Voxel vs. Vector world for a social MiniScript MMO?

jstrout

I've started to ponder what my next big MiniScript project might be once Mini Micro is done. And I've been thinking perhaps a social MMO. This would be an online "game" that's not really a game at all; there's no score, no XP, no objective... it's just a place to hang out and chat and goof around with other users. You'd be able to build your own part of the world, and create new objects/behaviors/tools/mini-games by coding them up in MiniScript.

My initial thought was to use a voxel engine (see here for one I built a few years back that was regrettably canceled — but the voxel engine itself worked fine). This would look and work rather like Minecraft and similar block-based games, although I would probably set the scale to 1 block = 0.5 m, for reasons I can elaborate on if you like.

But I'm also considering a completely different approach. This would be more of a Tron/Battlezone aesthetic, where the world is composed mainly of geometric shapes rendered with bold, glowy edge lines, and favoring dark, glassy textures on the faces. Instead of digging and placing blocks, you'd build your space by drawing and extruding polygons, or combining shape primitives.

Anybody have any feedback on these ideas? If it sounds like a place you might spend some time, which approach is more appealing? Or is there another approach entirely I should consider? (Keeping in mind that a key part of the concept is that users build & create their environment and objects online, so it needs to be something conducive to that.)

Thanks,
Joe

SynapticBytes

I'm not a Minecraft fan as I suffer from bad motion sickness with 1st person games, and the bouncy bouncy of MineCraft was the worst. I couldn't even watch my kids play for more than a minute without having to leave the room.

But that's my physical issue, no the concept's. Still, MineCraft was always too grindy for me. Way back when social was a new thing, I was a Second Life player (although briefly. I can't remember why I stopped playing - maybe there was a cost involved?). I loved their idea of player created content with both player created design (people ran things like clothes shops where they created the actual clothes) and player generated content (you could building working machines/vehicles/scripted actions. I had started designing my own "pets" which had both a collectible perspective, as you could get them in unique styles, and also frankenstein your own custom style, plus they were also a Handyman, designed to provide utilitarian functionality for working int eh work, sort of like a butler.

Secondlife was literally a sandbox world where you can make just about anything, and was all about social interaction, rather than minecraft, where you're really just interacting with an existing world within the limited scope of what it allows to me modified (also Java, just as bad as javaScript).

From an originality point of view, I think voxel engines are too ingrained into culture to be anything more than "minecraft clones" these days, plus I'm yet to see a voxel engine that doesn't suffer performance issues in large worlds. I like your idea of a Tron aesthetic (as a hug Tron fan) although it could run the risk of being too retro if not given a modern take. What that would be I'm not too sure.

Russell.

jstrout

Thanks for that feedback. Voxel worlds are tempting because they're easy. But I'm leaning towards the Tron-like world too.

But it was suggested on the Unity forums that actually doing the classic Tron aesthetic might be offputting to some users. We might want a brighter, more friendly and inviting look, at least for the initial public spaces. But I would be sure to include texture options for a more Tron-ish look, in places where that is wanted.

And yeah... I guess this concept amounts to a modern Second Life. I'll have to think about what makes this different, besides the fact that it uses MiniScript. That alone is probably not enough to make such a big project worthwhile.

WorldLover

Well, i've also played Minecraft and i really like building with blocks. But it might be very interesting building with other forms, so maybe i would vote in the Tron aesthetic.