Project Brief - Voxel Cutaway World Generator

Version: 0.2.0
Date: 2026-03-08
Author: Rens Roosloot / Codex collaboration

1. Overview

The Voxel Cutaway World Generator is a standalone interactive web page for roosloot.com.

It presents a small procedurally generated 3D voxel world chunk floating in space. The chunk is shown as a cutout from a larger world, exposing both the top terrain and the underground layers on the visible sides.

The experience is a visual toy generator, not a sandbox game. Users can inspect the chunk, rotate it, zoom in and out, regenerate the world from a seed, and switch between day and night lighting moods.

2. Objective

Create a lightweight, polished browser-based 3D procedural world toy that:

• showcases procedural generation and 3D graphics
• feels visually distinctive on the site
• works well on desktop and mobile
• remains small in scope, static-first, and performant

3. Intended User Experience

A visitor opens the page and immediately sees a floating voxel terrain chunk with visible underground layers.

The visitor can:

• orbit the chunk
• zoom in and out
• regenerate the world
• switch between day and night mood

The page should feel playful, elegant, and easy to understand without long instructions.

4. MVP Scope

Included:

• one standalone page
• one floating voxel chunk
• seeded procedural generation
• surface features: hills, grass/topsoil, trees, water, snow
• underground features: dirt, stone, ores/minerals, caves, lava
• desktop orbit and zoom controls
• mobile touch orbit and pinch zoom
• day/night lighting toggle
• regenerate action
• optional visible seed value

Excluded:

• character movement
• mining/building
• block-by-block editing
• infinite terrain
• multiplayer
• persistence and save/load
• physics-heavy simulation
• weather systems
• audio as a dependency for the core experience

5. Design Principles

The project should follow these rules:

• the chunk is the hero element
• the cutaway sides are always visible and intentional
• interaction is simple and low-friction
• visual clarity matters more than simulation depth
• mobile support is required from the start
• performance takes priority over feature count
• the result should feel like a crafted website experiment, not an engine demo

6. Release Boundary

Version 1 should stop at:

• one polished chunk
• one polished page
• one generation style
• minimal controls
• solid desktop and mobile interaction

The first implementation should not expand into an editor, survival gameplay, or large-scale simulation.