The Early Access version of Staxel is now available on Steam:

Staxel Is Now Available!

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After nearly four years of development, and our team growing from a small two-man operation to nearly a dozen hard-working developers, we have finally published Staxel to Steam! As you can imagine we're all feeling a mix of excitement, pride, and nerves over this and we can't wait to see what you all think of our game so far. While we still have so much we'd like to do, we think you'll all certainly enjoy what's already there!

As you can see, Staxel has come a long way from its humble beginnings. It started out as a basic creative builder, with not much other than an open world and a handful of tools and building blocks. Since that point we’ve kept on adding more and more of the content and systems we’d had in mind until we reached a point where we were happy to show the world what we’ve got. It's been a wild ride so far, but now begins a totally new phase for Staxel, and we're super excited to get started!

This brings us to a very important point, and one we’re forever grateful for. We'd like to take a moment to thank our fantastic community for all the support you've given us and for all the fun we've had with you over the past few years. We've had a blast gaming with you, chatting with you and spitballing ideas. All the way from the tiny IRC channel we started with to the busy and friendly Discord server we hang out on together now. Thanks guys, we've seriously loved every minute of it, and without you, it goes without saying we never would have reached this point!

With that, we hope all of you have a blast with Staxel! Keep an eye out as in the coming days we will be posting another article outlining some of our plans for Staxel's development, including plans for new features and such!

The sandbox RPG Staxel will be released on January 23 on Steam:

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Steam testing

A lot of you will know that we’re getting very close to releasing Staxel on Steam. Nerve-wracking as it may be, we need to knuckle down and make sure we’re ready for it, and that means fixing all the bugs and finding the ones we don’t know about.

We’ve recently started sending out Steam keys to a small number of people who’ve already purchased Staxel on the website. This has already given us invaluable information and some great feedback to work with.

If you haven’t received a Steam key yet, don’t worry! It won’t be long until you get yours when we launch on Steam. In the meantime, if you have found any bugs or issues you think we should know about, or you just fancy hanging out with us, why not come and join the Staxel Discord where we have a dedicated #testers channel to help with the cause!

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In the latest Staxel blog some information about development and the storage mechanic is provided.

I thought I’d give you all a look at some of what’s been worked on this week. I won’t go into too much detail about each aspect but this should give you a good idea about a few of the things you can expect to be showing up in the game pretty soon.

We’ve made some good progress with our first in-game farm animal! This was featured in the last Staxel Reporter, but since then the cows have had their animations worked on, and improved AI code is currently being written.

This week we started working on the beekeeping mechanic, and how it’s all going to come together and function in the game. If you’re curious as to how the beekeeping mechanic is going to work, we did an article on it in the Staxel Reporter – Issue #11: Beekeeping & Modding Guide Spotlight.

We’re all very excited for beekeeping and we hope you are too!

As you can see we’ve continued to add more plant life to Staxel, right now we’re specifically working on adding fruit trees. I don’t know about you, but I’m really looking forward to creating a huge, colourful orchard with every type of fruit tree!

We’re very happy with our progress these past two weeks, it’s nice to see another main feature shaping up in the game, and makes us excited about everything else we have planned.

The Staxel website shows some screens of the village they especially created for GDC.

As many of you will no doubt know the Game Developers Conference is currently in full swing in San Francisco! Some of the Staxel team have made the trip to see check out what’s new and catch up with some other devs and we thought this would be a good opportunity to build a new village just in case they bump into anyone who wants to have a look at the game.

So here’s a little showcase of the “GDC Village”! See if you can spot the new items:

Firstly we have a picture of the farm, we tried to keep it a bit more civilised than the last farm with a nice rustic cobblestone path between plots. To the right we have the tunnel entrance which leads out  to the main village. Outside of the shot to the left is a paddock and barn, complete with some of the new long grass objects that are also now available in game.

This is the view we have of the new village. Upon exiting the tunnel from the farm you’ll be greeted by a handful of cottages in this sleepy village. But don’t let the olde-worlde chic fool you, each home is outfitted with the latest modern appliances and most comfortable of stylish furniture. Overlooking the village is the mayor’s house, feel free to drop in and take a look, he’s never home....

In this update for Staxel some information about its building system is provided.

In Staxel we want the building experience to be as intuitive as possible. We’ve spent a lot of time thinking about how we can achieve this and we’ve come up with a few ideas.

This article will be focusing on just some of the many building systems we either have, or have planned. Remember that these systems are still being developed and they could possibly change.

Flooring

Staxel has special ‘Floor Blocks’ which behave differently from regular blocks. Instead of having to break all your floor blocks to replace it with a different style, you can simply ‘replace’ a floor block with another.

When holding a floor block, look at an already placed floor block and click. This will replace the floor block with the one you’re holding.

Walling

Walling is one of the main parts of building your house. By placing the blocks they’ll automatically stack and generate inner and outer corners and borders to give it an extra bit of detail.

Walls will come in a variety of styles depending on the materials used to craft them. You can build an old style village home or maybe something more modern!

Thanks Eye.

In a development blog for Staxel we learn more about its modding abilities.

Since the beginning stages of development, modding has always been an important part of Staxel. We really wanted to make it as easy and accessible as possible for everyone so that creating a mod and getting it into the game would be just as easy for people with no experience as it is for people who have been modding games for years.

After the release of Seedling Edition earlier this year we can already tell that it’s going in the right direction and we’ve seen some amazing custom content from you all. From stylish hairstyles to flowing river tiles, new clothing styles and even an impressive new playable species, people everywhere have been letting their creativity flow and it has been so exciting to see everything that you’re coming up with.

Thanks Eye.

The Staxel website has been updated with a new development update, which is captured in a 'Reporter' blog, about furniture and character creation.

Last issue we talked about how you can customize your character with all sorts of awesome gear, and this time we'll be going one step further, and looking at the control you have during character creation.

We're working very hard to make sure the player has great control over their character, we really want people to be able to let loose and create something unique to them!

The options you'll have control over include the following:

- Gender

- Species

- Skin tone

- Eye colour

- Hair style

- Hair colour

Thanks Eye.

Eye noticed that the Staxel team has provided an overview of what they plan to change to the game based on player feedback during Pax Australia.

3. More support for social activities!

In Staxel, you can already cook, go on picnics, hunt bugs, catch fish, and explore for secrets on the island, alone and with friends. But at PAX, the players wanted more. They wanted something extreme. They wanted… Staxel 2?!

Actually, no, they wanted beacons. And we’re happy to put those in the game! We’re thinking that each player will have a small number of beacons that recharge over time, so you can let your friends know exactly where you are on the island, no matter how far away you are. Because, hey, we don’t want to get in the way of you having fun with your friends. That’s a major part of our game design: letting you have fun, unobstructed!

There were plenty more points that players brought up at PAX, and most of them are things that we’ve either considered already or, even better, we’re working on already! It’s super exciting to know that we’re on the same path as the players with regards to game design and expectations, and it tells us that we’re doing just fine when it comes to getting this game ready for everyone to play.

Eye noticed that the Staxel website has been updated with information on baking in the game.

Today we’re gonna talk about Staxel’s crafting system: specifically, baking!

In Staxel, all the cooking is done through our state-of-the-tart in-world crafting system, without the drudgery of dragging and dropping items between menus. For example, say you want to bake a cake! First, you place your mixing bowl on any counter, then add your ingredients. You’ll be cracking in eggs, pouring in flour, adding a little bit of butter. Basically, all the standard stuff that goes in a typical cake.

Mix it all up, add the mixture to a cake tin, and throw it in the oven. Don’t leave it in too long, though, otherwise it might burn!

Niche Gamer have a short story about Staxel, the voxel based game that has the looks of Minecraft, but is a sandbox RPG in which you shape your role in a small town. The article itself is not that interesting as it contains no new information, but the developer responds in the comments section, which might  be interesting to follow.

Hello! Dev of the game here

We want the games focus to be on the town life/farming aspects but also allow players to customise the world/build their own structures to make their own towns unique. :)
If you have any questions I'd be happy to answer them!

We're using voxels as it allows us to make an open world but it also allows people to make their own items/character clothing/hairstyles without needing to know complex 3D modelling.
With voxels anyone can look up a tutorial and open up a provided file to edit it how they want :)

There is also free software so they won't need to buy other programs to make stuff or make their own mods :)

And more when you click the link, which was found by Eye.

Perhaps it is not new, but it's the first time we've heard about it. The name of the game is Staxel and it is a RPG (with a Minecraft look) where your fighting skills are not needed, but instead it focuses on exploration, crafting and socializing in a sandbox. It is trying ot be greenlit and Rock, Paper, Shotgun have an article about the game.

Staxel is a cute and friendly town-life RPG with a relaxing, laid back feel. You can expand your garden into a farm by growing a huge variety of crops and flowers, develop your skills in all sorts of crafts, make friends with the characters in your village, explore the lush and detailed world, and discover a large variety of amazing secrets.

The World

Each biome in the procedurally-generated world contains a vast amount of flowers, collectible bugs, crops, items, recipes and other treasures to push you to continue exploring in every direction. In addition to biomes, we’re planning on having seasons and weather, presenting both unique opportunities and challenges.

Dungeons will also play a vital role in keeping the game interesting: they’ll be filled with obstacles for you to overcome, puzzles to solve, and many other challenges. Will you need to grow a rare flower as a key to open a door? Or find the right path through a sensitive floor trap? Dungeons will hold rare treasures or crafting recipes, so they’ll definitely be worth the challenge.

Villagers

Staxel has both friendly humanoid NPCs and ambient creature NPCs. You’ll be able to cultivate your relationship with friendly NPCs, whether they’re Elves from the forest, Moles from underground, or Cactus People from across the ocean. Make friends with someone, and they’ll do unique activities with you and your friends!

Animals

Ambient NPCs, on the other hand, exist to be collected. There’s a huge number of different, hand-crafted bugs to catch, as well as fish - both river and ocean - and larger creatures that wander around their home biomes. We’ve got lots of really exciting things to talk about regarding the creatures around in Staxel’s world: stay tuned!

Crafting

Have an eye for the exotic? Trade with other races for specific items or gather grist - the essence of the world - to craft furniture for your home. A huge number of sets, themes, and objects will be available, and there will always be something new to discover. You can also customize your character with over a hundred different clothing pieces that you can find in-world or by crafting and trading.

When’s it coming out?

We’re aiming for a 2016 release! In regards to an Early Access release, we’ve not decided on anything yet, and will keep you updated! We're tremendously excited about this game, and are doing our very best to make it as fun and beautiful as possible. We appreciate your support immensely!

Thanks Eye.