It’s a M***craft Earth rip-off

It’s a Minecraft Earth rip-off” this is what lots of people (not everyone and not the majority) tells me when they know about my game.
But these people ignore that I announced this project last October, months before Minecraft Earth was revealed (this May) and when no one could even imagine they were working on it. There are also lots of differences between the two projects.

That post is a fake” someone argues. Just google for it or search on YouTube if you don’t believe me.

but it looks like Minecraft” they say when I show proofs that I announced (and released) before M.E.
There’s a simple explanation for this: I started developing this project for fun as a proof of concept: I wanted to make an AR open world sandbox having the entire world as game field and complete freedom. The easiest way for a single developer and no budget for the contents, and for some other technical reasons, was make it based on a voxel blocky engine. Minecraft is a voxel based game and all the voxel blocky games looks like Minecraft because everybody knows it. In case you don’t know Minecraft isn’t either the first or the only one, the first was Infiniminer (revelation!!).


Minecraft Earth is better” they say at this point. Well, I don’t know if it is better right now, and they don’t know as well, being it still in a closed beta, but I’m sure that will be better. Would be weird if a single guy with no budget crafting a project for fun makes a better product than a gazillion dollars company. I just started before them and I had a very clear idea of how the projects should be done, to not mention that a motivated single is more agile than a giant team, so ended up I was ready before.

I hope this helps in making some light on this fact, I owe you.
When Mojang announced Minecraft Earth this May I were almost ready to go live (after a long open beta test) and I had two opposite feelings:
the first was “great, it looks like mine, this means I did a good work
the second “sh*t, it looks like mine, now everybody says I cloned it

WrldCraft upcoming feature

Big Android update!

From today there is a new relese (1.800) of WrldCraft for Android devices on PlayStore (link).
This includes all the updates included in the latest months for iOS (live on the AppStore) and a bonus game. Check it out!!

Epic Changes!

Starting from the upcoming release 1.5 (by the end of January) there will be a lot of changes and upgrades to WRLDCRAFT.


The first change you will notice is a better and more intuitive UI. During last year I collected lots of good feedbacks and I decided to switch to a portrait approach as preferred orientation. The traditional landscape orientation will remain active for who still prefers it.


But the greatest change is under the hood and regards the whole wrld chuncks AR localization and geocaching engine.
Till today Wrldcraft shared AR relocalization and persistency was using a Google service called “ARCore Cloud Anchors” working on both iOS and Android enabled phones. This service is great for starters but has some limitations.
The new engine will not make use of Cloud Anchors, I’ll gather and manage the “world maps” on my own letting the user decide if and where to store or to share them.


Another big change will be the platform priority. Till today (Android) PlayStore and (iOS) AppStore builds where released at the same time, despite the fact 98% of Wrldcraft players are iPhone and iPad with a solid (thank you!) 4,5 stars average rating. That was pretty hard considering that Wrldcraft is a one man army project with few resources behind it.
After almost two years it’s clear that the AppStore is Wrldcraft’s home and the iOS players deserves my full attention. Making this call I’ll push the limits of the game for a better player experience starting from a better and seamless multiplayer, better realtime AR sharing, better lights and shadows, people occlusion, better performances and much more!
So, keep tight, epic changed are coming!

Dinosaurs in Update 1.202!

News news news!
Latest update (1.202) contains lots of optimizations, fixes, new blocks and introduces for the first time in this game low poly trees, vegetation, props and… full scale animated dinosaurs!!
I hope you like the direction the game is taking!

Update is live.

WrldCraft latest update (1.0) is live right now on AppStore and PlayStore check it out!!

> It fixes a blocking bug with multiplayer that is now working properly again.
> Changed blocks graphics, enhanced shaders and added some new blocks.
> Added a new game mode: Offline mode. To play even if there’s no connection or in a private world.
> Now map updates if you walk around for miles.
> More stability and lots of bugs fixed
> new UI and UX for a better game experience

Big update coming

In the next days a big update will be rolled out.
It contains:

  • lot of bug fix and optimizations
  • brand new blocks textures (don’t worry, they are still compatible with previous one)
  • better shaders
  • new blocks
  • better UI
  • fully offline mode (you ask, I do)
  • new monsters!
  • now private (and offiline) plots can be full scale.

    Stay tuned!!

Falling in a hole, the first AR game ever.

Working on the newest WrldCraft feature: falling in a hole and exploring (or dig) underground pits.
No more words needed, just watch the video.
I think this is the first AR game ever doing this, am I wrong?

This feature is under heavy internal testing will be available to everyone on this September.

Over one million blocks

Last weekend WrldCraft achieved an important milestone: one million blocks placed around the Earth in just a couple of weeks! This is just the first step of the WrldCraft mission: cover the world with blocks. This map shows the places on the Earth where players built their constructions.


Some other numbers:
There are actually nearly 7000 places around the world where you can find what other users built, a bit more than 28000 gold blocks were digged and 6500 quests completed.
Nearly 78% of these blocks were placed by iPhone and iPad owners.

map
WrldCraft banner

About WrldCraft:

WrldCraft is the first, huge, massively multiplayer, full scale augmented reality AR, geolocated, persistent, blocks based, cloud based, sandbox and exploration game with RPG elements taken from the glorious 8bit tradition where you can dig and mine gold and artifacts in the real world and cover the entire Earth with blocks.

Get ready your pickaxe, put comfortable shoes and sharpen your sword because the adventure starts with a global massive gold rush! Ready to mine gold in AR like a idle miner?


For the launch gold and golden veins are being spread all around the Earth and the players have to dig to find it. Like the real gold it is in the same point for everyone and once dug it is gone forever, so be fast! Pre-registered players and first week players will have more chances to find gold or relics on the map.

Players can download for free it from the App Store for iPhone and iPad and Google Play for ARCore supported Android devices.

Here some examples of what the player can do with WrldCraft:
* Build persistent geolocated structures, for ever.
* Cover the entire Earth with blocks and structures, connected each other.
* Continue at home what you started outdoor, others will see in realtime the changes.
* Quests
* Fight monsters
* Build outside public construction or make your private world on your table shared with friends only.
* Multiplayer or single player fun.
* Dig in the terrain to find gold, manufacts or relics
* Share your creations with friends
* For the launch date… gold rush!

WrldCraft development took nine months and it is built on the top of the latest AR technologies such as ARCore and ARKit with cross device persistent and shared augmentented reality experiences so, for example, the player can build full scale structures in a place side by side with friends and other players can visit and extend it later.

To stay update on WrldCraft, please visit www.wrldcraft.com to receive the last informations about the game, and follow the game on FacebookInstagramTwitter and YouTube.

Trailer: https://youtu.be/pIK9c5IBVC8

About Running Pixel
Running Pixel is an Italy based one man army indie development studio backed up by Alfio Lo Castro, a game developer and game designer with years of experience and an insane passion for mixed and augmented reality, voxels, RPGs and game development.

WrldCraft launch date set to June 28

The massively multiplayer augmented reality game half sandbox and half old fashioned 8bit RPG to be released this friday.

Carlentini, Italy – June 26, 2019
Get ready to cover the entire world with blocks. Prepare your pickaxe, put comfortable shoes and sharpen your sword because on June 28 the adventure starts with a global massive gold rush.

the map

WrldCraft is an augmented reality location based sandbox and adventure game where the player chooses if just have fun building structures all around the world sharing them with friends or gain XP and coins mining gold or accepting the King’s quests.

For the launch gold and golden veins are being spread all around the Earth and the players have to dig to find it. Like the real gold it is in the same point for everyone and once dug it is gone forever, so be fast! Pre-registered players and first week players will have more chances to find gold or relics on the map.

Players can download for free (or pre-register in the case isn’t still available in that region) it from the App Store for iPhone and iPad and Google Play for ARCore supported Android devices.

Here some examples of what the player can do with WrldCraft:
* Build persistent geolocated structures, for ever.
* Cover the entire Earth with blocks and structures, connected each other.
* Continue at home what you started outdoor, others will see in realtime the changes.
* Quests
* Fight monsters
* Build outside public construction or make your private world on your table shared with friends only.
* Multiplayer or single player fun.
* Dig in the terrain to find gold, manufacts or relics
* Share your creations with friends
* For the launch date… gold rush!

WrldCraft development took nine months and it is build on the top of the latest AR technologies such as ARCore and ARKit with cross device persistent and shared augmentented reality experiences so, for example, the player can build full scale structures in a place side by side with friends and other players can visit and extend it later.

To stay update on WrldCraft, please visit www.wrldcraft.com to receive the last informations about the game, and follow the game on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube.

About Running Pixel
Running Pixel is an Italy based one man army indie development studio backed up by Alfio Lo Castro, a game developer and game designer with years of experience and an insane passion for mixed and augmented reality, voxels, RPGs and game development.

 

A scary encounter and a gold rush

a scary little bat

Nightly scaring encounters testing WrldCraft. A little pixelated bat! Easy gold and XP.