's art style. Seriously.

If this was a "RPG game with randomly/procedurally-generated terrain and villages", I'd be thoroughly interested. Unfortunately it looks exactly like Minecraft with some extra shading, so it has this aura of "I've played this game a quadrilion hunred times already".

There are ways to incorporate voxel-based terrain without getting the Minecraft look - just check out "Outcast" for PC.

I agree with you, the concept is nice, but I'm a bit sick of minecraft-like graphics.
Speaking about Outcast, there is news that Outcast 2 is being worked on apparently.

 

[Foxi4]

I agree with you, the concept is nice, but I'm a bit sick of minecraft-like graphics.
Speaking about Outcast, there is news that Outcast 2 is being worked on apparently.

I'm trying not to hype myself up too much for "Outcast 2" since I've heard rumours about a sequel coming up since... the original was released.

 

[Sicklyboy]

No, because voxel does not mean "the entire world and all scenery is made up of adjustable cubes in a grid".

For example the Delta Force PC game was done using voxel rendering (grass, etc.), but that game looks nothing like Minecraft.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delta_Force_(video_game)

Man I loved the shit out of Delta Force back in the day I never knew that was voxel based though o_o

Neeeever said that it does. What I said was that the graphical style for the game was chosen because of Minecraft's popularity despite the fact that the game has nothing in common with Minecraft in terms of gameplay mechanics. In other words, it's there to say "Hey! Look, our game looks like Minecraft! You like Minecraft, right? Play it!".

I mean, if that's the case, couldn't you argue that BF and CoD and Halo and Elder Scrolls and GTA are all based on the same art style? They're all 3D worlds built of polygons.

They're not identical, no, but they look alike which is the whole point. This isn't some "realistic game" genre where looking as close to the original as possible is a good thing, this is a deliberate art design choice made not for the sake of making it a wholesome and original game but to tap into the Minecraft fanbase, I'm really dumbstruck how I seem to be the only one seeing this.

It's not that you're the only one seeing it. I see it too - yes, the art styles are similar. However I hardly think it's a huge deal, nor that it caters to anyone's target audience.

 

[Minox]

They're not identical, no, but they look alike which is the whole point. This isn't some "realistic game" genre where looking as close to the original as possible is a good thing, this is a deliberate art design choice made not for the sake of making it a wholesome and original game but to tap into the Minecraft fanbase, I'm really dumbstruck how I seem to be the only one seeing this.

For some reason you seem to think that Notch has some kind of exclusivity to use said artstyle and if someone else uses something similar they're trying to make it look like Minecraft.

 

[Celice]

For some reason you seem to think that Notch has some kind of exclusivity to use said artstyle and if someone else uses something similar they're trying to make it look like Minecraft.

There is strategy in trying to pass oneself off as a Minecraft clone. After Minecraft blew into a craze in late 2010, I remember a slew of Xbox 360 arcade titles came out that emulated the game as closely as possible, but always made a point to show off its better (and often just as ugly) graphics.

They may not have been successful for gamers, but the idea was a sound business one.

As for this case, I think Minecraft did create a kind of typified environment for games that are randomly generated and that are 3D (this specific allows us to avoid the roguelike generation as a counter). When another game like Cube World uses a similar block-based, voxel-like structure and aesthetic, that doesn't necessarily mean they're channeling Minecraft, but that Minecraft and Cube World are now channeling a shared aesthetic of block-art, player freedom, and random generation.

We must be cautious of projecting our own associations as intentions of the developers; one may see Cube World as another dupe of Minecraft, just as others had seen Terraria as a dupe of Minecraft. When in fact, all three games here mentioned are drastically different in their overall scope. They do share similarities, and some of these are perhaps inspirations from Minecraft. Yet inspiration does not equate with emulation. Just ask the shell.

 

[Foxi4]

I mean, if that's the case, couldn't you argue that BF and CoD and Halo and Elder Scrolls and GTA are all based on the same art style? They're all 3D worlds built of polygons.

Like I said later, those games do not mimic each other, they mimic reality with the high accuracy angle unlike Cube World which mimics reality with the "Looking like Minecraft" angle... unless we're going to subscribe it to cubism now.

For some reason you seem to think that Notch has some kind of exclusivity to use said artstyle and if someone else uses something similar they're trying to make it look like Minecraft.

By no means - everybody is free mimic. What I was saying was that it's a blatant strategy more so than a deliberate art design choice which saddens me. That is, unless the artists behind the title were so inspired by Minecraft that they had to create a game that looks "like Minecraft except betted" - who knows?

 

[Rydian]

Got it, looked more into it.

The Notably Bad

• Jumping Jesus on a pogo stick, the UI sucks! I have to Google how to do the simplest things like sell an item, there's no real pause menu, the keys are mapped weird (B is your inventory, really game?), resolution control doesn't work unless fullscreen and the game assumes a widescreen aspect (as judged from the way the title floats on the title screen), inventory management is more a game of "Guess what THIS window is!" and "Guess what THIS message means!" because of the lack of labels and directions, etc.
  
  
• Customization is lacking. Hopefully this will be improved/fixed later, I'm not that fond of EVERYBODYLOOKSLIKECLOUD syndrome.
  
  
• Slow gains at first. Like, 1-3 EXP per enemy unless you start moving further away. Single-player progress seems to be slower due to this, but that's maybe a design choice. But 50 enemies to hit level 2 is kinda' finicky when you risk death from two at a time.
  
  
• No real in-game tutorial, and as the game is in early stages correct info on the internet is sparse. Be prepared to guess-and-test.

The Good

• Combat is definitely more enjoyable than the likes of Minecraft. Even at the start you have more freedom in the way you move and attack, and you have a dodge (and a secondary attack you can charge up). As you level you gain up to four active skills (from the way things are laid out more will come later) that are movement-based or new attacks and junk.
  
  
• NPCs and animals to flesh out towns, even other NPC adventurers. The world looks and feels more alive than many games.
  
  
• Stuff to buy and sell, currency, etc. Minecraft's version of this stuff is very rudimentary, while Terraria expanded on it a bit it's all custom and limited. This game does it a lot more along the lines of standard RPGs and/or MMOs.
  
  
• Alpha, more content slated to come!