Voxels, Strategy & Crafting: Castle Story

Games containing blocks for building with have been around since at least the construction of the Great Pyramid of Giza, a process which historians inform me probably resembled a shoddy session of Tetris LARPing. Nowadays, Minecraft is all the rage but it's not the only bright young thing on the block scene. Yesterday, John brought news of Cube World, a spiffy looking cuboid RPG, and today I would like to draw your attention to Castle Story, which looks a bit Minecraft at first, though with voxels for added smoothness, and then turns out to be an RTS of sorts. Fervent anticipation is upon me! Video below.

It's a long video so I'll forgive you if you didn't watch the whole thing. But do go back and watch the end if you didn't get that far because it's always good to see a bit of destruction to go with all the construction.

I used to have a Lego castle when I was a youngster and this reminds me of it so much that I'm having a nostalgia rush, which is like a sugar rush except in sepia tones and with more corduroy dungarees that my mother inexplicably dressed me in when I was a tiny person.

No idea on how close it is to being done yet, or whether we'll have to wait for it to be done to play it, but it's a terrific prospect. There's a brief mention of defending against creatures and other players, and that along with the promise of a world full of threat and mystery tells us that the game will be more than just the construction kit the video makes it out to be. The website doesn't contain much yet but it does have lovable images of armed Bricktrons ready to fight for their lives.

Castle Story is the first new game that I shall be observing by means of a spyglass each morning throughout 2012. Now, let's all pile enormous amounts of hype and expectation on the two fellows making it so that they feel as if they have failed at everything ever if their game doesn't become bigger than Minecraft by February 2nd. Go go go!