Voxeliens - It's finally been released!

[PolyVox]

Updated - Game released on 27th April 2012! - Scroll down for original announcment
Well, we made it! I'm pleased to say that yesterday we started selling the Windows version of voxeliens through our online store There is also a demo available for download so please give it a try!

More information: http://www.volumesoffun.com/voxeliens/

Massive thanks to the Ogre3D team for helping make this possible... we couldn't have done it without you!



Updated - Video added 4th March 2012 - Scroll down for original announcment

We finally got around to making a video of the gameplay, you can see it here:

[youtube]QiA0OxKeKto[/youtube]

Compared to the previous screenshots it adds some menus, powerups, and a new desert terrain type. Hope you like it!

Updated - New screenshots from 15th Jan 2012 - Scroll down for original announcment

Hey guys, we've added more screenshots of the game! This time we are showing off a new terain style (mountains) as well as a couple of new enemy types. Enjoy!

Also, our RSS feed has moved! If you were following it you need to change to http://www.volumesoffun.com/feed/. We'll try and set up a redirect but it is not working at the moment.



Original Announcment - Posted 18th Dec 2011

Voxeliens is our first attempt at making a game based on our PolyVox voxel technology, which has been previsouly presented on the Ogre forums (here). It uses this library for representing the world, Ogre for rendering, and Qt for most other aspects (windowing, input, sound, etc). Oh, and as this is the Ogre forum I'll specifically mention that the skybox is from SpaceScape.

The game is a retro-style arcade shooter, in which you defend your planet from waves of descending enemies. The gameplay is simple and fast paced as you battle your way through different environments using a variety of powerups. If you ever played any classic video games from 1978 then you will feel right at home with the mechanics

It is expected to be PC only – we will initially be targeting Windows but hope to bring it to Linux and possibly MacOS as well. It will be available for direct purchase through our website, and over time we hope to get it on to some indie game distribution services too. An exact release date has not yet been decided but it will be early 2012.

The main page for our studio/game is http://www.volumesoffun.com. Let us know what you think!

[Brocan]

Awesome

Congrats! Great work!

[Alexiss]

Nice ! I love the style

[mkultra333]

Ha! Cool idea and clever use of the engine. Looks great.

[PolyVox]

Thanks guys! Also, we'll probably want some beta testers in a couple of months, so if you are interested then keep an eye on this topic.

[duststorm]

This is really cool! Awesome use of voxel technology.
It's Space Invaders 3D, I love the new 3D look of this classic

[fractile]

This is looks very nice. I like the style!

[PolyVox]

Hey guys, we've added more screenshots of the game! This time we are showing off a new terain style (mountains) as well as a couple of new enemy types. Enjoy!

Also, our RSS feed has moved! If you were following it you need to change to http://www.volumesoffun.com/feed/. We'll try and set up a redirect but it is not working at the moment.

[chaosavy]

Screen shots look great, was hoping to see it in action, tried to find some vids but couldn't find any...

[PolyVox]

There's no video yet but it's a popular request We'll try to get something out over the next few weeks.

[CoreDumped]

wow looks awesome. love the way you generate colors on those tiny blocks, like the different shades of green blocks. Is that random or are you using some noise?

[Slappy]

New screens look awesome: colours are really magical!

[Mind Calamity]

I'll agree with all the complements above, and I'll just add: Awesome job. (now give us a video )

[PolyVox]

Thanks guys!

wow looks awesome. love the way you generate colors on those tiny blocks, like the different shades of green blocks. Is that random or are you using some noise?

It's just random noise (i.e. there is no pattern to it) where the colour of each voxel is varied a small amount from it's base colour. I forget whether it varies each colour channel individually or whether R,G and B are all changed by the same amount. But it makes a big difference to the scene and makes it look a lot more interesting.

[duststorm]

Those new shots you posted look even better than before. I really like the color palette and color variations. It looks really "alive".
The lighting also makes a huge difference, it's all so much nicer to look at now
Will the forest levels also contain more colors? You could, for example, vary the green terrain with small rivers or brown shades for sand, or even vary the green color substantially for representing undergrowth.

[PolyVox]

Yeah, I think the old images were actually a little too dark. There was some buggy ambient occlusion in there which darkened everything but didn't really add to the sense of 3D. I've pulled that out now. But also, I think the lighting just looks nicer on white surfaces because it shows the yellow colour of the fireballs for example.

I'll think about more colour variety for the forest levels. I did try changing the shades of green between the high land and the low land but it looked a little strange. But maybe rivers as you suggest. Or the trees could be autumninal with red/orange/yellow leaves. Well, we'll see what time allows.

[PolyVox]

Another update - we recently did an interview with True PG Gaming talking about Voxeliens, our development process and our thoughts on PC gaming in general. You can check out the interview here: http://truepcgaming.com/2012/01/24/voxe ... interview/

[zarfius]

we recently did an interview with True PG Gaming talking about Voxeliens

Congratulations I read the interview and I'm going to continue to follow your blog. Good luck with it all.

[toglia]

Beautiful mate! Hope you the best. Any intensions porting it to macos?

[PolyVox]

We finally got around to making a video of the gameplay, you can see it here:

[youtube]QiA0OxKeKto[/youtube]

Compared to the previous screenshots it adds some menus, powerups, and a new desert terrain type. Hope you like it!

Also, just another reminder that our RSS feed moved. So if you didn't get this by RSS (and you wanted to) you should follow http://www.volumesoffun.com/feed/

...vary the green terrain with small rivers or brown shades for sand...

We have added some lakes which brightens it up a bit, but that is as far as we will go now as we aim to release soon.

Beautiful mate! Hope you the best. Any intensions porting it to macos?

Sorry, I missed this question. I hope we can do MacOS (someone has offered to build it for us) but Windows will come first, and then Linux.

[PolyVox]

Updated - Game released on 28th April 2012!
Well, we made it! I'm pleased to say that yesterday we started selling the Windows version of voxeliens through our online store There is also a demo available for download so please give it a try!

More information: http://www.volumesoffun.com/voxeliens/

Massive thanks to the Ogre3D team for helping make this possible... we couldn't have done it without you!

[bstone]

Congratulations!

[axon]

Sweeet! Nice work & congrats!!!

[jacmoe]

Congratulation on a fine release!

[Beauty]

I like the game and the price is a very good price.
So I wrote an e-mail to about 10 game magazines of Germany and Austria with some notes and screenshots about.

I'm happy to see that the famous German computer magazine c't (website) published an article about Voxeliens in their game section.
Thank you very much !!

Here is a scan of the report:
(click for full size)