First of all, thanks a lot for granting us with the opportunity to interview you about Planets³. Could you, please, introduce yourself to our readers?

My name is Michel Thomazeau, and I am the project director of Planets³ and the CEO of the Cubical Drift Company. I am 32 years old, and have a 9 years background in CAD software development at Realviz first and then at Autodesk.

We are a small team. The co-founders of the company are 3 old friends that met at their engineer school 13 years ago. We surrounded ourselves with competent and truly motivated people from different horizons (creative artists, graphics and musician) to develop the game of our dreams.

Which terms would you use to present Planets³ to somebody who has never heard of the game before?

Planets³ is all about bringing a story over a voxel world. Planets³ is a RPG, there will be a storyline with a lot of quests, characters that will accompany you in your adventure; some of them will help you to progress.

And we want to bring the construction aspect in the quest: some of them will ask you to build specific structures.

What makes Planets³ stand out from its genre? Why should players prefer playing this game rather than any other open world sandbox title?

First its art will be different; the multiple block shapes allow real diversity of creation. As you can see in the concept art, it is really something else.
Second, our game is a RPG; you will have a complete story from the start of the game to the end of the story. There will be NPCs, with their own stories, which will follow you during all your adventure, helping you to progress. There will be a simple but deep craft system. Construction will even take part in the story.
And third: space!

We’ve already heard that there will be a main storyline and quests. Could you tell us a little bit about the setting and the lore?

The story will be linear and there will be annex random quests. Players could either focus on the main storyline or decide to explore the planets and find these annex quests. Exploration will be rewarded as players will find new objects, resources and gain "experience".

Please give us a bit more information about the game’s multiplayer aspects. Will there be official or private servers? What sort of interaction can we expect between players?

We can separate multiplayer in 2 categories: pvp and coop.
Coop will be great to complete the storyline with friends.
PvP will be more complex in the second opus of the game, where you will be able to "control" territories.

Planets³ is not a MMO, we will deliver a client and a server to all players. They will be the one to host the server.

Regarding the combat system, can we expect classic FPS gameplay or will there be RPG-like elements such as skills and in-depth close quarter battles?

It will be typical FPS gameplay, your weapon defines the way you fight. There will not be skills in Planets³, you "just" use your weapon (but a weapon could have multiple utilities).

What about character progression? Will there be classes and levels? Or did you think of anything utterly different?

There is no class system in Planets. The gear you choose to equip will define "how" you should play.

Character progression will be dynamic. For example you improve your strength by using "heavy" tool, you increase your stamina by making "efforts". Players should be able to evolve "automatically" just by playing the game.

Another part of the evolution comes from the craft, the more craft you do the better the craft will be.

Do you plan on offering any sort of Player vs. Player content?

Yes. PvP will be more complex in the second opus of the game, where you will be able to “control” territories and fight for them. In the first opus, this will be simpler, with only the possibilities to "strike" each other.

Are you planning story-driven preset dungeons and content? Or will dungeons be procedurally generated?

A lot of content will not be procedurally generated for the story needs. Dungeons are the same, a lot of parts of dungeons will be "manually" created. It’s all about bringing specific "arts" inside a dungeon.

Let’s talk about vehicle customisation and the housing system.

Vehicle creation system will be THE creative feature of the game. Vehicles will be created directly in game with blocks and specific "control blocks" (like an engine or a wheel). Players will have a lot of flexibility to create their own unique vehicle.

About housing system, it’s the same. Some quests will require building specific house, for job master for example.

In regards to items, gear and armour in the game, will there be randomly generated loot?

You will loot what the enemies are wearing. But enemies apparitions and gear will be randomly generated.

Will the game feature a crafting system? If so, what will await players? 

There will be a simple but deep craft system. Players will have two ways to discover new items:

Research: by giving Job Masters a certain amount of materials

Loot: by killing enemies and get their stuff. And bringing it to the Job Master to dismantle and learn new recipes.

Another part of the craft system will be to import players’ 3D models. We want players to create their own object shape.

What decision did you make regarding the business model? Will the game be buy-to-play or even free-to-play with cash shop?

The model will be classical: you pay one time for one game and you can play.

We are trying to consider other models, but not for the first opus, "Race to Space".

Are there any set dates for Alpha and Beta tests?

Alpha is planned for the end of this year, Beta next year.

Thanks a lot for your detailed replying. Would you like to mention anything else?

Together we can make a great game, support us on Kickstarter!

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