Press information
Below you will find screenshots, a video, and more background information on our project. We also have this press kit with everything packed into a single file:
Press release
Contact person for further questions:
Lukas Boersma
E-mail: boersma@upvoid.com
Telephone: +49-241-89030123
Screenshots and Video
Video Download:
More Information
GeoMechanic
GeoMechanic is a sandbox game where players can create machines and contraptions. Similar to Besiege or Garry’s Mod, constructions like catapults or vehicles can be created.
However, GeoMechanic places the player in a huge open world that is completely destructible. This makes the creation of tunnel digging machines or huge castles possible. For this, GeoMechanic uses a new voxel engine that has been developed by Upvoid’s computer scientists for the last two years.
In the current alpha version, players can create physically simulated machines and mechanics, use complex circuits to create intelligent machines, or construct buildings and tunnels. In the next releases, Upvoid will extend the pure sandbox gameplay and add an adventure mode which will introduce RPG-features. The current alpha already includes an experimental prototype of a real-time water simulation.
Upvoid
Upvoid is a young game company founded by six computer science students from Aachen, Germany. The company's goal is to develop the necessary technology for a new generation of video games.
Marc Seebold, co-founder of Upvoid, says: “The whole team knows each other from a game development club hosted by the computer graphics group at our university. Following the development of our first small game we decided to find a new project with a bigger scale. When Philip first pitched the idea to develop technology for Minecraft with advanced graphics on the level of Skyrim, I thought he was crazy. But within a few weeks he came up with the first prototype, which proved that the current hardware has the power to run such a game. This can work.”
Upvoid Engine
Most big engines, such as the Frostbite Engine, the Unreal Engine or the CryEngine were developed with the intention to render static environments as fast as possible. While games like Battlefield 4 advertise their destructible and dynamic environments, the alterations in these games are pre-determined, allowing the engine to calculate these events ahead of time. In contrast, the Upvoid Engine is optimized to generate huge environments that are completely malleable.
Upvoid hopes to attract many developers interested in working with the Engine, exploring what new possibilities their technology brings to the video game market.
Philip Trettner, CEO of Upvoid, says: “We believe that there is a lot of potential in this. I can imagine a first person shooter in the style of Quake, where each shot destroys a part of the terrain, like in Worms. For almost all genres, a world that is this modifiable brings a lot of new options to the table. Aside from the UpvoidMiner, we are currently developing our first commercial game GeoMechanic, where players can develop their own machines and contraptions similar to Garry’s Mod. These machines will be able to interact with the environment like in the UpvoidMiner. For example, you will be able to construct excavators, or drill cars to drill tunnels into the ground. Furthermore, we are developing a fluid simulation, to realistically simulate rivers, lakes and even volcanic eruptions.”
UpvoidMiner
UpvoidMiner is a tech demo for the Upvoid Engine. It is a game where the player can navigate an infinite, procedurally generated world. Similar to Minecraft and other games relying on voxel technology, it’s possible to alter the world itself. The terrain can be dug out, rees can be felled, and new structures can be constructed. UpvoidMiner does not claim to be a complete game. Instead, the adaption of Minecraft gameplay is intended as a showcase — to prove that the Upvoid Engine can handle such gameplay without relying on blocks and pixel art.
UpvoidMiner was developed in parallel to the Upvoid Engine. Focus is the underlying technology for procedural generation of worlds and the block-free voxel terrain. Consequently, there has been less focus on graphics and gameplay. UpvoidMiner and the Upvoid Engine are both still in early development. In the future, UpvoidMiner will continue to be developed to reflect the abilities of the Upvoid Engine. The tech demo will always be completely free. In addition, the UpvoidMiner is open source, allowing interested developers to develop their own mods and games based on the UpvoidMiner.
The technical requirements are currently a Windows PC with 4GB of memory and a graphics card capable of running OpenGL 3.3 (at least a Geforce 8800GT). A Linux version will be released soon, OS X and console versions are planned as well.
Modified on May 4, 2015, 4:53 p.m.