Volve
Volve is a sandbox block building game project in the same vein as Terraria.
Boring history
Volve has been with me from the beginning of my journey to learn programming. I've never programmed for the sake of programming, I do it because there's things I want to do, so as soon as I got my hands onto Javascript, I started working on Volve. Somewhere along the way the project split into Foxtronaut. At some point I also made a noise visualizer for testing cave and terrain generation patterns.
The oldest files I found under the name "Volve" are from around 2011-2012, back when I was still working with Multimedia Fusion (nowadays called Clickteam Fusion) and didn't know actual programming. In fact, Volve is the oldest non-art project I have and the one I have put most thought and effort into. A large portion of my programming efforts have been for the sake of this project, and I've made multiple iterations on the engine during that journey.
The name was originally "Apostrophe Volve" which was derived from the word "evolve" ('volve). I consider it a placeholder though, and don't have any idea what the final name will be. I vaguely associate the word "Volve" with the game engine and underlying systems.
The idea
The idea of Volve has gone through a lot of revisions. It started off as some kind of modded Minecraft-inspired sandbox survival game. Later it focused into an adventure game with more direct survival systems like temperature. Later I wanted a more clear point to the game and decided on a mechanical building game, where the survival systems affect building requirements.
I want several things at the same time and it's hard to come to a definitive conclusion. As of updating this text (2023-09-05), the plan is to make a highly moddable sandbox engine where you can create custom games by modifying the game files, but there will be an "official" game that's about exploring and upgrading your builds and factories. I even want to make some custom adventure maps (as in more linear/scripted maps) myself.
OLD browser demos
Here's some very old web browser version backups (the sprite loading is a bit wonky, you may have to walk around and change items or refresh the page to load the images properly). These are mostly a historical curiosity, not an indication of anything about the game.
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Oldest backup from the time when I was first learning programming, 2014.
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Collision box test when I was testing the merging of collision boxes, 2015-2016. Number keys or scroll wheel to change item, left click to use item. i to open inventory. z to switch hotbar. f to "attack". Hold ctrl to modify background blocks. shift to change hammer shape.
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World generation test when I was testing world generation patterns, 2015-2016. Refresh the page to generate a new terrain. Same controls as above (except inventory gets hidden behind the terrain window). This is when I made Noise visualizer.
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Last version before I gave up on making browser version of this game, as pictured at the top, 2017. Same controls as above, except there's less things to do. shift to dash in the direction you're moving. Right click to remove blocks. Will most likely work on Firefox only, I don't know why it doesn't work on Chrome, there's some WebGL problem I think. This kind of thing is one of the reasons why I stopped making browser games.
Current status
I've worked on the "real" (non-web browser) version of this game, but it is still in very primitive engine stages and doesn't have proper gameplay yet. I'm trying to get the basic simulations working before I start building a game with them.
