Voxatron preview

Minecraft may be THE indie game of the moment, especially given the release of its 1.0 build, but today we'd like to direct your attention to another title that abuses voxels to offer gameplay that's both fun and simple, Voxatron.

Currently in an alpha stage (the latest version is 0.1.6), Voxatron is an action/adventure game that has picked up steam recently by being the highlight of a Humble Bundle that sold 172,270 copies.

According to its developer, Lexaloffle Games, Voxatron is ‘an open playground for various styles of voxel-based gameplay’ but what the player will see is a virtual world that measures 128 by 128 by 64 voxels and is populated by monsters that need to be defeated. The use of voxels allows the game world to be highly destructible but also immensely customizable, the latter being possible through the built-in editor.

There’s no need to rush into creating your own levels though as Voxatron offers three game modes that can keep you busy for many days and nights. First up there’s an adventure mode which requires players to advance through a series of pre-designed levels, killing everything that moves. The array of enemies includes grunts, gremlins, the minotaur-like ‘Butamon’, a Stiltman, snails, an alien and even a dragon, so there’s quite a bit of variety. To help gamers survive these hordes of monsters chasing after them, Voxatron offers multiple items, from health packs and bombs, to weapon upgrades (triple shot, build, blaster, freeze) and the ultimate goodies, the Sword of Fortune. There are also apples, chocolate, sushi and a bonus multiplier but those only boost the score so they aren’t ‘vital’ things unless you are going for a high score.

Speaking of high scores, they can be main goal for the second singleplayer mode which is called Arcade. Here the player is simply thrown into a voxel arena to face seemingly-endless waves of baddies. The point of the Arcade mode is to stay alive for as long as possible while the game thrown increasingly powerful enemies to terminate your voxel-y self. A playback option is available after death so you relive the action while planning for the next run.

The third and final mode is called BBS (Bulletin Board System) Levels and it includes a high number (a few hundred) of user-made maps, some unfinished, some really-well polished, but all full of potential. As you’d expect there are some levels that take inspiration from the gaming and comic book lore so expect to see Mario, Spider-man, Zelda, Ash from the Pokemon cartoons, and other colorful characters. For people tired of the still in-the-works adventure mode and of arcade games, the BBS Levels should be a constantly-updating source of extra content. They are easy to update, they’re free, the only issue may be with finding the best ones available. A rating system is in plan but you’ll have to wait for a future update to get it.