I have been playing Coloring Pixels by ToasieLabs for years. You can read about my full thoughts on the game in my post, Coloring Pixels, Color Anxiety Away One Pixel At A Time. In summary, I love that game. Even though I started playing it years ago in undergrad, I still play it to this day as a relaxing way to end the day and manage anxiety. Having all of that in mind, it’s no wonder that I was over the moon when I saw ToastieLabs announce the coming of a sequel on Instagram, Coloring Voxels! I’m no way near complete with all the different packages available for Coloring Pixels but I could not be more excited to see what this developer had put together as a follow up to this amazing experience.

What is Coloring Voxels?

Coloring Voxels is the same concept as Coloring Pixels, however, this time we are in 3D! Layer by layer, players will put together pieces of a scene like building with Legos. Coloring Pixels followed a workflow of theme packets of designs. Each packet contained 16 designs for players to color in for what feels like endless hours of relaxing time to beautifully made piano music. Coloring Voxels follows this same structure! Each packet is called a world with different levels within. As the player builds each level, the world will slowly come together, creating this amazing scene. Just like before, this game will be free to play as well. When Coloring Voxels launches on August 15th of this year, players will have 7 worlds with 16 levels each. 

Right after seeing the announcement on Instagram, I found the Coloring Voxels page to follow on Steam. A few days later, Steam notified me about a demo released for players to dive in and give it a try! I couldn’t get to my computer fast enough. The system requirements for the game are minimal so it will be accessible for most if not all players interested. Players can find all the system requirements on the Steam Page. The download only took a minute and I was right in. I could immediately see how this was going to be a great sequel to a game I really fell in love with. In this demo, I really enjoyed the menu or level design, the creative atmosphere to build, and the relaxing environment developed.

The Menu System

The same familiar background title screen with a new 3D take greets the player upon opening the game. Once reaching the main menu, however, I was floored at the unique design! To the left of the screen was a list of worlds to explore. While the structure of the menu is the same as before, the text was a bit easier for me to read. The background of the menu is also not the same yellow scheme as before, but a calm deep blue-green, which I found relaxing to the eyes. To the right of the menu is where the big changes take place!

I was presented with a huge circular stage surrounded by plaques. Each plaque presented the player with a level including the level title, size of the level measured in voxels, and display of time it took to complete the level (which would be blank when first looking at the level). The stage would slowly spin like on a turntable to show the players everything they could do, though players can rotate the display on their own as well. I did so by clicking and dragging, though this didn’t feel like the smoothest way to do so as the stage will still rotate when done moving it. I’m not sure I did that right so I’ll see if that is still true when the game is released! 

The Creativity Involved

The demo gave players access to a world labeled “Volcano”. The 16 levels included a wide variety of scenes including ruins, animals, and different vehicles like boats and planes. I did each of the 16 levels, which took about an hour and 45 minutes to complete. The creativity displayed in each of the scenes I was building blew me away.

When entering a level, only one layer is presented at a time. At the bottom of the scene is a box-dot system showing how many layers there are in the level. The box turns green when the level is completed so players know how many layers are left. The bottom of the screen displays the voxels available to color with. The colors available only display what players need for that layer, which I greatly enjoyed. When a layer is completed, the next automatically appears, making it super easy to keep flowing through the building process. 

Some levels, especially the smaller ones, were fairly straight forward in building exactly what the title said it was. One small level was called a bird, and that’s what it was. No surprises. I built the bird just like building with legos, at a time, and one color at a time. Larger levels, however, had many layers to go through and a lot of fun little details! Not only were players building the items of the level, but a lot of hidden items too for super creativity moments. Can you find the mole hiding in his underground hole? How about buried treasure under layers of grass? I was not expecting to find these small hidden details in the building process and it made exploring each of the scenes so much fun. I was excited to see what creative secrets ToastieLabs baked into the design.

The little things

Another creative aspect to the building process was some of the smaller details that brought the design to life. Building 3D models of scenes offer a unique experience to really interact with the environment put together piece by piece. As players are building the levels, some aspects of the level literally come to life upon completion.

In the Volcano world, this could mostly be seen in the lava flowing through the world. In almost every level, players will put together a river or pool of lava. When players complete the lava in the layer, it begins to have flow mechanics, rising and falling as if moving with the tide. When all the layers of lava are completed, small fireballs jump up and down from the lava! This was such a cool and exciting touch I wasn’t expecting to find in a color by number structured game!

Is it relaxing though?

The simple design coupled with the peaceful, beautiful piano music made Coloring Pixels something special for me. Even with all the fun and lively experiences put into Coloring Voxels, I felt it had the same atmosphere as Coloring Pixels. Players are building with a whole new soundtrack of calm and bright piano music. Taking each level at my own pace, I could really sit down and tune out the world outside my headphones. Embraced by the music, I played the game feeling completely at home. I can see myself using this game just like I have before which is so important to me when looking at it as a sequel. If you’re looking to use this game as I have for my mental health, you will not be disappointed. I only hope the soundtrack will be a DLC like before!

Final thoughts

Coloring Voxels is a fantastic and long awaited follow up to Coloring Pixels. The creative atmosphere together with the beautiful soundtrack is perfectly done as before, giving players a relaxed gaming experience. Both of these games are going to be active in my mental health routine. I don’t anticipate switching completely from one to the other, since I still have so much content to explore in Coloring Pixels from years of monthly pack releases. Toastie Labs is also not planning to sunset Coloring Pixels with the release of its sequel either. Fans can explore both games to their heart’s content with support ongoing for both.

I’m very excited for August 15th to be able to see the full extent of what Coloring Voxels has in store for players. Do you think Coloring Voxels is for you? Let me know in the comments below! Thank you so much to ToastieLabs for providing us with these excellent experiences that serves such a vital role in the gaming community. 

Links and Info:

• ToastieLabs Website
• Steam Store Page for Coloring Voxels
• Coloring Pixels, Color Anxiety Away One Pixel At A Time
• Press Kit Used
• Time Spent in Demo: 2 hours (according to Steam Statistics as of writing)

Enjoyed reading this? Check out my other pieces here! Leave a comment below!

This post is not sponsored. All thoughts and opinions have been made independently through experience and time spent with the game.