So, this news comes as a surprise…mostly, I’ll admit, because I didn’t realize that Gavan Woolery was still putting much effort into Voxel Quest, his voxel-based RPG engine and game. The project site hasn’t seen an update in around four years, and the last news we had from the project was that it was being open-sourced, and that the future of the project was uncertain.

So it came as a surprise that the project actually has a YouTube channel with…well…more recent content. Most of the videos there are around a year old, true, but they showcase new features in the engine and evidence of continued work thereupon. That’s exciting, and I’ll have to make a note to follow it for any future updates. There’s also a Voxel Quest Discord server now.

Anyhow…if you were following Mr. Woolery on Twitter, you’ll have to find a different way of staying abreast of his work on Voxel Quest; his account should be shutting down today, if it hasn’t already:

In about 48 hours, I will be permanently deleting my Twitter account (@gavanw, for the record) forever (and my Facebook account as well, which I never use anymore regardless), and I will cease to use anything that qualifies as social media.

I will also be deleting the Voxel Quest / Roll Roll Die accounts (@voxelquest / @rollrolldie) – I will archive all of the Voxel Quest videos and images on this website soon.

Ways that you can follow me or communicate with me (I will update this list as I add more methods over the next few weeks):

– This website (RSS feed can be found in the sidebar to the right)
– Youtube​
– You can sign up here receive a less-than-monthly newsletter with Voxel Quest updates.
– You can also contact me via email (gavanw@gmail.com or staff@voxelquest.com).
– Update: you can now join the Voxel Quest Discord server by using this link.

And if you’re at all curious why, he speaks to that as well:

When it comes down to it, the answer is *time* – I waste up to 10 hours per week on Twitter, according to my phone.  That is an entire day I could spend, you know, actually working on Voxel Quest. Although it has been rough even outside of Twitter due to raising twins, I actually do hope to start making legitimate progress soon.

The other reason is that Twitter consumes time and invades my life even when I am off of it.  I spend time thinking about some angry comment on Twitter when I could instead be dreaming about the next thing I want to accomplish in Voxel Quest, or heavens forbid, be more mentally present when I am around the rest of my family.  I’m tired of picking up my phone to fill every available one minute slot of my life with more soul poison.

Over the last few days, we’ve certainly had good cause to question both the efficacy and benefits of social media, Twitter perhaps a bit more so than some platforms (but far from the only one, even if so). Migrating to Discord, in particular, is probably a good move for Voxel Quest and its developer; the ability to engage more directly with those who follow the project most closely will be a significant benefit of doing so.

And hey…we begin 2021 (on the Codex, at least) with news that a long-dormant project — and a very promising one, at that — may not be as dormant as was thought.