Hello,

I've had an idea for a game, but I have no idea wether its possible or not at this stage.

I want to create a sandbox game similar to Minecraft where you have to harvest materials from the space around you. I've found hex voxel creations that look like minecraft.. but no spherical world as of yet. I want it to be possible to mine right through a planet to the other side. It doesn't have to be strictly hex-based, but I found map structures (2D around a sphere) that were hex based (with 12 pentagons) and thats the closest I've got to so far.

Any pointers in the right direction would be greatly appreciated.

So far, I've designed a character in blender and created some 3d hexagonal tiles (examples attached).

I've got 10 weeks to work the whole project out. This is an illustration project so ideally I'd like to have the basics figured out within a couple of weeks so I have time to do what I'm actually supposed to be doing.

Thanks for your time :)

If you want to be able to mine through the planet, you need an actual 3D tessellation. It looks like this discussion is relevant: http://gamedev.stackexchange.com/questions/18608/is-there-a-3d-equivalent-of-hex-tile-maps

Someone in that thread suggested using rhombic dodecahedrons, which seems like the natural choice to me.

Wow, that is such a great leap in the right direction! Thanks for sharing!

1. I've had an idea for a game, but I have no idea wether its possible or not at this stage.
2. I want to create a sandbox game similar to Minecraft... I've got 10 weeks to work the whole project out.
3. ...supposed to be doing.

1. Anything is possible.
2. Minecraft in 10 weeks? Hmm... tricky.
3. So this is a student project, then? I'm sure your professor has warned you about scope. You should probably see what you can do to scale it down a lot.

I realise that this is a very ambitious project. I want to take this idea and run as far as I can with it. The final outcome for the unit will probably just be a demo video/animation. But I'd like to genuinely try to do the real thing.

I won't be creating nearly as many types of blocks or functions as Minecraft has. Very simply, you would be able to take away blocks, and put them back somewhere else. Anything more than that would be a bonus, but is probably for another day.

I haven't yet had the chance to speak with a tutor about this (have to wait until Friday for that) but I thought I'd do a bit of research (hence why I'm here) to back myself up. This unit is all about experimentation and creating a screen-based outcome.

Thanks for your concern :)

Wow, that is such a great leap in the right direction! Thanks for sharing!

Also indicate this by upvoting the poster (Alvaro). That's what the upvote button is for i.e. "This post provides useful information to the conversation... "

Spherical minecraft-like terrain is actually a pretty common thing. For example, take a look at this Unity plugin.

I had an idea like this a while ago but I thought instead of actually using volumetric spherical objects, it would be interesting to render the whole game as Vector Balls like in the 90s damoscene.

I had an idea like this a while ago but I thought instead of actually using volumetric spherical objects, it would be interesting to render the whole game as Vector Balls like in the 90s damoscene.

I came into this thread because I thought that was what OP was talking about, but I was disappointed.

I wanted to know how all the balls were going to fit together.

Incidentally though, there are some tricks that can be used to draw large numbers of spheres very quickly, given certain guarantees about lighting and etc...