It seems to me more like what DF Adventure Mode was always supposed to be like. Except with technology levels that advance rather rapidly, rather than staying in the Middle Ages.
The lead designer is a DF player, and a lot of the concepts from DF seem like they're going to be in this game, as well. Worldgens that create realistic worlds, rather than random splotches of bioimes. DF-style of crafting, with materials being passed along into item types. Location-based damage and armor. Weapons are generally lethal, but weapon material determines what kind of armor it can bypass. (Although
combat otherwise seems a little like Oblivion/Skyrim according to this post. You have health and stamina bars while fighting first-person.)
The project lead, meanwhile, seems to really be into space sandbox games, (especially X3:TC,) which seems to be why there's that big discussion about being able to build space ships and colonize the galaxy at the end. Hence, he seems to want a game where you blueprint out starships for your minions to mass-produce, and then go around fighting over/consuming asteroids for their precious minerals to make even more starships from. (And of course, space combat with voxel blocks means a hull breech results in block-men being sucked out into space.)
Mechanics, meanwhile, seems to be done at a sub-block level, which I find rather interesting. It means that, rather than just having some arbitrary block that is an "engine" that makes your cars go just by putting it somewhere on your vehicle, you can actually tweak it, and build your own engine... and then you have to put a drive shaft from it to the wheels.
(And the response to questions in the chat about if there would be mecha was, "Mechs are just another kind of vehicle, so yes.")
Again, hop on the forums or IRC, they've stated how willing they are, so if dwarfy potential players hop on their forums and chat about what they want from the game, and we can lobby for a game we'll all enjoy for its depth.
Hopefully the demo will be out tomorrow or the next day, so we can actually test some things out.