Planets3 Gets Name Change, Early Access Date

Planets³ is getting a new name and an early access Steam release date. The Kickstarted voxel-y, build-y, explore-y game will now be known as Stellar Overload [official site] and will be coming to early access on October 12th.

"Stellar Overload is a futuristic adventure game set on cubical planets which centers around a block-thrower-equipped, jetpack-wearing hero who fights evil in open and procedural voxel worlds. Combining clean FPS gameplay with unlimited construction and design phases of all kinds, the game also has a creative mode offering a sandbox experience where every cubical eccentricity imaginable is possible."

So it feels like a Minecraft-but kind of game with a story component, although on a granular level the game isn't so much cubey as it is polygonal, judging by the twisty tree trunks and squirrels and things that I've seen in some of the videos. The cubular-ness is more obvious on the planetary level, with you navigating the faces of these block worlds.

I have no idea how the game itself actually feels to play, but one neat thing I saw in a video was that one face of the planet cube might be fully lit and the next might be in shadow so the day and night seem to work differently - as you might expect given you wouldn't get a terminator in the same way that you do on a rounded planet like Earth. I think the thing I'm enjoying most is the concept art or explanations for the different types of resources because they involve pleasing presentations of shapes and colours - it's the same feeling I get when looking at the Things Organised Neatly tumblr.

I will say that I'm really not a big fan of the name change, though. Stellar Overload doesn't feel like it tells me anything about the game, while Planets³ did. The game page does explain its relevance as follows:

"Stellar Overload. It is the name of the cosmic cataclysm which caused a massive extinction in our solar system. When did it happen? Why? Even our elders have no answers. The only thing we know for sure is our every day fight since the event. United against the alien invaders and their infernal machines, we, the last survivors of the human race, have chosen our destiny. Fight, Survive and Rebuild..."

I'm now thinking of alternatives and I've decided I would have gone with Cubic Feat. It's a pun AND involves cubes AND implies you're doing something epic or cool.