Where is it now? Cube World Edition

I figured as a way to break back into this whole blogging thing would be to look back on some of the games that I mentioned in the past, one of which is Cube World. Now if you are familiar with Cube World at all, then I’m sure you know about its, let’s call it, “situation.”

Last time I mentioned the game, it was before its alpha had become publicly available, which occurred in July 2013. Needless to say, I was super stoked about the game and eager to throw my money at the screen, which I promptly did as soon as I could do so. I had a blast for a short while: the game ran smooth, felt good to play, and the world generation was nothing short of amazing. There wasn’t really much to do yet other than explore, craft, and kill enemies, but what it had was great.

Unfortunately, this public release of the alpha was also where the trouble for Cube World began. Wolfram von Funck (AKA. Wollay) was never known for keeping people in the loop on the development of the game, with sparse updates even up to this point, and coupled with the fact that it was also more of a hobbyist endeavor and his perfectionist tendencies, things quickly went from bad to worse. After the public release, Cube World received a grand total of one patch on July 23 that fixed a few bugs, and then there was none.

Cube World

Let’s take a look at another upcoming indie game that is tentatively called Cube World. I’ve known about this game for a few months now and I’ve periodically been checking up on its progress on the developers blog: http://wollay.blogspot.com, though the blog has not been updated in the past two months. This is understandable considering that it’s been mostly a one man team (I think they’re a two man team now) and this is probably a “when I have time” project. Nevertheless, the game looks impressive so far and I’m looking forward to it.

A quick look at any of the number of pictures that the developer has posted reveals one of the more obvious sources of inspiration for the game: Minecraft. The game world and everything in it is made of voxels. Think of them as the 3D counterpart to 2D pixels, but let’s just refer to them as cubes for simplicity. The inspiration from Minecraft doesn’t stop at the visuals of the game, but the way the world is endlessly, randomly generated (aka. procedural generation). Of course, there are plenty of other games that have used procedural generation, I’m just using Minecraft as a point of reference.

If you had to pack Cube World into a genre, it would probably be Action RPG, since the gameplay is sort of inspired by games such as the The Legend of Zelda series, but has RPG elements you might expect to find in one of today’s popular MMOs like World of Warcraft. Of course, I’m sure there’s plenty of other places from which the game developer draws inspiration.

Those who played Minecraft might be wonder if there’s any digging in the game, given the chosen graphical style. Unfortunately, there is not, but there will still be support for building houses. What this means in terms of gameplay, I do not know. There are also plans for crafting in the game using loot obtained from defeating enemies, as well as character customization, more character classes, weapon and item customization, a variety of different quests, and pets.

You might be wondering if there will be multiplayer in Cube World. Have no fear… for there is multiplayer! You’ll be able to play cooperatively with your friends whenever you like. Though, at the moment, there is no word on the maximum amount of players that can be on a single server.

As of right now, there is no release date for the game. It will be down when it is done. I will definitely purchase the game when it’s ready. Though, I’m curious what the method of distribution will be… Steam perhaps? We’ll just have to wait and see. Before you go, check out this fan made “trailer” for the game using a variety of in-development footage.

Up to My Ears in Placeholders

Progress on our very first project is moving along and I just got done create a bunch of placeholder art to help our programmers start to get things into place. There is still more to create, but hopefully over the next couple of days, I’ll have all of that done and they’ll be able to get a “working” version of the game in order while we get started on the actual art for the game.

Dream Build Play XNA Contest

We’re going to be working hard to complete our first project for submission to the Dream Build Play contest. There’s money involved, not to mention arcade publishing deals, so we’re going to aim at getting it completed for the August 6th deadline.

TPS (and no, that’s not Threat per Second)

Over at Turbo Pixels, we have been in the planning stages as we get everything rolling, but it’s pretty much always a learning experience. Our code monkeys are, at this very moment, finding themselves knee deep in C# as they explore all there is to know about XNA and how to bend it to their will.

Before we get started on a major project, we are going to be working on something simple to help us along the path to glory, honor, and all that jazz. The website should be ready soon and you’ll be able to find stuff about us, our projects, blogs, and more over there, so keep your eyes peeled. I will, of course, continue to bring you the occasional update related to Turbo Pixels Software right here.

Turbo-charged Pixels

Mark your calendars right here and now; this is a tremendous moment in history. Introducing Turbo Pixels Software! A brand spankin’ new game development group founded by yours truly, Weston Moss, and Sean Mumford. We’re in the process of getting things rolling at this very moment and the planning is already underway for our very first project.

Be sure to check us out at www.turbo-pixels.com! (The website is still under construction at the time of this writing.)