How did this start?

I'm curious how this project got started and have lots of questions for whoever is in charge here

What is the story of why this project was started and how long have you guys been working on this? Who all is involved in your project? Based on the posts I see, I'm guessing it is s33m3 and Slaihne working together? It seems like you guys have been working on it for a while based on the timestamps I see here - is this just a hobby that you do in your spare time? How much time does this take to do? Maybe you already know how to do this if it's what you do for your day job as well?

I'd also be curious about where you plan to take this thing. How are you going to make this different from Minecraft? Are you trying to make money like how Notch is? When will you start charging for it? Do you plan to give any benefit to those who helped you test it along the way? I can't imagine you working on it for this long and not getting paid, that must have been a lot of work.

Thanks for satisfying my curiosity!

Hi there,

I started this after seeing Minecraft and falling in love with 2 main concepts; fully destructible / buildable world and the procedural generation of the world.
I also love playing Tower Defence games and thought i could combine that and these two concepts.

I've been working on it solo for over a year now. It's a spare time project (my dayjob is writing business stuff in SQL server and VB.net). It take just about all my spare time but i'm enjoying the experience and have learnt loads about .Net optimisation and Directx as well as gaining lots of experience in computer graphics design and handling. It's also saved me a fortune in games since i haven't been able to find the time to play one since i started

My goals are firstly to produce a high quality block based engine along the lines of Minecraft, and secondly to use that engine to produce a game incorporating first person tower defence style gameplay but with greater scope. I'm not charging anything at the moment but when i actually get the game part going i intend to charge.

Oh, i think S33m3 is working on his own engine, Utopia. There are a couple of videos on YouTube of it and he mentions it in the forums somewhere