Spiritual Minecraft successor Reforj transforms building tools in first update

With the Minecraft movie bringing Mojang's iconic sandbox even more to the forefront of our minds, there's always the lingering question about a possible Minecraft 2. While that seems unlikely in an official capacity, several teams have looked to put their own spin on the blocky building game. Among them is Reforj, built by Dundee-based 4J Studios, a team that previously worked on Minecraft itself (specifically porting it to consoles and handhelds). It's now available in an early pre-alpha form, and its first title update dramatically expands your building potential.

While Reforj begins with a very similar block-based look to Minecraft, 4J's tool kit offers a lot more room for creative experimentation. Within the cubic framework, you're given the freedom to shape, shave, and trim individual sections to more distinctive shapes, enabling all manner of ways to build. The new update brings one of the most-requested changes to the sandbox game yet, with the introduction of corner sculpting.

Simply point your crosshairs at the corner of an element, and you'll have all-new ways to adjust its profile, as seen in the video preview below. It's a small change that will make a tremendous impact to the potential structures you can envision, and that's just the start of the update. There's a new Aura Campfire, which can be used to set a new spawn point at any time once built, allowing you to ensure you end up back exactly where you want to be should things go wrong.

A new scanner tool has been included that can be used to display the name of objects you're currently looking at, along with a brief description. There's improvements to the tutorial, a reduction in fall damage to make exploration more forgiving, improved damage and low-health feedback to make it easier to know when you're in danger, and a cinematic mode that toggles the HUD off altogether. The distribution of ore has been adjusted, and tree leaves will now auto-break and disappear if the entirety of the trunk is removed.

Reforj title update 1 is out now. If you want to take part in the ongoing playtest, you can sign up via the official website for a chance to join. For full patch notes, you'll want to join the game's Discord channel. You can also wishlist it on Steam if you want to be kept up to date with when it becomes available to all.

While you wait, take those dreams of worlds and concepts as-yet unseen and make them a reality with the best crafting games and best building games on PC.

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