Voxatron 0.2.5 builds are now up, and will shortly be up on Humble Store (check the version number in the filename). If you don't have a lexaloffle account (Games > My Games) and would like one, see this thread. To update from a Humble Store account, search your email for the download page link, or request a new one here
This is a quick bug-fixing update. To see a list of the recent features, see the v0.2.4 post
v0.2.5 Changes
Fixed: Crash caused by monster property: spread out
Changed: Monster chasing player ignores axes that are locked
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Hey Zep, I'm just wondering, is there a way to export my models to STL format to use for 3d printing?
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How to make a basic monster with v0.2.4..
Example monster for reference:
1. Create the Monster's Structure
Monsters in Voxatron (and all complex objects) are represented as special folders in the item navigator. The first thing you need to do is set up a folder with at least one animation in it (so that you can see the monster!)1.1 Create a new item somewhere in the Objects tab, choose a size, and set the type to monster.
1.2 Double click on the monster folder to look inside (it will be empty to start with)
1.3 Create an animation: new item, set type to animation, add some props as frames.
Here's the structure for the armoured pig character in the example level:
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Hi All
Voxatron 0.2.4 builds are now up, and will shortly be up on Humble Store (check the version number in the filename). If you don't have a lexaloffle account (Games > My Games) and would like one, see this thread.
To update from a Humble Store account, search your email for the download page link, or request a new one here
v0.2.4 is the first update that exposes many features of the second (and final!) generation of the Voxatron engine. It introduces new tools for designing simple monsters and pickups, which all run on a new physics engine. I've retro-fitted the old monsters to work roughly as they did before, but you might notice a few differences -- for example, monsters jumping on each other, or carrying fruit around on their heads.
Some example monsters can be found here:
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This post is mostly for Zep,
What happened to the download for the original Swarm Racer? It's not even listed under 'games' any more on the site. I can't find it!
The beta for Swarm Racer 3000 is cool and all, but I still like the original game. =]
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Voxatron: Implications
Voxatron is an incredibly unique game. It opens the door to wide new vistas of creative exploration, and in a way that will be intuitive and community driven. However, the potential of this game, only in its infancy, extends far beyond itself, or so I think it very well may. It is, really for the first time, introducing truly volumetric gameplay, something that is today only possible with voxel data structures. While games like Minecraft were certainly volumetric, what I am getting at requires a high enough resolution to really give some 'meat' to in-game objects.
In most games one may find stunningly rendered cars, but of course these cars have no real engines. In-game characters or other players have no internal organs. Cities have no sewers, and the materials used to make these worlds aren't really materials at all, and lack characteristic behaviors. Volumetric gameplay is meaty gameplay, providing a satisfaction which I have only seen the games Voxatron and Cell: Emergence attempt to capitalize on so far. When there arise games involving dynamic in-game simulations, CA, etc, I think volumetric gameplay will really take off, and here we are seeing one of the first attempts at what may spark a new genre in voxel-based gameplay.
However, there is something particularly fun about all this for all you lovers of retro. Recall that at the dawn of the retro-age there wasn't, obviously, any stylistic appreciation for the look of pixelation. So then why did the mainstream put up with it? We'd had photorealistic films for many decades by then, so what was it about games that drew us, despite their inability to accurately portray the worlds wherein which their stories took place? The word is interactivity. It offered a radically new experience to us, so that representing an italian plumber as a combination of red and green in an area exceeding a range of no more than 16x16 pixels was acceptable. This experience so outweighed asthetic importance that such simplistic presentations entered immediately into the mainstream and exerted a defining cultural force on a generation.
Likewise, there is room once again for such simplicity. Just as we moved from the passive act of film to the interactive act of gaming, a new experience is coming that will outweigh the importance of many of the most important design features of many mainstream games, including photorealism. That experience is the volumetric experience. It is the experience had in knowing the world you are engaging is not a facade, but a complex, reactive and volumetric simulation. In a way, a legitimate computational reality, where the explorative possibilites are neither predetermined nor determinable. Truly creative exploration of the impact of volumetric interactivity on the gaming experience may lead to a mainstream revisitation of the retro-experience, though such a period will likely be a short one.
As computational power increases, voxels or some equivilent will increase in resolution and all games will become volumetric. Even in the development of a title for the My Little Pony franchise, to ask what the neccesity of volumetric rendering and the ability to have dynamic interaction with a complex simulated world in such a game could serve would be like asking why a game of the same type today neccesitates 3-D textured graphics and proper lighting effects. It will simply be a matter of realism; no longer a novelty. Volumetrism (just coined) will become a standard design feature of any game experience.
But there is at least a brief period coming, I suspect, where the retro style will be ressurected, not merely as the result of a more or less stylistic design decision, but as a neccesary compromise to enable the development of highly interactive, volumetric game worlds in a cost-effective way, and in a way which modern machines can handle well.
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Is it the case that there is significantly low support for the game, and is this why I always see the same 618 levels in the BBS list, or is that because there was only one chance to have user levels uploaded? If there is a support/activity problem, what can be done to help that?
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A quick test of pushing, carrying, standing on, stacking, hoisting and throwing actors using some crates and the good old snail.
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A prototype of Swarm Racer 3000 is now available to all Lexaloffle customers! Log in and check your My Games page to get download links for Mac, Linux or Windows. If you need to activate purchases from the Humble Store, see this thread.
I prototyped Swarm Racer 3000 in 2009 for the Tokyo Game Show, and I'm releasing this brushed up version of that so that it doesn't gather dust for too long. I'm hoping to do 1.0 at the end of the year, after Voxatron's engine and arcade mode is finished. It won't be a massive game -- around 40 tracks, a simple designer and some guest composer's music would round it off nicely I think.
This preview version has 8 tracks and the trophy system of the original Swarm Racer (which is offline right now -- I need to update the builds). I haven't put an online score system in yet, as I'm working on a better system that Voxatron will also use. If you want to get competative, feel free to post your times here!
I'm not sure if I'll keep lasers and the fairy character, but left them in to play around with. I also left in some debug keys -- F & N for fast forward and slow motion, and PAGEUP, PAGEDOWN move the camera (try zooming in and watch the renderer fail beautifully)
More screens:
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Reworks That Matter is a collection of remixes of Morusque's excellent Blocks That Matter soundtrack. It's free and you can listen to it right now on Bandcamp!
Due to an administrative error, Swing Swing Submarine also gave me the opportunity to submit a track (Ore). This was a welcome opportunity for me to reply to Morusque's earlier reworking of Chocolate Castle tunes (for the Blocks That Matter Chocolate Update). The piece I chose to remix has similar arpeggios and chord changes, although I dragged the tune quite far from its soft, ethereal origins and into caustic chip territory. Because -- you know. That's something I know how to do.
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 | Welcome to 2013, Year of the Snake! Here's a little preview of an old prototype I decided to dust off recently. Swarm Racer 3000 is the sequel to Swarm Racer, with new visual style and some new elements. I ended up going nuts and making 8 new tracks & some audio. It was great fun! I'll be releasing it shortly as a bonus game for Lexaloffle customers. |
Also a couple of development images when the renderer broke in interesting ways:
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hi zep, i was wondering if you had considered porting voxatron or your other games to android as this cool new console (OUYA) is coming out. You probably already heard of it of course, biggest kickstarter response ever! Its based on the shareware model, the first level or levels are free then you can choose whether or not to get the whole game. Im hoping to put some games on it one day via Gamemakers android porting capabilities.
also just curious what anyone thinks of the OUYA as a way to play pc/mac games with a nintendo/playstation type controller. Personally im really excited if it works out.
p.s. it already has (kinda) dual stick so would fit your controls. merry xmas!
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probably no need to mention this but this allen 123 some crazy french wedding dress spambot. lol. Silly spambot!
if the wedding dresses were made of voxels id completely understand...
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 | A platform shooter originally made for LD48#25. The theme was "You are the Villain".
This is a two-player game. Player 1 controls a space trooper and Player 2 controls the enemy characters. If you'd like to play single player, just ignore P2 and the enemy A.I. will kick in. The goal is to reach the end of the level with the most gold -- with 2 players, take turns being the trooper and compare scores. |
Player 1 keys: S,D to move (or O,P in single player) X,C to jump and shoot (or Q,W) | Player 2 Keys: Cursors to move K to switch which group of monsters to control L to perform the monster’s attack |
| Tweet |
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Grab 4 lexaloffle games for $12 / or 2 packs for $18!
Next week I'll also be adding a prototype of Swarm Racer 3000 -- but this will also be available to any existing Lexaloffle customers. So if that's you, and you're only interested in SR3K, all you have to do is wait! Click on the image for more information.
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Voxatron 0.2.3 builds are now up, and will shortly be up on Humble Store (check the version number in the filename). If you don't have a lexaloffle account (Games > My Games) and would like one, see this thread.
To update from a Humble Store account, search your email for the download page link, or request a new one here
This is a quick bug-fixing update. There is better compatibility with older BBS levels, the weird monster-controlling ASDW bug is fixed (aww!), and I've made some improvements to the editor file loading / saving scheme to reduce the chance of accidentally saving over files.
I also added a journaled backup for editor files. Any previous version of the file you save over will be appended to filename.bak. You can't easily do anything with the .bak files yet -- they're just for safety! In the future I'll add some simple tools for inspecting and restoring backups.
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Hey All!
Voxatron 0.2.2 builds are now up, and will shortly be up on Humble Store.
If you don't have a lexaloffle account (Games > My Games) and would like one, see this thread.
To update from a Humble Store account, search your email for the download page link, or request a new one here
v0.2.2
Added: Animation object type
Added: Object paint modes: solid, empty
Added: Camera-independent objects
Added: Resource tree with folders / Objects referenced by global id
Added: Undo/Redo resource structure operations
Added: Load/Save any branch of the resource tree (replaces vobs)
Added: Select multiple custom objects and delete/copy/cut/paste
Added: Crate (for testing physics -- not exposed yet)
Added: Wider side panels and extra palette slots for future expansion
Added: Model Data Exporters (obj, pov, txt, png)
Added: Water Test
This update contains new resource management, tools for making animated objects, and model data exporters. Not much of the new code is exposed yet, and over the coming months I'll trickle out new object types (pickups, doors, players, monsters, music) and roll out the new physics (throwable, stackable, pushable actors).
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Testing out the new exporters coming in 0.2.2. Voxatron currently supports .pov, .obj/.mtl, and .txt (raw data), and either the current voxde item or an in-game scene can be exported.
This scene was exported as a .pov and rendered in POV-Ray (click to bigify)
Next update coming on Monday! [ ^ _ ^]
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It's that time again! If you're planning to take part in Ludum Dare 48 hour game dev event and are near Kichijoji/Tokyo, drop by Lexaloffle HQ (Pico Pico Cafe) with your laptop! The cafe will be open to the public until 23:00 as usual, but after that I'll also keep it open until 4:15am both nights for fellow LD night owls.
:: Ludum Dare 48 Hour Game Development Event
Join us for Ludum Dare #25! Ludum Dare is a 48 hour game development event that happens online all over the world. People take part either solo or in groups to make a whole game in just 48 hours, based on a theme that is provided at the start of the event. There are no prizes, except the sweet glory of making something and sharing it!
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Hey guys! I'm back!
I've been away for a long time, but I really wanted to share this with you guys. A while ago a friend of mine got involved with a student game-development project for school, and he asked me if I'd like to do some music for it. Of course I said yes (despite the lack of pay), and this is what I came up with:
Stained Glass Viking Chiptune OST
Give it a listen if you're so inclined, and I'd love to hear what you guys think. It's looking like the game is never actually going to release (it's been many months since I heard anything) but at least I got the experience of making some music. =]
~GnomeSlice
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