If there is one game many people love, it’s Minecraft. We’ve all heard of it, seen gameplay of it, even probably even tried it out ourselves. Linden Labs has a similar game in terms of being able to build your own world, however it has little to no resemblance aside from that. Unlike Minecraft, you don’t build with blocks – you architect 3D items with triangles and other geometrical shapes.
Patterns is described as a very simple 3D creation tool and then you can have the whole thing contain physics from the group up, as said by Linden Labs CEO Rod Humble. Just like Minecraft, Patterns places your avatar in the world where you then gather materials and use them to create new objects and structures. Another difference between Patterns and Minecraft is Patterns focuses less on survival and more about exploring a world that challenges you to create.
You can collect wood tiles, bone tiles, stone tiles, and all sorts of other objects. Each of them have their own physical properties. An example would be clay you gathered. If you built it into a column of cubes and stacked it, eventually it would give out to the weight above it, thus breaking apart and falling over.
Patterns will be a $10 pre-alpha called “Genesis release” with the initial fee netting early adopters all future updates. Updates will include things like randomly generated worlds, multiplayer, more collectible materials, and liquids.
Thanks Luke!