Is Voxatron just dead in the water? Could we get a blog post either way? The lack of updates is disappointing, and the lack of transparency is frustrating. Zep, could you treat Voxatron less like a hobby you're losing interest in, and more like a product people have paid for? I think the least you could do is a state-of-play blog post once a month or so, letting us know where you're at... Delays happen, of course, but it would be reassuring to know you're actually still working on this.

we get some previews on twitter from time to time, but voxatron is less a priority than pico8, and they both follow a more ancient style of development without constant communication but get what you get when you get it.

I understand your frustration, but I think that’s how it is.
doesn’t mean we can’t do cool things with what we have, and cooler yet with future versions! and the price of holo displays should only go down so that’s another fun thing.

Hi @Hyoscine. Actually ZEP puts a lot more into his projects than other people. For instance you could find a glaring bug in a game you buy from Steam and ... are completely ignored by the author.

The author may have gone on to something else and has no interest in feedback.

ZEP is a rare breed that continually updates his key projects and at no additional cost to his paying members. That sort of thing is hard to find in the programming field and the business world for that matter.

We are very fortunate to have ZEP - and yes, Voxatron is not his key project. You are more than welcome to join us in the active and busy community of Pico-8.

With your knowledge of Voxatron, it should not be with any difficulty at all.

@merwok The last Voxatron tweet was four months ago. At this point, it's pretty evident that Voxatron is less of a priority. Is that reasonable though? It wasn't sold as such, there's nothing to suggest it on the dev map or the product page.

@dw817 I'm sorry but I couldn't disagree more, with literally everything you've said. I mean, if I have a problem with something on Steam, I can get a no-hassle refund. A much neater scenario than hanging on for literally years waiting for updates to a moribund project. The author HAS gone on to other things.

You've got your own definition of "key projects"... Mine would be the two that Zep is currently accepting money for. Seen this way, the good things you have to say about him are laughably out of touch.

I know Pico-8 has really taken off, and the community has done great things with it. I'm glad it's out there. It's not for me though. I was so stoked to get on board with Voxatron back in the day; it's just sad that this is the state of it.

@VgBlade That's not the great take you think it is. Per the 0.3.5 update...

"Even though Voxatron and PICO-8 now share a lot more in common, I don't expect them to compete with each other. Voxatron is much more complex, and better suited to different kinds of projects. But it is still fun to fool around with PICO-8 adaptations and view old code in a new light."

Does it sound like Voxatron's raison d'etre is to pretty up your Pico-8 projects?

it is not, but the tone here is becoming too negative for useful discussion.

@merwork I'm sorry there's not enough positivity for you in this thread regarding my negative experience with Voxatron. Have a gold star.

@Hyoscine - I'm with you. Pls have a gold star back.

Well, another eight months have passed with zero updates, and zero news of impending updates... Incredible that Zep is still taking money for an abandoned project. Actually seems fraudulent at this point.

you can write to zep to request a refund

It's a bit sad that the development has stalled because I believe Voxatron is a great tool to teach game development with. It made me go from thinking I was awful at art to realize I was somewhat decent at making 3D art(just not 2D :P).

I still somewhat feel like I scammed Zep, instead of the other way around, back in the day of getting Voxatron for $1 from Humble Bundle and then also receiving Pico-8 for free...

Either way, if Zep could communicate that the development of Voxatron has stopped that would be decent or maybe wrap up a "final" version so we won't expect any new updates.

don’t feel that you scammed zep — these bundles and offers are part of marketing budget which drives more sales! and you can always buy another license (pico-8 only or voxatron) to support, and/or wait for picotron licenses.

this is my personal speculation: I think zep is happy that his vision for voxatron is real, we can make games and play them on real holographic displays! of course at the moment there is VR fad but maybe libraries and maker labs will make holographic displays more popular. regardless, voxatron works on computers, and zep has some things to work on (we had a few tweets some time ago), some requests from users (like rotating the perspective 45°! please zep ;), and will certainly continue to work on voxatron when pico-8 1.0 is done. it makes sense to focus on the more popular program first and the more capable one (picotron) too, but I didn’t get a feeling that zep wanted to abandon voxatron.