Craftfind: Searching for the next Minecraft

[Amaxter]

In the wake of Minecraft, what new voxel games will become the next cultural sensation? Maybe none, but in this thread we will explore the best of Steam Greenlight and various other gaming distribution platforms to find some fun stuff to occupy your time! So if you're bored or occasionally get that itch for a blocky inspired game, bookmark this thread and begin your journey! If you find any good games, don't hesitate to let me know and they will be added to this thread (providing links to the games sites/Steam pages is encouraged).

 

Planets Cubed

A sci-fi adventure game with a really vibrant voxel art style and some cool looking weapons and vehicles. Oh, and it has intergalactic exploration too.

Platform(s): 

Release Status: Alpha shortly

 

 

No Man's Sky

An ambitious multiplayer style procedurally generated space exploration game in the works, looks to be very ambitious, keep an eye out for this one!

Platform(s):     

Release Status: 2015

 

 

Timber and Stone

Strategy/building game with a voxel/cube art style, recommended if you like Dungeon Keeper/Civilization and want a Minecraft-aesthetic.

Platform(s):  

Release Status: Early Access

 

 

Space Engineers

 A sci fi slightly realistic space themed game that involves mining asteroids and building space stations, has been around for a little while now.

Platform(s): 

Release Status: Early Access on Steam

 

 

Trove

 An MMORPG from the developers of Rift that has neat building aspects and a Cube World inspired art style, this is as close to triple A as it gets for these types of games.

Platform(s): 

Release Status: Open Beta

 

 

 

Castle Story

 Voxel based building game with elements of tower defense and a very cartoony art style. Lukewarm reviews however.

Platform(s):     

Release Status: Released on Steam

 

 

Mythruna

 A "role crafting" game, intending to add serious RPG elements to the Minecraft formula. Great for nostalgia.

Platform(s):     

Release Status: Playable In Dev

 

 

Minetest

 Very similar to Minecraft this game has been in development for quite some time (since 2010). It's free, open source, but as a game is a bit lacking at the moment. Promising stuff however.

Platform(s):       

Release Status: Playable In Dev

 

 

Sticks & Starships

Imagine Starmade and Tekkit had a baby. Imagine this child also could ride narwhals. Now you have Sticks & Starships.

Platform(s):  

Release Status: Kickstarter Campaign Soon, Unplayable ATM

 

 

One Last Day

A procedurally generated zombie apocalypse game with crafting mechanics, and some neat survival mechanics. Not super original, but looks somewhat fun.

Platform(s): 

Release Status: Early Access on Steam

 

 

Portal Knights

3D Crafting and combat wrapped up in a slick art style. Lots of Minecraft style mechanics overall but promising looking exploration.

Platform(s):

Release Status: Early Access on Steam

 

Edited February 15, 2016 by Amaxter

[Munaus]

Timber & Stone

a nice little strategy and building game. You start with a party (6-8, can't remember) and assign them tasks to collect resources to build your empire while defending yourself from mobs like spiders that climb walls, wolves that hunt in packs, goblins that chop trees down and skeletons that wander aimlessly until a Necromancer calls them to his side.

 

The game is still on beta last I looked, but it was challenging and fun to play! I got a bit bored when I noticed there wasn't much endgame content yet.

The dev has a small team dedicated to it, they seemed focused on community feedback and fixing bugs before adding more content too soon

 

edit. oh! another reason to like this game: remember Dungeon Keeper, where you could "possess" your minion and become him?

Same feature on Timber & Stone, you can jump inside one of your warriors/workers and see the world through his eyes.

Now that's cool!

Edited September 1, 2014 by Munaus

[Lethosos]

Space Engineers. No one can hear you scream in space because you're short of building components and the minerals you need are nowhere on the asteroid you've built your glorious DeathStar 2.0 around.

[Amaxter]

Timber & Stone

a nice little strategy and building game. You start with a party (6-8, can't remember) and assign them tasks to collect resources to build your empire while defending yourself from mobs like spiders that climb walls, wolves that hunt in packs, goblins that chop trees down and skeletons that wander aimlessly until a Necromancer calls them to his side.

 

The game is still on beta last I looked, but it was challenging and fun to play! I got a bit bored when I noticed there wasn't much endgame content yet.

The dev has a small team dedicated to it, they seemed focused on community feedback and fixing bugs before adding more content too soon

 

edit. oh! another reason to like this game: remember Dungeon Keeper, where you could "possess" your minion and become him?

Same feature on Timber & Stone, you can jump inside one of your warriors/workers and see the world through his eyes.

Now that's cool!

 

 

Space Engineers. No one can hear you scream in space because you're short of building components and the minerals you need are nowhere on the asteroid you've built your glorious DeathStar 2.0 around.

Haven't heard of Timber & Stone (will try it out when I get the chance), would get Space Engineers if it had OS X compatibility but both those games sound awesome and I've added them to the list! 

 

Also my research has turned up Trove, which is an awesome MMORPG with a voxel art style and building components made by Trion Worlds, the developers of Rift!

[Lethosos]

A nascent modding community has grown up around Space Engineers now; quite a few who want to improve the basic models and such beyond what the game has to offer. Perhaps someday I'll throw up a link to what I've cherry-picked as useful and interesting mods for improving the basic gameplay.

[Munaus]

Castle Story

another building / strategy game by clicking your units and assigning them tasks like gathering resources and so on. Monsters come out at night and yaddi yaddi...

 

I don't think this game is anything to hold your breath for, it has been on beta for 2 years now. It's been moving quite slowly...

But it has some interesting features:

Siege weapons? Check

Towers and castle walls you build can be sieged by monsters and break apart realistically? Check

Your units are yellow smurfs with no clothes? Check

You start in plots of land floating in the air? Check

[Kalbintion]

No Cube World on this list? I'm saddened by not having Cube World on this list even with its last update being over a year ago ("2" man team...but hey, w.e)

[TheBytemaster]

Would Dwarf Fortress count on this list?

[Mooseman9]

I would not recommend getting Starbound. Chucklefish has basically taken the money and ran.

[Amaxter]

Would Dwarf Fortress count on this list?

Dwarf Fortress has Minecraft aspects but I think it being singe player only and top down make it quite a bit different from Minecraft. Also while still fun it's a relatively old game and this list is mainly focused on new or upcoming games.

Edited September 6, 2014 by Amaxter

[Amaxter]

I would not recommend getting Starbound. Chucklefish has basically taken the money and ran.

Haven't played Starboard in a while and had no idea the game's development had lost so much hope. A quick look at the recent Steam reviews tells me all I need to know. It's a shame, because it was such a promising game. Ah well, removed from the list. 

[planetguy]

Minetest? It's open-source, cross-platform and has a modding API.

 

Mythruna looks kind of neat too, for more the RPG feel. It's not especially complete though.

Edited September 12, 2014 by planetguy

[Neowulf]

Hrm, I kept thinking infiniminer whenever someone mentioned minetest, which was stupid of me.

 

That looks like it has the capability of replacing minecraft should something happen (like say MS buys mojang and guts non-console minecraft as a way to push xbox sales).

 

 

I'm going to have to take a look at it this weekend. The LUA modding API looks like fun times and has built in drama deterrence.

[planetguy]

Edit: Never mind.

Edited September 12, 2014 by planetguy

[Neowulf]

Edit: Never mind.

Aww, I JUST got off work and was about to try it...

[planetguy]

Aww, I JUST got off work and was about to try it...

Sorry, I'll put it back up if you want.

 

Edit: It's up.

Edited September 13, 2014 by planetguy

[Amaxter]

Added Mintest and Mythruna. Great suggestions Neofwulf and planetguy! Will have to take a look at Minetest, to me that's the most promising item currently on the list.

[Munaus]

I forgot to mention this thread, which the user posted here not too long ago: '?do=embed' frameborder='0' data-embedContent>>

 

The sheer amount of features is staggering on this one! Riding narwhals....

 

Edit. finally found the bloody kickstarter page for this, which has more added info on creatures and stuff

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1330693854/2116055803?token=4ef540e1

Edited September 14, 2014 by Munaus

[Amaxter]

I forgot to mention this thread, which the user posted here not too long ago: '?do=embed' frameborder='0' data-embedContent>>

 

The sheer amount of features is staggering on this one! Riding narwhals....

Damn, that looks impressive. Cannot wait for this to be playable

[Neowulf]

Sorry, I'll put it back up if you want.

 

Edit: It's up.

IP?

[Amaxter]

IP?

What are you guys talking about?

[planetguy]

Minetest server I set up. The IP is 99.108.142.147 on port 25565.

[Neowulf]

Won't let me connect for some reason. Even let it sit for like 4 hours at connecting.

Won't let me do anything but the minimal test world anyway so ah well.

 

 

Looks not too bad. Starts up instantly and I have no clue how deep it goes. Dug down over 500 blocks and still saw caverns below through a block face glitch. Minetest with the mods minecraft has would be pretty darn epic.

[planetguy]

I'm having trouble getting port forwarding to work with Minetest. Want to try Hamachi? (Network name Craftfind, password Technic)

 

It will hopefully download the game type automatically, but if it doesn't or you want to try it on singleplayer, this is it.

[Neowulf]

I'm having trouble getting port forwarding to work with Minetest. Want to try Hamachi? (Network name Craftfind, password Technic)

 

It will hopefully download the game type automatically, but if it doesn't or you want to try it on singleplayer, this is it.

Couldn't get it to work, even with hamachi. But single player did start working after getting those mods in, and it's definitely a good start.

 

 

From the "MS bought MC" thread: http://terasology.org/

So far it looks good and is further along than minetest, but the basic shaders are way too much for an MC replacement and would need to be modded back (real water and lighting effects). I do like the roadmap for it, with them planning unit recruitment, kinda like some MC mods.