Common Sense Thoughts About Realtime Voxel Engine

Again, "realtime" is being used in the sense as in "RTS" games, where a whole map of gameplay events in an RTS game are occurring in synchronized realtime.

Management and Participation are a Timeshare

In contrast to past RTS games, or RPG games, these mixed games can be very different in that players can be managing things instantly over the entire game, but also participating in RPG style activities in first person.

A Voxel Creation Engine for Realtime Games

An updated take on the potential of undertaking the Antock voxel game.

RPG-style 1st-Person with RTS-style Realtime

Yes, "realtime" in this case is a comparison to the gameplay style of an RTS game. "3D" and "1st-person" are being used to compare to the gameplay style in a "1st-person RPG." 

Antock A.I. Sandbox

This is a graphical interface technique for Antock players to alter and create NPC A.I.

The design is up in the air as of yet, as there are many considerations to work around in order to produce something that is aptly fluid, scalable, and appealing.

A vein of the game itself will need to guide the player from simple to complex NPC modification, and provide a bank of pre-built A.I. examples to modify.

Of course, the term "A.I." is not being used in the same sense as the modern buzzword, but in terms of the older gaming sense of NPC decision making.

Approximate Stages of Player Development

The player:

1. Starts with simple and guided alterations of existing graphical A.I. models
   
2. Dissects larger functions into smaller and more detailed and layered instructions
3. Adds on entirely new functions from a bank of options
4. Saves portions of custom A.I. instructions to the player's bank, that can be re-combined and re-ordered
5. Completely rebuilds entire NPC A.I
6. (Maybe) Graduates to full fledged programming features

Antock Difficult Features

Antock will have low resolution graphics just like Minecraft has had so far.

However the game will make up for that simplicity by having other advanced features that few other games attempt to combine into one game.

Antock vs Minecraft Shock and Horror

I experienced lag in Minecraft, for creating a farm with hundreds of chickens and cows. I thought, "Why? . . . Isn't 8 cores sufficient for this? . . . . It's almost like this is only using one or two threads."

Antock vs Minecraft

Antock began as a series of ideas for Minecraft extensions. However, after thinking about holistic game design, trying to influence a large corporation, and existing branding, it makes the most sense to rethink a whole new IP for a voxel game.

Luckily, there is room to do so as few real voxel games have emerged after Minecraft.

Antock

Antock is a flat world inhabited by ant people. It is in a dimension where everything is made of voxels.

Antock is visited by alien human people who might have inhabited Antock at one point.

Minecraft Next: Forum Thread Post

This is simply to post a thread I created on a Minecraft suggestions forum linked here.

• This is a crucially interwoven layer of features.
• These features create new highly generalized and extensible modes of game-play.
• Although it is a major programming endeavor, the featureset is optimally plausible in proportion to the creative possibilities it enables.
• Usage scenarios are very sensible.
• Features are all opt-in.
• The user develops at his/her own pace.
• The learning curve is low-risk, and quickly returns on investment to be rewarding
• Yet the featureset can scale into being extremely detailed and empowering.
  

Minecraft Next

This is an idea for a set of major features that would greatly enhance Minecraft.

The features could sell as one more multiple major game extensions on top of the original game. These are major, but they weave together into a general game concept that works as a whole. Plus, it could make a lot of money.

Minecraft Next: Design Scaling and Boxing

Boxing and scaling are features that could help enhance building techniques for a voxel construction game.

Minecraft Next: Aerial Views

In aerial view, you should be able to zoom out on a very large land area like an RTS game. This would be applicable for war strategy and many other purposes as well.

Minecraft Next: Roads and Canals

The glaring issue with a better voxel construction game is how to implement diagonal roads and rails etc. There is a design conflict between maintaining very atomic block rules, or alternatively implementing multi-block rules to accomplish decent roads where:

• resources are proportional to road distance
• roads can be built one block at a time
• there is a minimal solution that works early in the game - before gathering a ton of resources to make very wide roads/rails
• because multi-block, wider roads seem to be the go-to solution for diminishing differences in block resources between straight and diagonal roads, but they cost so much.

Minecraft Next: Relics, Special Items, and Special Structures

What role do Relics play?

Relics are rare, indestructible items that are crucial to the creation of many, but not all, cornerstones. They are to be kept on stands which surround a cornerstone creator, much like bookshelves surround an enchanting table. Human players can steal relics even without a pickaxe. Thus it might be wise to guard them.

Minecraft Next: Special Buildings

Special buildings in the next Minecraft could fulfill 3 types of purposes. They would refine materials, train intelligences, and/or enable sub-games for players. Some special buildings would fulfill more than one of these purposes.

Minecraft Re-Imagined

This post is an early attempt at brainstorming various ways that voxel construction games can evolve from the Minecraft formula in small or large ways.

Minecraft Reimagined

The single greatest feature of Minecraft is its potential. The game has been out for many years now, and we have not seen a game yet that truly advances its ideas.

Official Minecraft DLC

This idea is for Minecraft extensions, $10 - $20 each. The extensions focus on broadening gaming style in Survival Mode.