Blocky Planet: A Deep Dive into Spherical Voxel Worlds & Their Impact on Sandbox Gaming

Imagine a world where Minecraft’s signature blocky terrain doesn’t stretch endlessly on a flat horizon, but instead wraps itself around a globe, letting you literally walk around your planet and return to your starting point. That’s exactly what Blocky Planet sets out to deliver—a fascinating tech demo, born from the curiosity and expertise of indie developer Bowerbyte. The concept pushes the sandbox genre into new dimensions, both figuratively and literally, by challenging conventional notions of space, gravity, and how voxels interact on a spherical surface.

Blocky Planet isn’t just a playful reimagining of Minecraft’s mechanics; it’s also a technical showcase, offering a rare behind-the-scenes look into the hurdles and creative breakthroughs involved when taking voxels from flatland to round worlds. In this in-depth exploration, we’ll break down Blocky Planet’s key features, unique challenges, playable content, and surprising implications, as well as its influence on broader sandbox game design. If you’ve ever wondered what happens when you combine classic building with planetary physics, you’re in for a treat.

What is Blocky Planet? A New Spin on the Sandbox Formula

At its core, Blocky Planet is a Unity-based tech demo that reinterprets open-world block building by mapping the experience onto a spherical, fully destructible planet. Developed by Bowerbyte, the project leans heavily into voxel manipulation—players can place, destroy, and interact with over 20 different block types in real time. What makes Blocky Planet stand out isn’t just the mechanics, but the fundamental reshaping of the game world itself.

The demo, which can be played either as a native Windows application or in-browser (albeit with some expected browser-related quirks), serves as a proof of concept for the idea that block-based worlds don’t have to be infinite and flat. Instead, they can be finite, spherical, and filled with new kinds of possibilities and challenges—both for gameplay and for the technology that drives it. You can try out Blocky Planet for free via Itch.io, or check out the developer’s detailed technical devlog.

Tackling the Technical Challenge: Why Isn’t Every Blocky World Spherical?

Creating a sphere out of blocks may sound simple—just select all blocks within a radius from the planet’s center, and you’re done, right? Not so fast. While that method might produce a cube ball, it quickly falls apart when it comes to aligning gravity and block faces naturally. In traditional flat worlds, gravity points consistently downward, and building logic is simple. But on a sphere, gravity must always pull toward the planet’s center, and vertical directions change based on location.

This shift creates two major technical hurdles:

• Gravity alignment: Blocks must have their vertical orientation always pointing outward from the planet’s center (think: bottom face toward the core, top face toward space), or building and walking become awkward and unnatural.
• Mapping distortion: Mapping a 2D grid (like most voxel worlds) onto a 3D sphere introduces unavoidable distortion—squares can stretch or compress, especially near the edges and poles of the projection.

These problems are classic in cartography—think of how map projections can never perfectly flatten the entire Earth’s surface into a rectangle without distortion.

The Quad Sphere Solution: Minimizing Distortion with Clever Geometry

To overcome distortion, Blocky Planet uses the “quad sphere” approach—a trick borrowed from both game design and mathematics. Instead of mapping one flat grid over the entire sphere, the world is divided into six faces, like a cube. Each face has its own square grid, and then the corners of those grids are projected (or “inflated”) outward to match the surface of a sphere. Imagine wrapping a cube in a globe and having all its vertices become points on a globe.

While this method can’t completely eliminate distortion, it distributes it much better than traditional projections. Additional techniques are applied to pre-distort the flat grids in the opposite direction, so that when they are warped into place, the resulting “quads” look more like perfect squares. This care in geometric detail produces planetary surfaces where blocks look and behave intuitively for players—no strange inclines, unbalanced builds, just smooth curves and fluid building across the entire sphere.

This mapping solution is crucial—not just for aesthetics, but for maintaining a pleasant and functional experience, especially for those who want to build around the entire planet.

Dealing with Verticality: Blocks, Shells, and the Depth Problem

Stacking blocks downward in a flat world is straightforward, but in a sphere, things get complicated as you get closer to the core. Stacking layers would simply mean that blocks near the center get squashed, while those near the surface get stretched. To solve this, Blocky Planet introduces an intelligent “shell” system: concentric layers that group rows of blocks.

Each layer is divided so that, as you move away from the center, the number of blocks per layer increases at discrete intervals. This way, blocks maintain a near-uniform size, side lengths align neatly between layers, and the planet’s interior retains the regularity needed for building, mining, and navigation. The smallest possible unit (doubling the number of blocks per layer when distortion gets too high) keeps the code fast and the geometry elegant.

This layering system not only solves sizing issues but also creates a natural progression when digging or building toward the planet’s core. The approach allows for satisfying cave and tunnel systems, as well as an efficient way to locate any block in 3D.

Planet Structure: From Chunks to Sectors, How Blocky Planet’s World is Organized

Representing and storing a voxel planet requires rethinking the typical “chunk” system in games like Minecraft. Instead of infinite columns, the planet is divided into six wedge-shaped “sectors” (one for each face of the cube). Each sector is then divided into layers, as explained before. Within each layer, the world is organized into 16x16x16 block “chunks” for rendering and simulation efficiency.

This structure supports functions like fast neighbor lookup (for placing and destroying blocks), world saving and loading in seconds, and optimized rendering—all essential in a sandbox environment where player freedom and real-time editing are key.

To locate a block in the world, each address includes:

• Sector index (which wedge of the planet you are in)
• Layer index (that layer’s distance from the core)
• Chunk and block index (local position for fast lookup and modification)

This addressing system allows the game to instantly translate a 3D position into the correct block, facilitating mechanics like placing structures, explosions, and gravity calculations smoothly.

Gravity Reimagined: Falling Towards the Core

Gravity doesn’t just point “down” in Blocky Planet—it always pulls toward the planet’s center. This change has profound implications for how the player moves. The standard Unity physics is replaced by a custom system that ensures you can walk around the surface without worrying about falling off. When you press “jump” (SPACE), you launch yourself away from the core, and holding it down can activate a thruster that even takes you into orbit if you want to view the planet from space.

The force of gravity remains constant on the surface to keep gameplay predictable, but as we dig toward the center, it gradually decreases—until it reaches zero at the core, simulating equal pull from all sides deep within the planet.

This system adds a unique, almost planetary, physical feel, making every cliff, tunnel, and mountain more immersive.

Gameplay Experience: What Can You Do in Blocky Planet?

Just like in classic voxel games, Blocky Planet lets you explore, place blocks, and mine various terrains—grass, dirt, stone, sand, water, and more. Controls are familiar: move with WASD, jump with SPACE, left-click to break blocks, right-click to place them. Switching block types is as simple as using the mouse wheel.

But Blocky Planet adds some innovations:

• Mass manipulation with Q and E: Fire a beam to place or destroy large quantities of blocks—perfect for quickly shaping or digging down to the core.
• Spectacular flights: Double-tap SPACE lets you float and, if you want, reach orbit and view the planet from above.
• Core excavation: Big excavations reveal the hollow interior and the bright core that acts as the gravitational anchor.

Unlike Minecraft, there is no crafting system or flowing water—Blocky Planet focuses solely on destroying and placing blocks. This simplified approach demonstrates the demo’s intent: to showcase spherical voxels and their potential in future, more complex games.

World Generation: How Blocky Planet Builds Its Spheres

Terrain in Blocky Planet is generated procedurally, using smooth 3D noise functions to define the planet’s shape and content. Unlike traditional block games that use 2D noise over a flat grid, the demo takes noise samples on spherical coordinates. This guarantees seamless terrain—no strange seams or abrupt changes at poles or sector borders.

Players can choose between different planet “types” before starting: small or large, flat or amplified (for more dramatic landscapes).

The steps of the procedural terrain process are:

1. Initialize all blocks as “air.”
2. Assign stone to blocks below the surface, with surface blocks of grass or dirt based on their vertical position.
3. Water fills areas below sea level.
4. Sand replaces grass at low elevations near water.

Additionally, Blocky Planet divides its surface into biomes (forest and arctic), determined by angular distance to the poles and random noise for natural biome edges. This ensures variety and realism when traveling the globe.

Interacting with the World: Exploring, Flying, and Digging

Blocky Planet offers familiar yet innovative controls for sandbox lovers. Movement is first-person: WASD to walk, mouse to look, and SPACE to jump. But the unique physics means that as you walk on the curved surface, the horizon bends subtly and the sun’s trajectory creates an authentic day/night contrast on a planetary scale.

Some highlighted mechanics include:

• Double jump and thruster: Double-tapping SPACE activates flight mode. Holding down SPACE lets you float and reach orbit, enjoying impressive views of the planet as a complete sphere.
• Block rays: Use Q to place in a mass, or E to fire destructive rays that clear large areas—useful for creating tunnels or structures.
• Instant day/night transitions: From above, you can quickly switch between day and night by adjusting your latitude—no waiting for the sunrise.

When digging down, gravity pulls you toward the center, and you can eventually reach the hollow core—a fascinating sight that reinforces the planetary physics.

Blocky Planet vs. Classic Minecraft: Key Differences and Inspirations

Blocky Planet emerged as a response to the limitations of infinite flat worlds in traditional sandbox games. Its main influence is undeniable—the spirit of Minecraft runs through every voxel. However, wrapping its terrain in a sphere introduces:

• A real horizon: From tall trees or high mountains, you can see the planet’s curvature. Go high enough, and the spherical shape appears in the distance.
• Global day/night based on position: The solar path illuminates only one side of the planet at a time, allowing you to experience day or night by moving to different zones.
• Central gravity: No falling off the edges; movement always feels “fixed” to the ground.
• Destructible and customizable planets: Dig to the core, build tall towers, or reshape entire continents—everything is possible.

The demo removes survival and crafting elements to focus on technical achievements, but in that simplicity lies the inspiration for future experiments.

Block Structure and Spherical Challenges

Building custom structures or pasting blueprints into a voxel world is much more complicated on a sphere than on a flat grid. The layer and sector-based topology means that corners, boundaries, and layer changes can break regular alignment.

To avoid these problems, the system interprets structures as a network of displacements from an origin block. When placing a structure, the system traces paths from the origin to each block, ensuring that even in the most distorted areas, the assembly works seamlessly. This avoids dead zones where you can’t build and maximizes the characteristic freedom of the sandbox.

Variants and References: Blocky Worlds Beyond the Demo

Blocky Planet’s approach has inspired other appearances in games and mods, including references in titles like Solar Smash’s Blockworld, where players can unlock spherical, cubic, or even donut-shaped planets. These alternative forms play with the same ideas: a world made entirely of cubes, mapped onto different geometries for novelty and challenge.

These references reinforce Blocky Planet’s cultural impact and its role as a pioneer in experimenting with spherical voxel worlds.

Frequently Asked Questions: All About Blocky Planet

• How do I play Blocky Planet? You can try the latest version for free on Itch.io. The Windows version is the most stable, but there’s also a web version for instant play (with some performance limitations).
• Is there a full game? Not currently. Blocky Planet is a technical demo, and the developer has indicated that due to time constraints, a fully polished version is unlikely. However, there may be occasional updates.
• Can I see the source code? The developer has not yet released the code, citing a desire for a cleaner and more presentable version before making it public.
• Does Blocky Planet have biomes or weather? The demo has two basic biomes (forest and arctic), determined by latitude and procedural noise. More complex weather systems and biomes are ideas for future developments.
• Is there multiplayer? There is no multiplayer support in the current demo.
• How was it made? Blocky Planet was created in Unity 6 using C#. Special attention was paid to optimizing physics, chunking, and procedural generation for a spherical topology.
• Can I play it on mobile? Some concepts of spherical voxel worlds have appeared in mobile games and mods, but the original is not officially supported outside of PC/web platforms.

Behind the Scenes: Developer Insights and Design Choices

Blocky Planet’s creator, Bowerbyte, was inspired by an old demo from Jordan Peck and his personal fascination with procedural generation and voxel-based design. What started as a personal challenge turned into a months-long effort to solve geometric mapping, block addressing, efficient chunking, and custom gravity—all while balancing a full-time job and other responsibilities. More than 15 hours a week were dedicated to programming, in addition to illustrating concepts for the blog and documentation.

The block textures were carefully designed, by hand or through scripts, so while they recall Minecraft, every pixel is original. The developer’s open attitude toward feedback, soliciting comments on Reddit and willing to update the demo, reflects the project’s experimental and community-driven spirit.

Blocky Planet in Context: Comparisons, Mods, and Influences

While Blocky Planet is not the only digital world experimenting with cubic or spherical planets, it is one of the most polished and transparent in its technique. Similar concepts appear in games and mods—like Solar Smash’s Blockworld—where players unlock and destroy planets with different shapes. But what distinguishes Blocky Planet is its attention to mathematical fundamentals, its commitment to open documentation, and its value as a learning resource for developers and hobbyists.

And if you want to go deeper, resources like “Essential Mathematics for Game Developers” can help you better understand the math and code behind these innovations.

Variants and Spin-offs: Blocky World in Other Games

Voxel planets in the form of a cube have inspired several variations in different games outside the Bowerbyte project. For example, in Solar Smash’s Blockworld, secret achievements unlock planets made entirely of blocks, including spherical, cubic, and donut-shaped variants. These worlds pay homage to Minecraft (and even mention mods like “SolarCraft”), highlighting the enduring appeal of voxels in all their forms.

The variants in Blocky World show different ways developers have played with the concept—absent ice caps, hollow interiors, and more—demonstrating that the possibilities of block-based geometry go far beyond flat maps.

The Future of Blocky Planet

Although Blocky Planet remains a technical demo with no plans for commercial release, the developer has mentioned a wish list of features that could drive future updates or inspire other projects:

• Multiple planets and moons, with simulated collisions and dynamic orbits.
• Mass-based gravity in chunks for more realistic planetary physics.
• Dynamic cave generation, latitude-sensitive biomes, and light propagation through blocks.
• Optimized procedural algorithms to support massive, distortion-free worlds.

Regardless of whether these features make it into Blocky Planet itself or are adopted by other developers, the foundation laid here points to an exciting future for voxel game design.