If you looked at the tools in Minecraft and said “Pah, this is mere child’s play. Where are my animation rigs, my wireframe models, and my Lord of the Rings recreations?” Then you would have been right on two counts. Minecraft’s tools allowed ingenious players to create a great deal but it was often working around the limitations of simple tools.
UemeU wants to pull away those limitations and give you more powerful tools without asking that you go the full hog and learn to use 3DS Max or Maya.
It’s a magnificent thing to watch in action.
The team at Omnigon Games describe UemeU as a “unique experience in the sandbox creation genre” but I’d say it’s a more natural development of the other games like it. It’s taking the tools of Minecraft, Garry’s Mod, and The Sims and it’s extending them for players that are looking for a more involved creation tool.
UemeU doesn’t look to be overburdened with a story or other such traditional game features, it doesn’t even have the survival element of Minecraft. It’s just straight up pure creation. Technically it should be classed as a toolset but it falls short of the production level creation tools. Another element that keeps it in the game sphere is its community tools.
Omnigon want the game to be played by groups of people, not to simply be a singleplayer venture. See here how a group of players built Lord of the Rings’ Erebor City in three days:
It’s exciting that the team are catering for other disciplines than Minecraft’s architecture. Here you can see some of UemeU’s animation tools at work:
You can read more about UemeU on Steam Greenlight or trial a free version of the game on their site.