• Register

Voxel Quest is a procedurally-generated sandbox roleplaying game. It features volumetric models (solid modeling), emergent gameplay, advanced AI, an engine that can be modded via javascript and other languages, and more.

  • View media
  • View media
  • View media
  • View media
  • View media
  • View media
Post article RSS Articles

I have made several improvements to Voxel Quest since my last post here. This update mainly goes over physics and projectiles and character movement.

Since the last update:

  • Explosions (temporary effect, needs improvement); Sound effects are also all placeholders by the way
  • More intelligent chunk refreshing that reduces redundant chunk refreshes (useful for destruction among other things).
  • Rendering spheres of arbitrary size in screen space with real depth, normals, clipping, etc
  • Projectiles
  • Camera Shake (on jump, on objects hitting ground, fades with distance from camera); it is exaggerated right now
  • Zooming in and out to first person mode
  • Walking around with collision, realtime smooth movement that can revert to unit space for turn-based combat and so forth.
  • Physics (gravity, dampening, rigid body physics with adjustable bounciness/hardness, friction, etc). Currently operates on axis-aligned boxes (even when boxes are rotated on the Z axis)
  • All movement-related effects are now timer-based (rather than frame-based), although you can also force a certain time interval to prevent stutter/frame skipping.
  • Jumping
  • Lantern placement fixed (raised up inside of houses, no more lantern clusters for more efficient lighting)
  • Volumetric textures optimized for lower voxel resolutions (larger shingles, bricks, and boards)
  • Better character selection/deselection with dotted line selection effect; now distinguishes between the active entity and the target entity
  • Better sprite rendering with no clipping or depth sorting errors
  • Labeled all 1600+ items and entities (even though they are just placeholder objects)
  • Added context sensitive options to the drop down menu based on which targets (if any) are selected
  • Quick experiment with trees: upped the number of limbs to produce dramatically larger trees (as seen below)
  • Improved, less naive chunk picking (for rendering) - now uses a flood fill to pick chunks, instead of a bounding cube.
  • Many other small improvements I am probably forgetting to list :)

I am still working on many aspects of the AI but only a day or two per week right now - I am trying to not get stuck in any one area as there are many tasks left to cover. I think this most recent set of changes opens up a lot more modding potential (in particular, for realtime games). I think it would be pretty easy to make a platformer (like Mario N64), an artillery game (like Scorched Earth or Worms), or many other options (at least, easier than it would have been with strictly unit/turn-based movement).

I came in with the intention of doing videos weekly but as it turns out monthly makes more sense - there are some weeks where not a lot happens visually. It also saves me time. Nonetheless I advise you to follow the @voxelquest (or @gavanw) account on Twitter or my Youtube channel for smaller updates in between.

Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture

Also, I posted this a bit late for April Fool's, but it is worth reposting I think. Since I added in first person view, I obviously need the obligatory hand swinging some weapon. (In this case it is one of the weapons from Hexen):

Picture

In spite of this being a joke, I really do dig this style (as did Twitter, apparently) and I would like to perhaps have something similar ultimately.

Voxel Quest Gets FPS Camera! Also Giving Away 1000 Keys!

Voxel Quest Gets FPS Camera! Also Giving Away 1000 Keys!

News 3 comments

Voxel Quest now has a first person camera. This was built in one week while running my Kickstarter campaign, so it is very rough still and buggy, but...

Voxel Quest One Year Update

Voxel Quest One Year Update

News 4 comments

A one year update going over all the technical changes I've put into the engine with a Kickstarter video as well.

Greenlit?

Greenlit?

News 1 comment

An update on the Greenlight status of Voxel Quest. We are currently at #95 of 1,639 games on Steam Greenlight.

Voxel Quest - How Does it Work?

Voxel Quest - How Does it Work?

News 2 comments

This is a summary of how the engine behind Voxel Quest works.

Post comment Comments  (0 - 10 of 18)
ceriux
ceriux

so are the players or characters which ever you prefer 3d? or 2d?

Reply Good karma Bad karma+1 vote
STE3LE
STE3LE

this game looks ssso charming. i want it all over my steam library.

Reply Good karma Bad karma+1 vote
gavanw Creator
gavanw

It shall be :D

Reply Good karma+1 vote
Snashky_Nilidus
Snashky_Nilidus

awesome work! you have my vote :]

Reply Good karma Bad karma+1 vote
gavanw Creator
gavanw

Thanks!

Reply Good karma+1 vote
Souls-Stream
Souls-Stream

Okay, following, I fell under the charm of the landscapes!
The description is really appealing too!
This will be awesome!!! Thanks for the update!

Reply Good karma Bad karma+1 vote
gavanw Creator
gavanw

Great, thanks for the follow!

Reply Good karma+1 vote
NaturallyIntelligent
NaturallyIntelligent

Looks really nice! I'm working on an isometric game as well, totally unrelated to yours except for the graphical angle. Any chance of licensing your technology?

Reply Good karma Bad karma+1 vote
gavanw Creator
gavanw

Yeah, public alpha access will begin in September of this year, at which point I hope to roll out code access as well. You pay nothing to license, but your users must have a Voxel Quest game key to run your game or mod (like Valve's Source licensing, kind of). Alternate licensing deals may be worked out, but that is undecided at this point.

Reply Good karma+1 vote
them-bonez
them-bonez

These graphics look amazing. It sounds like your engine is really unique!

Reply Good karma Bad karma+1 vote
gavanw Creator
gavanw

Thanks!

Reply Good karma+1 vote
Post a comment

Your comment will be anonymous unless you join the community. Or sign in with your social account:

X