Someone examine if hell’s frozen over, as a result of 2010s voxel RPG Dice World is again

Is that this actual life? 12 years in the past, in a really totally different PC gaming atmosphere where voxels have been simply changing into the fashion du jour, a solo indie challenge referred to as Dice World made a hell of a splash. Minecraft-like, however with extra of an RPG bent, the event movies posted to YouTube pulled in tens and even lots of of hundreds of views. It was progressing slowly however steadily till 2014, solely to go silent for 5 years. When it abruptly returned and launched, properly, Dice World turned out to be… fairly unhealthy.

That anticlimax appeared destined to be the tip of Dice World’s story, however right here we’re whiplashing again to the early 2000s once more. Dice World’s again, with a brand new trailer and a brand new web site, where developer Wolfram von Funck briefly described its return. It actually appears to be in the identical spirit Dice World at all times was, with an emphasis on utilizing procedural era to create selection.

“The largest change I’m engaged on is procedural fashions,” says von Funck. “All creatures on the planet, together with gamers, NPCs, pets, are actually procedurally generated in order that mainly every creature is exclusive. No a part of a personality is hand-modeled, neither hair, face nor palms—every thing is generated by an algorithm.”

This new model of the game, which he is referred to as Dice World Omega, is constructed on a brand new Vulkan graphics engine. The title might sound a bit braggadocious on its face, however it’s truly a reference to Dice World’s alpha, which is a little bit of a sore spot for people who adopted the game a few years in the past. Earlier than he took that 5 yr break, von Funck launched an alpha model of Dice World that had some RPG fundamentals already working, together with character leveling and talent timber. When it returned, the discharge model had surprisingly stripped these options out. It was not the kind of RPG individuals had been following and dreaming of taking part in for thus lengthy.

It looks as if von Funck hasn’t fairly given up on that unique thought both. “I selected the challenge title Dice World Omega as a reference to Dice World Alpha, as a result of I’d wish to develop it within the spirit of that model, however with a brand new engine and new options,” he says. 

The factor that basically makes my head spin is that this new put up makes no point out of a launch date or how a lot of the work has already been completed. It is nebulous however promising, identical to Dice World was so way back in 2011. However this time, Dragon Quest Builders 2 already exists, and it is kinda the entire bundle that Dice World at all times wished to be.