Voxel Engines and Shooters

[lordgalvar]

I had an idea a while ago about building a Defender/Fantasy Zone style of game using voxels to create the scenery. With the wrapping screen in this style of game and the secondary mission of defense (at least in Defender), I thought voxels might be a neat addition that would give the player the sense of realism by flying around a central area with the ability to destroy the scenery (or more importantly, the enemies would). Growing landscapes (like those in Lifeforce and Salamander), earth manipulating bombs, and real landscape damage could also be implemented in a nice three dimensional way and add new elements to the game play.

Of course, the main enemy and player pieces would still be two dimensional sprites. Anyway, does anyone think this would be neat, overkill, or lame? Also, I know that voxel engines are cpu intensive, but if the engine is kept low-resolution and tastefully fit into the style of the sprites, is this feasible?

Is there a game in existence that uses a voxel engine to display the scenery for a shooter?

Any feedback would be great. Thanks.

[worstplayer]

I think it's overkill. At least in a game with 2D gameplay. It would be nice in full 3D game, but in 2D, worms-like bitmap (for sidescroller) or height map (for vert) will do the trick.

Of course, I can't say for sure until I see it in action. As far as I know, there's no such game yet, so you might as well try it and see if it works.

[Udderdude]

Voxels are cool, but I can't really see any reason to use them in a shmup.

[Gungriffon Geona]

Voxels would be ultra fun if you had a simple physics system implented on top of the destroyed enemies. you immediately would get one of the cooler explosion effects ever from have them tear apart and little cubes all over the place. make it a game mechanic even, and have the player collect cubes to gain more power and slowly build up new parts on to the ship from it. (either determined by the game itself or through some artsy fartsy editor for changing the ship voxel by voxel.)

[EinhanderZwei]

Check out such game as Vangers. It's not a pure shmup, but a solid example on how to use voxels in 2D gameplay

[lordgalvar]

Cool. Thanks for all the feedback, ideas, and the Vangers reference (looks similar to Starcraft, another 2d, voxel-using game).

Voxel collection could be a neat addition and play similar to the elite score attacks on Mars Matrix (dreamcast). The concept of a ship editor based on collection is great and never crossed my mind.

I was also alluding to an element that would allow the player to hide from fire or those nasty invulnerable enemies by shooting holes in the landscape.

Though, on the other hand, it could be overkill in terms of the amount of work versus the resulting product.

Thanks again for the comments. Sometimes it is good to get ideas out of my head.