''Cube World'' is an action role-playing game developed and published by Picroma for Microsoft Windows. Wolfram von Funck, the game's designer, began developing the game in June 2011, and was later joined by his wife, Sarah. An

alpha version A software release life cycle is the sum of the stages of development and maturity for a piece of computer software ranging from its initial development to its eventual release, and including updated versions of the released version to help impro ...

of the game was released in July 2013, but saw sparse updates and communication from von Funck, with many considering the game to be

vaporware In the computer industry, vaporware (or vapourware) is a product, typically computer hardware or software, that is announced to the general public but is late or never actually manufactured nor officially cancelled. Use of the word has broade ...

until he officially released it on September 30, 2019.

Gameplay

In ''Cube World'', the player explores a large

voxel In 3D computer graphics, a voxel represents a value on a regular grid in three-dimensional space. As with pixels in a 2D bitmap, voxels themselves do not typically have their position (i.e. coordinates) explicitly encoded with their values. I ...

-based world. It contains

dungeon A dungeon is a room or cell in which prisoners are held, especially underground. Dungeons are generally associated with medieval castles, though their association with torture probably belongs more to the Renaissance period. An oubliette (from ...

s, including caverns and overworld castles, as well as

biome A biome () is a biogeographical unit consisting of a biological community that has formed in response to the physical environment in which they are found and a shared regional climate. Biomes may span more than one continent. Biome is a broader ...

s including grasslands, snowlands, deserts, and oceans. Players can use items such as

hang glider Hang gliding is an air sport or recreational activity in which a pilot flies a light, non-motorised foot-launched heavier-than-air aircraft called a hang glider. Most modern hang gliders are made of an aluminium alloy or composite frame cover ...

s and

boat A boat is a watercraft of a large range of types and sizes, but generally smaller than a ship, which is distinguished by its larger size, shape, cargo or passenger capacity, or its ability to carry boats. Small boats are typically found on inl ...

s to traverse the world more quickly. The game features

character creation Character creation (also character generation or character design) is the process of defining a game character or other character. Typically, a character's individual strengths and weaknesses are represented by a set of statistics. Games with a ...

, which involves the player first choosing a race and sex, then customising the look of the character. The player then chooses one of four classes: warrior, rogue, ranger, or mage, each of which have access to unique armour, weapons, and abilities. The world is populated with monsters and creatures that can be killed for better armor and weapons, which results in stronger stats and abilities and allows players to choose specializations which best suit their playstyle, such as warriors being able to choose between focusing on damage or defensive abilities, or mages focusing on damage or healing abilities. Players can also tame animals, such as sheep or turtles, which fight alongside them, or, in some cases, can be ridden to traverse the world more quickly.

Crafting A craft or trade is a pastime or an occupation that requires particular skills and knowledge of skilled work. In a historical sense, particularly the Middle Ages and earlier, the term is usually applied to people occupied in small scale pr ...

is also a part of the game; it allows players to create food,

potion A potion () is a liquid "that contains medicine, poison, or something that is supposed to have magic powers.” It derives from the Latin word ''potus'' which referred to a drink or drinking. The term philtre is also used, often specifically ...

s, weapons, and armor, as well as cosmetics.

Development

''Cube World'' began development in June 2011, with designer Wolfram von Funck describing it as a 3D

-based game with a focus on exploration and role-playing game elements, citing games such as ''

The Legend of Zelda ''The Legend of Zelda'' is an action-adventure game franchise created by the Japanese game designers Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka. It is primarily developed and published by Nintendo, although some portable installments and re-rele ...

'', ''

Secret of Mana ''Secret of Mana'', originally released in Japan as is a 1993 action role-playing game developed and published by Square (now Square Enix) for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. It is the sequel to the 1991 game ''Seiken Densetsu'', rele ...

'', and ''

World of Warcraft ''World of Warcraft'' (''WoW'') is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) released in 2004 by Blizzard Entertainment. Set in the ''Warcraft'' fantasy universe, ''World of Warcraft'' takes place within the world of Azeroth ...

'' as inspiration. He was later joined by his wife, Sarah von Funck, who contributed the game's sprites and assisted in implementing new content. In January 2012, it was erroneously reported that '' Minecraft's'' developer

Mojang Mojang Studios is a Swedish video game developer based in Stockholm. The studio is best known for developing the sandbox and survival game '' Minecraft'', the best-selling video game of all time. Mojang Studios was founded by the independ ...

had hired von Funck to help support him in developing ''Cube World''. An

of ''Cube World'' was first released on Picroma's website on July 2, 2013, but was eventually made unable to be repurchased. At the time, the game's download server suffered a

DDoS attack In computing, a denial-of-service attack (DoS attack) is a cyber-attack in which the perpetrator seeks to make a machine or network resource unavailable to its intended users by temporarily or indefinitely disrupting services of a host connec ...

, which von Funck later admitted was an unexpected event that "traumatized" him. During its alpha release, many players were concerned about further development of the game due to the general lack of updates from von Funck, with many considering the game to be

, despite him stating several times during development that the game was still being worked on. In September 2019, von Funck announced that the game would be officially released via Steam on September 30, and that purchasers of the alpha release would receive a Steam key for free.

Reception

The full release of the game has been criticized for its region-based progression system and balancing issues. James Davenport of

PC Gamer ''PC Gamer'' is a magazine and website founded in the United Kingdom in 1993 devoted to PC gaming and published monthly by Future plc. The magazine has several regional editions, with the UK and US editions becoming the best selling PC games m ...

criticized the repetitiveness of the game, calling it "shallow" and "boring". Luke Plunkett of Kotaku wrote that although the world was "very pretty", it is "badly in need of a tutorial" and "somehow worse than its alpha". Some reviewers commented that the game could not live up to fans' expectations after an extended wait. However, the alpha version was praised by ''

Rock Paper Shotgun ''Rock Paper Shotgun'' (also rendered ''Rock, Paper, Shotgun''; short ''RPS'') is a UK-based website for reporting on video games, primarily for PC. Originally launched on 13 July 2007 as an independent site, ''Rock Paper Shotgun'' was acquir ...

'' for its

compulsion loop A compulsion loop or core loop is a habitual chain of activities that will be repeated by the user to cause them to continue the activity. Typically, this loop is designed to create a neurochemical reward in the user such as the release of dopamin ...

and visuals.

References

External links

* {{official website, https://cubeworld.com/ 2019 video games Action role-playing video games Cooperative video games Fantasy video games Indie video games Minecraft clones Multiplayer and single-player video games Open-world video games Survival video games Video games developed in Germany Video games featuring protagonists of selectable gender Video games using procedural generation Video games with voxel graphics Windows games Windows-only games