Alpha Beta Gamer

From the Depths is a complex and impressive vehicle building sandbox game that allows you to build battleships, planes, submarines, space ships and much more, then pilot them and blow your enemies to smithereens with a wide selection of weaponry.

The extensive creative mode contains 225 unique building blocks, as well as 19 different components for making missiles, torpedoes, depth charges and bombs. The sheer wealth of options can be a bit bewildering at first (it’s still in Alpha so a more intuitive tutorial system will no doubt be in later builds) but once you get the hang of it, the size, scope and variety of vehicles you can build is staggering. Novices should download some of the Steam Workshop vehicles to see what can be built in the game - the talented From the Depths community has been very busy building all manner of creations that will put your first efforts to shame!

As well as creative mode, there’s also multiplayer skirmishes, single player campaigns and a story mode which allows you to play missions as each of the 8 factions battling against enemy forces and unlocking new components.

From the Depths is a complex game, and takes some time to get to grips with, but the detail of things you can build in it are astounding. Every block destroyed or added affects the vehicle’s functionality, physics and control. From the Depths certainly has plenty of depth.

We’re giving away free Steam Keys for the From the Depths Alpha, more info here

Blockstorm is a cool voxel based first person shooter with fast paced gameplay, fully destructible terrain and powerful map and character editing toolsets.

Your character is made out of hundreds of small blocks, and so you can customize and create them to look like anything you want. The map editor is a powerful, yet easy to use tool, allowing you to create anything your heart desires. Multiplayer matches are fast and fun, and full of lovely voxel based destruction.

Blockstorm is basically a fun mix of Minecraft and Call of Duty, and great for some voxel based carnage. Perfect for taking out any frustrations you may have about Microsoft buying Minecraft!

Download the Free Beta Demo (Steam)

Salt is a beautiful mix of Proteus, DayZ, Minecraft and Wind Waker, that’s one of the most colourful and warm survival exploration adventures you’ll ever experience, full of natural wonders and stunning vistas.

Since the inception of DayZ, there have been a LOT of survival games released, but nothing quite like Salt. The main focus of Salt isn’t survival or combat, it’s exploration and the joy of discovery.

There’s an extensive crafting system in Salt, with you able to craft armour, tools, weapons, camp-sites and even a variety of boats . You’ll need these boats as the world of Salt is made up of lots of procedurally generated islands which you can travel to and pillage for resources.

The world of Salt is a joy to explore, in many ways it looks and feels like Wind Waker or Proteus, with so much color and beauty to behold as you sail from island to island. There are so many beautiful sights to discover, and so many memorable ‘firsts’ – like the first time you set sail, the first time you spot a wild animal, and the first time you witness a glorious sunset.

Salt isn’t about surviving, it’s about living. Highly recommended.

Download & Play the huge Early Access Trial, Free

MyDream is a wonderful voxel based sandbox/toolbox that allows you to build worlds as in Minecraft, but also allows you to go on RPG-style adventures, find treasures, solve puzzles and design your own intricate quests for others to play.

World Building and Quest building are remarkably easy (though it’s recommended to play the short tutorial world first), with you not just restricted to building out of blocks, but able to sculpt terrain organically. There’s also an RPG-style levelling system that allows you to level up in three different categories (Builder, Explorer, and Bravery), enhancing your playstyle as you progress.

MyDream is also full of nice little audio touches that make even scrolling through your inventory a delightful experience. Combined with it’s exceptional soundtrack, this makes for a melodic, dream-like atmosphere that fits well with the overall style of the game.

It’s an impressive game, with it’s dream like atmosphere, RPG-style progression, world building and quest building, MyDream really does allow you create anything you can dream up!

Play the Beta, Free! (Available for a limited time only)

Adventure Box is an ambitious voxel-based RPG maker that allows you to build worlds, populate them with characters and enemies, then craft your own RPG adventures with complex stories and character development.

The initial world creation process is both highly customisable and easy to use, with you able to adjust key values such as ‘cavern frequency’ or ‘temperature zones’. It will then procedurally generate a vast and unique world for you to build on and populate with characters and enemies. You’ll then be able to create dialogue, quests and stories, crafting your very own voxel-based RPG adventure which you can share with friends. Still early in development, the browser based interface is a little rough around the edges at the moment, but there’s no denying Adventure Box has huge potential.

As it’s a voxel based sandbox building game, comparisons will no doubt be made to Minecraft, but it really is so much more than that. Adventure Box gives you all the tools needed to not only build worlds, but also characters and stories. It’s a place where your imagination and creativity can really run wild (in voxel form).

Sign-Up For The Alpha!

Voxinvader is a cool voxel based re-imagining of Space Invaders, with combat taking place over 3 dimensions over procedurally generated terrain and lots of wonderful voxel based destruction.

Download the Prototype, Free

Critical Mass is fun a top-down voxel-based shooter. Using an engine made from the ground up for a different game called Ground State, Critical Mass is only a tech demo to see if everything is working out for the main game, but the dev still plans to flesh out Critical Mass more and has been doing regular updates.

The game engine that they’re using is absolutely gorgeous with it’s nice shading and voxel destruction. At the moment the gameplay is basic but very satisfying, with the voxel based destruction a joy to behold, and and excellent music track that really makes you want to blow things up.

It’s great fun blasting the cubic zombies, firing missiles at hordes of enemies watching their voxel guts get splattered everywhere. We’d certainly like to see more of Critical Mass, and look forward to seeing what Ground State has to offer.

Play the Critical Mass Tech Demo, Free

Hardland is a third-person open world action adventure game being developed by the people who made two great games on mobile devices called Minigore & Minigore 2. The game is a spiritual successor to the Minigore series but using the power of the PC to implement massive graphical improvements and gameplay changes.

From what can be seen it the tech video, Hardland looks like it’s going to be a gorgeous game with cool environmental destruction effects and fun combat. It’s an open world sandbox game with no pre-determined story, as in Minecraft, the player creates their own story.

Sign-Up for the Pre-Alpha

Cobalt is a high paced, high energy, action packed shooter game developed by Oxeye Game Studio in collaboration with Mojang, the producers of Minecraft.

In the game you play as a unique looking android which you can upgrade both in appearance and functionality, whether it be bulking up, buying a riot shield and becoming a gigantic tank of steel, or jumping from ledges and sneaking around, sniping your enemies from tactical stealthed positions, the choice is completely in the hands of the player.

The style that Cobalt has taken is humorous yet intense, with comedic moments where you get shot down to a pulp and all that remains is a walking, gun wielding brain in a jar, and the thrill of pulling off an epic rolling jump and landing a grenade to an enemies head scoring a one hit KO.

With many different game modes, including multiplayer and endless survival maps, this game struggles to become tedious. The controls are smooth, the gameplay is invigorating and the art is fresh - Cobalt is looking to be a great little piece of game development.

Download the Alpha, Free

Homebrew is a very cool vehicle building sandbox game, that allows you to build all manner of vehicles and test them out in a vast valley full of dirt tracks, jumps and picturesque scenery to fly over and crash into.

The Game consists of 3 core values – Dream, Build & enjoy. This basically means you can build any vehicle you can dream up and enjoy driving/flying it in the vast test area.

The building system can be a little daunting at first, but if you pay close attention to the tutorial you won’t go far wrong (the only thing that it doesn’t mention is that you can rotate connected parts by clicking on the blue discs). Once you’ve learned the basics of vehicle building, it really does start to feel quite intuitive and you’ll be building all manner of vehicles in no time.

Although the current build is classed as a Pre-Alpha Demo, it’s an exceptionally large demo, allowing you to create pretty much anything you desire and collect orbs out on the test track to unlock and purchase new parts. The full game promises a to have a lot more vehicle parts, multiplayer, and will allow you to share creations with others. It’s an impressive building kit and a fun sandbox to play around with, allowing you to dream, build and enjoy, then drive it over a cliff!

Download the Pre-Alpha Demo, Free

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