Planets3 - Interview

I have always been the kind of person that likes to create (or build) instead of destroying stuff (mainly because of Civilization and Sim City). But i´m also a huge fan of RPG and adventure games.

I also just happen to like Minecraft. And all these elements that i just mentioned. They all exist in Cubical Drift´s 3D open-world voxel-based RPG game “Planets3”. And guess what?

We just happen to have been given the opportunity to interview the Planets3 team! So, let´s get down to business shall we =)

Robin TGG:
Would you kindly (a Bioshock joke) tell our readers a bit about Planets3, and how the Cubical Drift studio came about?

Cubical Drift:
Planets³ is a RPG with all that it is involved. There will be a storyline with a lot of quests, characters that will accompany you in your adventure; some of them will help you to progress.

And we want to bring the construction aspect in the quest: some of them will ask you to build specific structures. We created the Cubical Drift Company because we needed a legal structure to provide framework to the team.

Robin TGG:
What would you respond to those whom think/say that Planets3 are “just” another Minecraft clone?

Cubical Drift:
Whom who think/say that have not make the effort to read our entire concept. Read the entire Kickstarter page or our website, and come back to us saying it’s just another Minecraft Clone.

Robin Ek TGG:
Will it actually be possible for the players to create pretty much anything in Planets3? I mean, literally “anything”.

Cubical Drift:
We hope so!

But you will constrained by the game limits (shape of blocks, planets size) and obviously by your computer performance!

Robin Ek TGG:
Is it really true that each of the planets in Planets3 are composed of nearly 30 trillion blocks? Because that sure is a whole lot of blocks.

Cubical Drift:
It’s true! Blocks are 25cm square, planets are 8 km square. I let you use your calculator, but yes it’s about 32 768 billions of blocks. One “slice” of planet is about 1 billion of blocks.

Robin TGG:
A little bird told me that there will be side quests and secrets to be unlocked in Planets3. Are there some truth to that statement?

Cubical Drift:
It’s true. The will be a main storyline, but the planets are vast and obviously there will be much more than the specific storyline places. The side quests can be linked to a dungeon, where you could find a specific new item for example.

Robin TGG:
What´s the main goal of Planets3? And will there be an actual ending in the game? I also have to ask if there will be any PvP action parts in the game?

Cubical Drift:
The actual ending of our story will be in the second opus of the game, named “Space Enemies”. But it’s our story, what we want to do with Planets³ is to give the opportunity to the players to write their own stories. It will be a hard work to do that, but we want to open the tools we will use to create our “version” to all the players so they can do the same.

Robin TGG:
Could you tell us a little bit more about the voxel-based graphics and the “Long Distance Display Engine”. Because I find the graphics to be very beautiful in Planets3. So I would love to hear more about it.

Cubical Drift:
A lot of what you see now is concept art. You can have an idea of the current state of our development in a small part in the trailer and in the prototype video.

One of the gameplay constraints was to be able to see all the planets wherever you are in the solar system. So it was our principal technical challenge, because computer cannot handle to display billions of blocks.

It was also a constraint for the company creation. I didn’t to create the company if this challenge was not addressed. But we surpass it in summer last year! So we created the company.

A lot of work remains to be done to optimize the engine, but the hardest part is done. The more blocks we will be able to display, the more beautiful the game will be.

Robin TGG:
Will Planets3 be a game that everyone could pick up and play? Or will it just be a game for the hardcore players?

Cubical Drift:
It’s the hardest part of design, to satisfy “casual” and “hardcore” gamers. But we think we handle it. Everyone could play to Planets³ as its concept is simple. Hardcore Gamers will find then a more deep and complex craft and construction system.

And something we didn’t reveal at this time: we have in mind to create a “hardcore” mode. Not a mode that when you die it is finished. But a mode when the life will be harder, you will need to think about things you do not have to handle in the normal story version. It could be for example to handle wheel or engine wear for vehicle. To not be able to put tones of materials in your bag and so on …

Robin TGG:
Planets has now collected $50,000 out of $250,000 on Kickstarter. Do you think that you guys will be able to reach the 250K goal line, before the Kickstarter klock runs out of time?

Cubical Drift:
We think that nobody can predict what will happen. We are making a lot of effort to get more visibility, which seems to be our main problem for now. And we are listening to “backers’” comments that ask us to add a little more fun rewards.

Robin TGG:
I am also somewhat curious about the ecosystem in Planets3. I mean, what kind of enemies and hazards awaits the players?

Cubical Drift:
As the game will brings the player to visit different planets, you will find lot of diversity of wildlife and inhabitants. Some of the planets will be as our own earth, but we cannot do that for every planet, so you will have “alien” planets with a lot of unrealistic creatures.

Robin TGG:
And now for the last question. i´m a huge fan of Star Wars, Star Trek and space in general. And from what I have heard, one should be able to both build and fly starships in Planets3? And even travel between different planets?

If so, does that mean that there will be some epic space battles involved in the game?

Cubical Drift:
This is what we want to achieve in the second opus, Space Enemies.
I do not know how epic these battles will be (depends of so many constrains, our algorithms and hardware performance), but there will be space battles!

This will not be the storyline focus (the storyline will mainly happens on planets), but this will surely be players multiplayer games focus!