After two weeks of work, I am excited to reveal Havenforge to the world!
Havenforge is, in a very brief, basic description, a “realistic” version of Minecraft. By “realistic” I mean instead of a block-based terrain, the terrain in Havenforge is smooth, just like terrain in most other games, but you can still edit the terrain like you do in Minecraft (you can make caves and add features to the terrain).
However, in Havenforge, sculpting the terrain is not the only way to create things; there is also a very flexible object placement/modification system in place.
Objects are more like the objects in Halo’s Forge system or Garry’s Mod than objects (blocks) in Minecraft. There will be a large list of pre-made objects which you can place, delete, move around, and rotate, without being constrained to a grid. The creative possibilities this and the sculptable terrain create are limitless. Though at the moment I have a very limited set of objects in the game (different sized walls, cubes, and spheres), the objects can already be used in many ways to create interesting structures.
Static objects like walls are not the only objects you will be able to create when the game is more feature-complete. There are also all sorts of dynamic, interactive objects planned to be included like teleporters, vehicles, explosives, chests, etc.At this point, you have probably realized that creation is a big part of Havenforge, but the flexible creation system is only scratching the surface of the game. I won’t go into detail just yet, but rest assured whether you play to create things, explore, kill stuff, or to just hang out with friends, Havenforge will be an enjoyable experience.In case you were wondering, Havenforge is both single player and multiplayer. At the moment multiplayer is not fully implemented, but will be in one of the upcoming updates to the public alpha (an update will be released every Sunday).
I am looking forward to hearing your thoughts and/or criticisms about Havenforge!
Sign up for a free account (it won't be free forever) here and download the game (Windows only at the moment. Don't worry, Mac support is coming soon!) here.
PLEASE KEEP IN MIND THAT THE GAME IS VERY, VERY EARLY IN DEVELOPMENT.
Known issues with the alpha:
-Occasionally the login server will stop responding, and in-game when you try to login it will sit there for a little bit and then not login or show you an error message. If that happens, just wait a bit and try again :D.
-When placing terrain, occasionally you will fall through the terrain. You SHOULD teleport above the terrain, but occasionally you will get stuck below it.
Controls
W/A/S/D: Move
Mouse: Look Around
Left Click: Primary Use of Item
Right Click: Secondary Use of Item
1-0 keys: Change active item
Shift: Sprint
Ctrl: Walk Slowly
Enter: Talk
Escape: Open pause menu
Mouse wheel (when an object is selected with the Object Editor item): Move object closer/farther away
R: (when an object is selected with the Object Editor item): Rotate object
It sounds interesting, so I will track and make an accout.
Haven't the time to try it out at the moment.
Just one quick question though.
Will the terrain be smoother in later versions?
Because this terrain isn't very smooth, but on the other hand, it is still early in development, so I hope it's because of that :)
Yes, the terrain will be smoother in the future. I cannot increase the triangle count much because that requires me to increase the voxel count of the scene by a lot, which will be hard to stream over the internet, but I can smooth out the normals of the terrain to make the drastic lighting changes from triangle to triangle go away.
Linux support?
Unfortunately, Unity does not support Linux. Sorry :(. Hopefully the Unity development team will add Linux support sometime soon.
I'll be tracking this - let us know when the Mac support exists. Until then, good luck.
Thanks for tracking! I will try to get builds for Macs as soon as I can. It's just a little hard because I don't have a Mac, or the money for one.
This looks extremely interesting!! TBH when I was reading your article I was half expecting/dreading scrolling down to the comments and seeing a punch of troll-like posts "dumb, minecraft waaaaay better" or "why you no get your own game idea?"
But I was happy to see that was not the case! The one question I have is: In the finished, or further developed, product will the terrain be randomly generated(if it isn't all ready), or would the player pick and modify(get total control over) pre-made levels?
-Keep up the great work, definitely tracking
The terrain is already randomly generated, and infinite :D. Thanks for tracking!
What happend to the website? Havenforge = dead?
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