VOXELS

Who needs polygons when you have blocks?

- Joseph Knoop

Rather than learning to make bread, my desperate quarantine hobby turned out to be learning voxel art. Using the fantastic MagicaVoxel software, I went from building abstract animals to building illuminated Dance Dance Revolution machines, quaint Japanese storefronts, and even the subway tracks outside my apartment. Most importantly, voxel art has given me an appreciation for the amount of work that goes into a game’s visual design, especially when it’s consciously constrained, not necessarily sacrificing style or substance. From trendsetters like Minecraft, to physics experiments like Teardown, to narrative adventures like Cloudpunk, voxel art has changed the way I look at almost everything I play.

If the last year has taught us anything, it’s that many game devs shoot for the moon, but also like Jeff Bezos, barely manage to get anywhere while blowing big bucks.