On paper, merging No Man's Sky and Minecraft is an easy pitch. It's no surprise, then, that a Kickstarter for a game doing just that has completely smashed its goals, earning over six times the original target.
The game is PlanetSmith, a sandbox RPG set on spherical planets that are procedurally generated. "Explore alien planets, build anything you can imagine, fight dangerous creatures, and seamlessly launch into space to continue your adventure across a living solar system," reads the blurb.
The description goes on to point out that your excavating and exploration can "reshape entire landscapes." The worlds are malleable to your desires, and they'll change as you impact their makeup. Once you're finished on one, you can hop back into your rocket to find another, with spacefaring similar to No Man's Sky's where you roam around until you find another ball of life that looks appealing.
Kenneth Ward is the main dev behind the game, operating under the pseudonym Incandescent Games having spent five years putting the project together so far. "The idea for PlanetSmith didn't start with space," he explains in a YouTube video.
"It actually started with something I found unsatisfying with Minecraft. I've always loved the feeling of exploring a new Minecraft world," he continues. "Minecraft worlds are effectively infinite, which sounds great until you realize that exploring in one direction is basically no different than starting a brand new world."
This led to the question: "What if a sandbox survival game took place on a real planet?" PlanetSmith is the result of that hypothesis, and having earned over £26,700, on a target of just £4,314, plenty are curious about the possibilities. The Kickstarter runs for 23 more days, and alpha access is due to begin this April. Keep an eye on the Steam page, if you're keen.
