There have been a great many games like Minecraft over the past decade. Which is to be expected, because who wouldn't want to capitalise on the runaway mainstream success of the geometric giant, one of the best-selling video games of all time? Minecraft has many interesting facets about it beyond the block bashing mechanics, so we've compiled our list of the best games like it out there right now so you can scratch that familiar mining and crafting itch.
]]>Has your account been hacked? Have your favourite game's servers been compromised, revealing private data about you and your family? Are your bank details at risk?
]]>Cube World’s development has been its own epic quest. The voxel-based Minecraftbut was first written about in the vellum back pages of RPS in 2011, by the ancient and wise Rossignol. It's a Zelda and Minecraft inspired RPG, where explorey quests are dropped into a procedurally generated blocky landscape. Since 2013 it has gone through some stuff. It was nearly published by Mojang, independently released, unreleased, attacked, presumed dead, and recently resurrected. It will be out on Steam on September 30th, though alpha backers can get it now. Here’s how it all looks nowadays.
]]>Cube World still exists! It may have disappeared into the blocky ethers - silent beyond only the faintest whispers - but that's just kind of how (very small) developer Picroma rolls. Or tips over in an inefficient, angular fashion, as blocks are notoriously poor at rolling. So now here we are, finally, on the cusp of another update to the long-running alpha, and this one is set to introduce an intriguingly exploration-focused new quest system. Click [x1] of this post's breaks for a video.
]]>OK, upon second viewing, Rift and Defiance developer Trion's Trove looks more like Cube World than it does Minecraft. A lot like Cube World. Kind of eerily so. But I suppose it can't be avoided now that the MMO genre's been bitten by the voxel bug and-- actually, wait, yes it can. EverQuest Next is voxel-based too. Hmmmm. Oh well, enough making block mountains out of block molehills. The truest measure of any game - visual similarities to genre heavy hitters or not - is in how it plays, and while Trion has a framework in place for Trove, that part will largely be up to you.
]]>Alas, Cube World, we hardly knew ye. You sprang into our lives from Wollay's blocky womb an alpha with a big upside, but then you did probably the most unsettling thing an alpha's capable of: nothing. No growth. No evolution. No march ever onward to completion. After weathering a launch storm of server issues and DDoS attacks, the voxel adventure paradise suddenly ceased updates. The game and its website have been stagnant since July, leading many to fear that Wollay's bucket of building blocks has already run dry. The developer, however, has finally piped up to put an end to the radio silence.
]]>Tired of our usual excursions in Torchlight II, or Minecraft, or wine, Lady Rossignol and I needed something of a fresh video-distraction for the weekend evenings. Having paid little attention to Cube World, but knowing enough about it to say that I was multiplayer, we decided to embark on the perilous path of the alpha.
This is how we got on.
]]>I don't think it's much of an exaggeration to say that everyone on this decidedly spherical planet wants Cube World. And given that we live in an era of limitless digital bounty, you'd think they'd all be able to zap it into their homes on glorious beams of cyberlightning in fairly short order. Day one, however, saw Cube World's store servers wobble and lurch under incredible strain, and they've been up, down, and pretty much all around ever since. But that, as it turns out, is only one side of the story. That other? People being awful for no real apparent reason, of course! Developer Wollay's come under a series of apparently timed, targeted DDoS (denial of service) attacks, necessitating frequent server downtime. Details after the break.
]]>Nearly every RPS writer has given Cube World a good fawning over, so it should come as no surprise that we all tangled our hivemind connect-o-cords in a rush to download the long-awaited paid alpha. But then, while we greedily bickered over who would get to go first while the others reattached Alec to the Sustenance Matrix, the worst possible thing happened: developer Wollay disabled Cube World's shop to fix problems stemming from the initial brick avalanche of downloads. So now all we can do is wait. And wail and gnash our teeth and I guess resuscitate Alec.
]]>I have a headache and I'm tired, so I should be a right misery guts. And I was, right up until I saw the cubic camels in the latest Cube World video. The block-based RPG gets more and more winning everytime I see it, so right now it's at peak winningness. What's new since the last time Adam glared into bright colours of the blocky adventure? Classes, crafting, pets. The usual RPG bling, but presented in the loveliest package I've seen in quite some time.
]]>Every development update makes Cube World's differences from Minecraft more apparent, although it's not too far removed from what I imagined the adventure mode of Mojang's game might be - a block-based world of exploration, combat and questing. As if to prove that it's more RPG than survival sandbox, Cube World doesn't just have character classes, it has the most traditional set of character classes that the world has ever known. Are you ready for this? I'd advise holding onto any hats, sitting down if at all possible and swallowing any beverages that may be in your mouth. Cube World lets players be warriors, rangers, mages and rogues. But wait, there's more!
]]>If, for some reason, all the world's game developers suddenly decided to drop whatever else they were doing, take up gleaming blades and blood-rusted cudgels, and engage in an orchestrally-scored melee brawl for the ages, I feel like the mighty Voxel Army would win based on sheer numbers alone. These days, there are zillions of the things, and of course, no one knows why. That said, Cube World continues to intrigue me - perhaps by way of loading itself down with incredibly specific things that I like. Puppies? Sure. Monster-Hunter-esque giganto-battles? Yup. And now hang gliders, because... well, let's not question this idea, lest it become frightened and scamper back into the magical woodland from which it emerged.
]]>Just a couple of years ago saying "the graphics are a bit blocky" was a way to put down a game, but now it seems it might just as likely be an indication of indie-success. It's been almost a month since we last saw something from the cheerily blockular Cube World, but now it's back with a "Monsters" trailer. That clever title should give you some clue as to what it contains, which is some monsters. A huge blocky dino-thing gets a beating from our sword-wielding block-protagonist, and there's a strong, strong whiff of things Nintendo in there. Go take a look, this is looking really impressive.
]]>Last time I looked at Cube World, Wollay had added adorable pet dogs which officially meant that anyone doubtful of the game's potential was probably called Norman 'Pessimist-Pants' Naysay. Sure enough, it's a popular name and people started to chunner about the combat looking too simplistic for their refined tastes. Behold, a new video that shows several different weapons and their functions, as well as some grin-stretching customisation. It doesn't look deep and it doesn't look tactical; it looks like splashing about somewhat haphazardly in a shallow pool filled with something that's sugary, delicious and somehow filled with vitamins.
]]>Cube World looks more interesting every time I see it and we're well past the point now where it's necessary to mention Minecraft in the first sentence of every post about the game. Of course, I've gone and done it anyway in a gesture of shooing impatience and that probably makes me part of the problem. The solution is the latest trailer, which shows the 'improved combat' but also gives more glimpses of environments that cuboid characters will be chopping their way through. Looting and levelling seem far more important than carving and crafting, and the use of destructible scenery in the troll fight at the end seems a fantastic way to mark the aftermath of an epic clash.
]]>Since we first learned of Cube World's existence, the game's developer, Wollay, has been snapped up by Mojang, although it wasn't like a crocodile eating a zebra but rather a company hiring an employee. UPDATE: actually that didn't happen in the end, though apparently amicably. Anyway! Since then, development on the game has been continuing and there are plenty of new details and some screenshots that show a variety of environments and some nifty house construction. Prepare a pickaxe, for information and images await below.
]]>Another cuboid/voxel/block post! The blue birds of Twitter inform me that Mojang have hired Wollay, the chap working on Cube World. Notch claims that: "Our current plan is to plug his brain directly to a keyboard and sell whatever comes out." Quests and other RPG features perhaps? There's no word from Wollay himself yet (edit: he is 'so excited'!) but Notch assures that development on Cube World will continue and it will remain an independent game. This potential centralisation of talent vaguely reminds me of Valve casting their sights on Turtle Rock and Nuclear Monkey. Let's hope for good results and that the keyboard-brain interface doesn't cause infections.
]]>I've just come up with this amazing idea for a game! Ready? So, you have this procedurally generated world, entirely made of cubes. And you can hit them with tools, and build them. And there are mines. And crafting... Oh, but I'm being a cynical one. It's not as if Minecraft was the first to do it. And Cube World is doing something pretty different. And something pretty. The gorgeous-looking cuboid game is primarily an RPG, and with that in mind developer Wollay has just added quests, which he proves in the video below.
]]>The steely vigilance of Pixel Prospector has brought our attention to forthcoming voxel-RPG, Cube World. The creator of the game explains: "Cube World is (or will be) a 3D Voxel-Based game with a focus on exploration an RPG elements. The world is procedurally generated and features cave systems and basic procedural buildings." It's remarkable cute, as you can see in the footage below.
Interestingly, it's only been in development for a few weeks.
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