First Look At Minecraft Co-Dev’s New Survival Game, Reforj

Developer 4J Studios has shared the first gameplay trailer of Reforj, an open-world sandbox being developed by the Minecraft co-developer. The people in charge of porting Minecraft to consoles, as well as content packs are now working on their own iteration of the genre, presenting a voxel-crafted world to build, explore, and survive within.

The gameplay might seem familiar at first glance if you’re a Minecraft fan, but there are some subtleties that are already teasing some different novelties. The character has the ability to glide, both outside and inside dungeons, making for a more fast-paced way of traversal. There are first and third-person cameras for gliding, too.

The usual resource-gathering actions present some novelty, too. The gameplay showcases being able to manipulate objects and their shapes at a distance while building. You can pick up items quite quickly by destroying an entire tree just by destroying one block near the root, as well as taking down three blocks simultaneously in one go. Crucially, there aren’t any specific tools on display while doing these tasks.

4J Studios formally announced Reforj back in September for PC, Xbox Series X|S, and PlayStation 5. The engine powering the game, called Elements Engine, was first shown back on May 22. According to an interview with GamesIndustry.Biz, the team has around 50 employees, and not all of them are working on the game yet. Among them is Joseph Garrett, known as a Minecraft YouTuber Stampy.

While Reforj is still in its early days, 4J Studios is adamant on clarifying that the intention isn’t to make Minecraft 2. “Everyone has to have a frame of reference,” 4J founder and chairman Chris van der Kuyl told GI.Biz. “But it will be a very different gameplay experience, That doesn’t mean they will still play the games they play and love every day. They will. That’s something we revel in. We still have a marketplace in Minecraft. This is just something brand new for people who love the genre, and we don’t think they’ve had anything new for quite a long time.”