Questions and Answers

1. What does this game offer over similar games?

I'm aware that "block-based building game" is a fairly saturated genre, or at least a fairly monopolized genre. I have, however, spent time examining attempts to disrupt the genre and identifying where they succeeded and particularly where they failed and have come up what I believe is a number of key reasons for their lack of staying power.

Other games in the genre have largely been attempts to imitate one game in particular, which for legal reasons I assume I should continue skirting around naming directly. Most have focused on adding the exact same suite of features and imitating its experience as closely as possible, often seeming like strictly worse versions of it during their early development as a result. I have a vision for Garden of Hedron that differs significantly from the established titan(s) of the genre.

Firstly, Garden of Hedron is focused around the creative building experience first and foremost. In its finished state, you can expect to have tools available that make building large projects effortless such as bulk fill and replace tools, a "chisel" tool allowing you to build with complete freedom in a quarter-block subgrid, a block palette system allowing any block to be placed in a select variety of colours, and other creative tools such as area copy/paste, teleport, and much more. Of course, these aren't added yet, but there is another selling point.

Secondly, many other games simply haven't prioritized their visual presentation. In a creative building game, the beauty of your creations is not window dressing but should be considered a core feature. To be honest, I have more experience as a pixel artist than as a programmer, and this project started as a way to use the various pixel textures I've created over the years in my spare time. Even if the game lacks features at present, I can promise that even the simplest wooden hut will be beautiful to look at.

2. If Garden of Hedron is focused on creative building, will there be a survival or RPG mode?

It's likely to happen eventually, but only once I consider the base game to be mostly feature-complete. If it does happen, don't expect it to be a copy of any particular larger game's survival mode. I would prefer to take inspiration from a wider variety of sources to create something unique.

3. Will there be multiplayer functionality?

Same answer as above-- probably, but only once the game is mostly feature-complete.

4. How much will the game cost?

I plan to release it for free, and it will always be free! There will be other ways to support development once the game is far enough along that I can morally justify asking for money.

5. What platforms will it be available on?

Currently only a PC release is planned, with native Windows and Linux versions. Mac support may happen if there is demand for it.