Planets³ reaches Kickstarter goal. Prepare for open world voxel adventuring

Developer Cubical Drift has been busy raising funds for Planets³ for a few weeks now and this evening they’ve reached their goal of $250k.

Planets³ is the latest game inviting players to get creative in a voxel based open world featuring role playing and construction style gameplay. This game is not just about building blocks though, there’s actually a story which unfolds as players build their world and then venture into open space on a starship. A starship which players can build.

The odd looking cubic planets are made up of thousands of blocks and are about 8km square in size. The different layered zones on the planets also unlock the story so there’s an incentive to undertake tasks and explore every inch of it. Exploring dungeons, working with the natives and unlocking crafting abilities is what makes Planets³ an interesting prospect. The game promises a lot more than just building objects out of blocks.

Some of the feature players can expect now that it’s actually going into full production include:

• In Planets every player will be able to create his own server and invite friends to it.
• Characters will have different statistics that can improve and level up with actions within the game. For example, your “power” can be improved by using heavy tools and weapons, and your “vigor” will be increased by exerting yourself when tired.
• Storylines will be playable in multi-player and all the progression will be stored on the server.
• New armour, including armour specific to female characters.
• Taming of certain wild animals, to become pets, will be possible.
• KickStarter backers also have the possibility to have exclusive pets with specific and unique skill sets.

We’ve taken an early look at a tech Alpha for Planets³ and we’ve moved about on the planets and tried out some of the basic build tools. It’s very early days but Planets³ sounds like a solid addition to the highly popular building genre. Cubical Drift’s game is an ambitious but interesting sand-box game which and we’ll hopefully have more hands-on time with in the future.

Even though the Kickstarter goal has now been reached you still have time to show your support before the clock hits  zero. The game is expected to be released next year.