FOSS gamedev and creative worlds

ABJ wrote:I seriously doubt Kenney will release the sauce.

The game will be completely open source, not only to comply with the Minetest license rules but also to allow modding and make the game suitable for educational use.

I know that! I just wasn't sure you'd release the sauce as well.

Minetest has tomatoes, but no sauce. Will VoXus correct this hole?

Guys, are you forgetting the awesome sauce? This game looks to exude it.

Kenney wrote:Planning to release the previously drawn textures and items to the public domain, so they can be used in other projects.

Please choose a license like CC0 or WTFPL. The concept of Public Domain does not exist in all countries, so the work would default back to all rights reserved in those countries.

lightonflux wrote:Please choose a license like CC0 or WTFPL. The concept of Public Domain does not exist in all countries, so the work would default back to all rights reserved in those countries.

Oh yeah absolutely CC0, just like all the other game assets I've released.

Kenney wrote:

lightonflux wrote:Please choose a license like CC0 or WTFPL. The concept of Public Domain does not exist in all countries, so the work would default back to all rights reserved in those countries.

Oh yeah absolutely CC0, just like all the other game assets I've released.

Wait... wait. You are the creator of that famous Public Domain sprite pack on OpenGameArt? I saw those in your avatar, but it didn't hit me that you are that Kenney. Wonderful work on them! Also great to see that such a good artist found Minetest and is making their own game with the engine... now I am even more intrigued in the Voxus project!

MirceaKitsune wrote:Wait... wait. You are the creator of that famous Public Domain sprite pack on OpenGameArt?

Yep! That's what currently funds my whole company hah!

Progress update:

Changed the visual style of trees, they look like actual trees now.
Also improved some textures here and there and made all textures a bit more colorful.

this looks so amazing!

I really love the way this looks... very beautiful and clean! Can't wait for a download to become available.

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staticvoid wrote:this looks so amazing!

MirceaKitsune wrote:I really love the way this looks... very beautiful and clean! Can't wait for a download to become available.

Thanks!

Rui wrote:Mod of the "default" of Voxus have a compatible with mod of "default" of minetest_game?

Not sure what you're trying to say there, but Voxus is a subgame. It will in theory be compatible with all mods that Minetest(_game) has.

Kenney wrote:

Rui wrote:Mod of the "default" of Voxus have a compatible with mod of "default" of minetest_game?

Not sure what you're trying to say there, but Voxus is a subgame. It will in theory be compatible with all mods that Minetest(_game) has.

I think what Rui is talking about is how most Minetest games use the "default" mod which contains things like wood, apples, water, and other basic nodes. Most mods for Minetest depend on the default mod for different things such as crafting recipes and functions.

If Voxus does not use the "default" mod or changes it to a notable degree, then it will not be compatible with many other Minetest mods that depend on it. See Big Freakin Dig for an example of a subgame that breaks such compatibility. (https://forum.minetest.net/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=9036)

So Rui appears to be asking whether Voxus will be using the un-modified "default" mod or not.

Ah right gotcha! Nope, all default items and nodes will be removed and thus Voxus won't use default.

Then I suggest that you add in aliases so that people can convert default stuff to Voxus things. Like if I wanted to use my castle mod, I would want to craft, and a lot of the crafts would require default items. So, I would use the item you aliased in place of the original.

philipbenr wrote:Then I suggest that you add in aliases so that people can convert default stuff to Voxus things. Like if I wanted to use my castle mod, I would want to craft, and a lot of the crafts would require default items. So, I would use the item you aliased in place of the original.

Good call, will definitely do that :)

nice subgame!

This subgame looks so good I can't believe my eyes anymore

Sad news today for those excited to see Voxus in Minetest.

I've decided to switch engines and continue developing Voxus using Unity and Voxelmetric. There are a few reasons why I've decided to switch;

First and foremost; I'd like to have total creative freedom on how the game looks and acts. Currently, Minetest offers very little in this regard. Without diving into the source files, there's no way to properly change the skybox, add visual effects or change the way the game behaves. I'm sure these features get added to Minetest in the future, but as it stands right now it's just not usable for this project.

Second is the fact that Unity supports multiple platforms out of the box. With very little work the project can be exported to Android, iOS and game consoles like Wii U. Especially Wii U is important, my company has recently gained permission to purchase a development kit and I'd love to check that out.

The performance of Minetest is often lacking and I think that in combination with a modern framework and engine a lot of issues can be solved in regards to this.

I hope you guys understand my decision to do this and continue supporting this project, I won't be updating this thread with progress anymore because well, it's not Minetest anymore.

Here's a screenshot of Voxus running on the new engine.



You can follow me on Twitter to keep up-to-date with progress.

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Yeah Unity3D is an solid engine if you know what you doing.
But Looks still great. I just hope it still will be as fun and playable and Free like your promised could say..

But, do add a Minetest Easter Egg would make it remember minetest was the start.
And, just maybe you could add this outstanding game on "Xbox one" someday.
Also I might use your idea of having somewhat, the crafting layout like craft an block with an upgrade but we will see.
Also going follow you right now ;)

Kenney wrote:Sad news today for those excited to see Voxus in Minetest.

I've decided to switch engines and continue developing Voxus using Unity and Voxelmetric. There are a few reasons why I've decided to switch;

First and foremost; I'd like to have total creative freedom on how the game looks and acts. Currently, Minetest offers very little in this regard. Without diving into the source files, there's no way to properly change the skybox, add visual effects or change the way the game behaves. I'm sure these features get added to Minetest in the future, but as it stands right now it's just not usable for this project.

Second is the fact that Unity supports multiple platforms out of the box. With very little work the project can be exported to Android, iOS and game consoles like Wii U. Especially Wii U is important, my company has recently gained permission to purchase a development kit and I'd love to check that out.

The performance of Minetest is often lacking and I think that in combination with a modern framework and engine a lot of issues can be solved in regards to this.

I hope you guys understand my decision to do this and continue supporting this project, I won't be updating this thread with progress anymore because well, it's not Minetest anymore.

Here's a screenshot of Voxus running on the new engine.



You can follow me on Twitter to keep up-to-date with progress.

Rui wrote:Will you release UFO Race?
And, will you publish the source code of Voxus (Minetest based)?

UFO Race will be released, the source code of Voxus (Minetest) won't be. There's nothing much to look at regarding the source and most code snippets are either only catered to Minetest or half-implemented.

Alt. Tester wrote:Yeah Unity3D is an solid engine if you know what you doing.

Worked with Unity before and yep, it's just really good. I like the workflow better than Unreal, which was a second option.

Alt. Tester wrote:I just hope it still will be as fun and playable and Free like your promised could say..

Yep, it'll still be free.

Alt. Tester wrote:But, do add a Minetest Easter Egg would make it remember minetest was the start.

I'll consider adding something :)

Alt. Tester wrote:And, just maybe you could add this outstanding game on "Xbox one" someday.

Xbox One and PlayStation 4 are currently not really planned, but hey, who knows.

Alt. Tester wrote:Also I might use your idea of having somewhat, the crafting layout like craft an block with an upgrade but we will see.

Go right ahead! :D

You have cleverly promoted your company here and there anyhow :)

I hope you'll be not ungrateful in contributing - at least one time - to Minetest as much as all the help and the care you got... Privatising the sources and the assets of VoXus is not a good start. Releasing on Steam near an assorted set of purchasable products, neither.

Also I pass over the probable attempt to subtract some of our devs to your service and the non-collaborative spirit in PM.

Good luck ! :)

How can Voxus be itself free software if its game engine (Unity) isn't?

I thought this might happen. It is a major falling of the Minetest project. A game engine which doesn't really work that well as a game engine. Minetest as an idea has potential, but the implementation doesn't really work.

This was the most exciting project I've seen with Minetest in a while, and I'm sad that I'll never see it running in Minetest myself.

Will you still be offering bounties, or are those cancelled as well?

Wuzzy wrote:How can Voxus be itself free software if its game engine (Unity) isn't?

I imagine it will be open source, rather than free.

That's very sad to hear.
Could you provide us the current Voxus version for Minetest?
I think there are some people here who would like to help.

JP; This isn't about promoting my company, at all. I decided to use Minetest because it seems like it was a decent choice for the game I had in mind, in the end it isn't as flexible as I hoped it would be and thus decided to go with a different engine. In my quest to create Voxus on Minetest I did everything that was possible to adhere to the license Minetest has and (with the bounties) tried to contribute to Minetest in the way I thought was the best option.

I'm not sure what damage releasing a game for free on Steam has and I do not share the source of Voxus (Minetest) simply because, in my opinion, there's really no good in sharing them - as stated above.

Also, I'm not sure what PM or messaging you're referring to.

Wuzzy wrote:How can Voxus be itself free software if its game engine (Unity) isn't?

The game will be free, will be looking into ways to share the source files (Voxelmetric is obviously open source). Unity is free to use, a pro version is only required when either sales are made or if you want to get rid of the splashscreen.

rubenwardy wrote:This was the most exciting project I've seen with Minetest in a while, and I'm sad that I'll never see it running in Minetest myself.

It was possibly too exciting for Minetest in general, while it's a fantastic engine to create mods and small subgames it's nowhere near possible to create anything that differs a bit from the original formula.

rubenwardy wrote:Will you still be offering bounties, or are those cancelled as well?

Bounties are still up, I'd still love to support Minetest.

Krock wrote:That's very sad to hear.
Could you provide us the current Voxus version for Minetest?
I think there are some people here who would like to help.

As stated above, I don't think the source of Voxus does any good at this point. Most of the code is incomplete, flawed or generally just doesn't make much sense to use outside of Voxus. I am willing to share snippets here and there though for people who want to know how I did stuff.

I find this partly funny and partly sad. Of course, you have to use whichever engine you consider is best. But I honestly don't think Minetest is so bad that developers have to switch away from it, especially at such a late stage. More so to one based on Unity, which is not (fully) open-source from what I know... meaning your game can't be FOSS to the same extent.

One suggestion however: You might consider developing the game for both engines. Things are easy and quick to do under Lua in Minetest, so it shouldn't be hard. If not, you can hopefully release the media (textures, sounds, etc) and another developer could do it instead. That might make people who expected the game for MT happy as well.

MirceaKitsune wrote:I find this partly funny and partly sad. Of course, you have to use whichever engine you consider is best. But I honestly don't think Minetest is so bad that developers have to switch away from it, especially at such a late stage.

Well the problem is that Voxus wasn't very far in development at all. While it seems that it was pretty much done, all the features that aren't Minetest' own still had to be done. Think the crafting book (instead of the regular crafting system), the extended creative mode, any kind of monsters, environmental effects etc. - there's a really long list of features that I think are important for the game that haven't even been shared yet. So yeah, Minetest is great for Voxus at this point - but going any further would prove much difficulty.

Edit: Also, it's very difficulty to find people who can add to the existing code of Minetest. It's really complex and the fact that it's C++ doesn't help. The amount of people that are fluent in C# or JavaScript and have experience working with Unity is far, far larger.