Q.U.B.E.

Q.U.B.E. is a first person puzzle solving game set in a structure made from white cubes. Coloured cubes in the environment can be manipulated by the player using a pair of technologically enhanced gloves. Using these coloured cubes as tools, the player must complete a series of challenging puzzles.

Released: 17 December 2011
Platforms: PlayStation 3 Wii U Windows macOS
Genres: Indie Platformer Puzzle Simulation
Developers: Toxic Games
Publishers: Toxic Games
Modes: Single-player
Perspective: First person Virtual Reality
Themes: Action Science fiction
Engine: Unreal Engine 3
Age ratings: PEGI 12 ESRB E
Time to beat: 5.5hmain story

About

Q.U.B.E. is a physics-based puzzle video game developed and published by Toxic Games, with help from Indie Fund, a group of independent game developers. The game, an expansion of a student project by the founding members of Toxic Games, was released for Microsoft Windows through a number of digital distribution platforms, first through Desura on 17 December 2011 and then through Steam on 6 January 2012. An OS X port was later released in December 2012 through Steam and Desura.

In the game, the player guides their avatar through a series of levels to make their way to an exit. The player character is equipped with special gloves that can perform a number of functions on specific blocks to reach the exit. The game employs a sterile monochromatic environment that highlights the coloured blocks that the player can interact with, and has been compared to the Portal series.

›Story

Set in a mysterious and abstract sterile environment, Q.U.B.E. (Quick Understanding of Block Extrusion) is a first-person puzzle game that challenges players to navigate each level by manipulating coloured cubes that surround them. There’s little to go on as the game begins – the player is dropped into an all-white room with few instructions, and simply has to figure their way out. The tone of game changes as the player finds small and big alterations to their environment, supported by an original score, inviting each player to let their imagination take over as to where they might be. Through experimentation and discovery, players will progress through an ever-evolving series of cube puzzles that will challenge them with logic, physics, platforming.

Keywords

3d
steam
achievements
blocks
easy
darkness
steam achievements
digital distribution
platform exclusive
polygonal 3d
puzzle platformer
original soundtrack release

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

The player's character, after waking up from some incident, finds himself with a pair of gloves that can interact with specific blocks that are in the walls, floors, and ceilings of the various rooms as he progresses. The function of the blocks are distinguished by colour: red blocks can be extended or retracted; yellow blocks, always in groups of three, can be used to make stair-like structures; blue blocks can be retracted to act like a springboard to whatever touches them; purple blocks provide means to rotate sections of walls of a room; and green blocks provide a sphere or cube, which the player will need to manipulate. In the early stages, the player's goal is to use a combination of these blocks to get themselves to an exit point, allowing them to move to the next chamber.

As the player progresses deeper into the unknown complex, new puzzle aspects are introduced. In one stage, the bulk of the chambers are dark except for specific coloured blocks, requiring the player to remember the location of other blocks as they manipulate them. Another section features light-oriented puzzles, with the player using cubes and other features to orient the light beam in the correct fashion.

Development

E. represents the final student project of Daniel Da Rocha, Jonathan Savery and Dave Hall, at Newport University. Upon graduation, the three had received strong feedback for their game, and founded their own company, Toxic Games, to continue its development. During this initial period of development, the team had considered the difficulty of obtaining publishing deals given their inexperience in the field, but instead happened upon funding provided by the Indie Fund, based on the potential of their game, allowing them to work at a more relaxed pace while retaining the intellectual property for themselves.

E. represents the first game funded through the Indie Fund to be released. Aaron Isaksen of the Indie Fund noted that they were drawn to the project while it was still a student project, believing the first-person puzzle game offered new concepts and ideas while providing a clean and simple interface without any time pressure or pin-point accuracy for the player. E's development starting in August 2010.

Reception

Q.U.B.E. was one of the twelve finalists, but did not win, for the 2011 Indie Game Challenge sponsored by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences.

The game received an aggregated score of 69/100 on Metacritic, indicating mixed or average reviews. Reviewers noted that the game was immediately comparable to the two Portal games, providing puzzles within a sterile environment. The game was praised for building on similar puzzle mechanics while introducing its own ideas. Puzzles involving magnetism, however, were found to be rather tedious compared to the other puzzle elements.