Want to play with the prototype NOW?

We are able to offer the prototype to anyone who pledges $15 or more! The prototype is an early access development demo of the Planet Creator, and contains no limitations on level building.

All you have to do is pledge $15 and we will message you a key and a link to download (for Windows, Linux, or Mac).

What is Haxel?

Haxel is an online first person shooter game... but also a Galaxy. In Haxel there are planets to fight on. Every planet has it’s own physical properties like gravity and friction, and each planet can have unique interactive features.

Planets are destructible, can be inhabited by lifeforms, and are divided up into districts. Every district has it’s own objective. An objective could be team attack, every player for themselves, resource gathering, or defending a base from enemy lifeforms!

Features

• Online multi-player game-play and Map Creation

• Build and fight game-play mechanic

• Realistic physics

• Runs on major Operation Systems, Windows, Mac and Linux

• Built in Map Editor to modify (shapes, skins, behaviors, game modes, levels) This is called the Planet Creator.

Haxel will be shipped with a next generation voxel editor we are calling the Planet Creator. The Planet Creator is capable of rendering many different shapes and can also modify the behavior, texture, health, lighting and geometry of shapes.

Haxel will consist of nine planets, each with their own style and distinct game-play modes. Haxel is a galaxy hosted by us, it’s the main galaxy in the universe and players can compete on it to be universally ranked against other players.

Destruction & Creation

When playing haxel the very planet you are playing on can be destroyed by explosions, special weapons, bullets, and vehicles. To combat this destruction there are special guns for building and special bombs that can spawn defensive structures like walls.

Game modes built into Haxel

These are the default game modes that will be available in the Haxel Galaxy (however new game modes can be user created).

• Free For All 

• Team Death Match

• Capture The Flag

• Last Man Standing 

• King of the Hill

• One on One Tournament (ranked)

• Defend The Base

• Token Hunting

• The Hunter and the Hunted

A core feature to Haxel is empowering the user to create his or her own planets and districts. Users will be able to host their own Galaxies on our servers, and can selectively choose which planets they want in their galaxies. They can also decide which of the available districts they want on those planets. Every Galaxy will have its own ranking, as you visit galaxies and play on the planets you will be placed on their ranking board.

When you finish creating a planet, you will be able to submit it to the universe. We will have a simple approval process, and once your planet is approved, any galaxy will be able to request your planet. Even Haxel could request the addition of your planet!

Game-Play

Players compete in battle using a large arsenal of guns, explosives and by setting traps. Some game modes will require lightning fast reflexes and precise marksmanship where others may involve coordinated strategy and a patient and deliberate attack against a base.

In addition to the wide array of guns and other projectile weapons in Haxel, there will also be some guns that serve a specific purpose, such as building or destroying a specific set of blocks. For example in a fortress defense game, some players may chose to coordinate reinforcing the fortress while others are involved in combat.

When will Haxel be available to play?

Anyone who chooses the first reward or higher will be able to download the BETA of Haxel and the Map editor in July and will receive all future updates to Haxel for free. Those who chose the second reward level or higher will get access to the ALPHA version of Map Editor in May. The ALPHA Map Editor will have online map collaboration and all of the currently available shapes, skins, editing modes and maps built in.

Why Kickstarter?

We have spent more than a year creating the Haxel map editor and several years creating the game engine, and now we need to transform it into a finished game.

We are a team of two developers who have created the Haxel prototype using our spare time, and know that with some support, we can deliver a truly awesome gaming experience to the world!

We are asking for help for three main reasons

• We want to dedicate more time and resources to Haxel. 
• We need to purchase Textures, higher resolution models, musical compositions and sound effects in order complete Haxel.
• We need to host dedicated servers for match making, game-play, to integrate it all into one great website.

What are you working on?

• Finishing multi-player support; the client and server are coming together.
• The planet creator interface is being modified to make it more user friendly.
• We are adding more highly detailed models and animations to the game.
• We are improving game-play mechanics and working on developing content.
• Developing an interactive website to explore Planets in the Haxel Galaxy.

What is the Planet Creator?

The Haxel Planet Creator is the map editor we have developed over the last year. The Planet Creator is a next generation voxel editor, capable of rendering endless shapes. Using the Haxel planet creator, you can create amazingly stunning and complex 3D structures using a wide array of skins and shapes that are built in, or by creating your own custom shapes.

The Planet Creator has many high level editing features which are designed to allow you to create highly detailed worlds with ease. Some of the key features are:

Single Selection, Multi-Selection, Mirror, Copy, Cut, Paste, Stacking, Addition, Subtraction and Brush mode.

Modding

The map editor has been designed with total moddablility in mind. Virtually every aspect of planet creation may be easily changed or extended to alter game-play. We will fully support planet creation and will merge the most popular planets directly into the Haxel Galaxy.

Shapes

Shapes are the geometric definition of a voxel that make up the world. All blocks in the editor have a shape, skin, behavior, shape rotation, texture rotation, health, and RGB light values.

By modifying the characteristics of shapes, you can make things such as stained glass, lighting effects, trap doors, blocks that boost or slow players down.

Planets you create using the Planet Creator can be loaded into Haxel and shared with your friends or submitted to us for promotion into the Haxel Galaxy!

A Shape has a set of faces, side profiles (for face visibility), and how light passes through each side. We have defined eighty shapes for use in the editor.

Destructible

Environments in Haxel are fully destructible, which allows for many interesting and fun possibilities for game-play. By changing the health and other characteristics of a block, map designers will be able to create virtually any building material in the physical world, and also adjust how easy or difficult it is for a player to destroy them.

The Haxel website

The Haxel website is a place to exchange ideas, and suggest mods. Once Haxel is released, we plan to add the most highly voted Planets directly to the Haxel galaxy. We plan to deliver the Galaxy Explorer, Wiki and forums at the same time we release the Alpha Map Editor. 

Plans for the Future

The ability to create interactive stories in the Planet creator is something we would love to be able to add. Imagine being able to create scripted sequences, or facilitate a massive battle between NPCs and actual players. This is something that would add significant value to Haxel, but it is also a significant undertaking.

Another large feature we want to add is Vehicles. We can't make any guarantees about this with the scheduled release, but we are going to try really hard to fit this in. Otherwise we plan on adding this in a future release.

News

http://holygrenade.com/2013/02/the-blocky-and-map-building-chaos-of-haxel/