Rubicon: Cubindom is a turn-based puzzle strategy game inspired by the Rubik's Cube. Use the mechanics of the game, which is loved by the whole world, and our innovations to restore order to the inhabitants of the Cubindom.
The project is being developed for the PC and will be released in 2024.
On Steam you can already add Rubicon: Cubindom to your wishlist.
This article tells the story of the development of this game. Next, the narration is conducted on behalf of the developer.
So, the idea itself.
We have a knight ⚔️; we have a tower ♜. By rotating the Rubik's Cube, the player must move the knight to the tower. Without obstacles, everything sounds too simple, so let's add health to our knight and add villains who will deal damage.
In our arsenal there are:
- A melee enemy 🔱 that deals 1 unit of damage to adjacent cells.
- A cannon 💣 that shoots along a line and deals 1 unit of damage.
- A mortar that shoots at a fixed trajectory per cell and also deals 1 unit of damage.
Let's move on to practice. I don't know how to 3D model, so at first I made a naked prototype on cubes.
An example of one of the levels with a mortar (the trajectory of the projectile is shown by a white curve), melee enemies (red cubes), a hero (a white dummy), and a pink tower.
What about the plot?
I was offered an idea to present all the events as a game within a game. Brave warriors are sitting in a tavern and playing an "improved" Rubik's cube as a rest. A prototype of the level menu was made for this occasion.
By the way, a bug is visible here—a man with a beard sometimes has forearms disappear.
However, I soon abandoned this idea and reduced everything to the classic confrontation of good as a player and evil as an Obfus, who violated the centuries-old order in Cubindom by obfuscating the cubes.
Levels design
It turned out that there are not too many options here:
- To do it right in the engine—it takes a long time to configure, and it is a chore to rebuild.
- Keep everything in mind—too hard
- Assemble in the real world—an ideal option
The best model of the Rubik's cube, oddly enough, is the Rubik's Cube. Therefore, I bought 4 pieces with sizes from 2x2 to 5x5. There is still a question with the models of the knight, the tower, and the enemies. I couldn't think of anything better than making abstractions out of matches. A small match with a head corresponds to a knight. A large match with a head corresponds to the tower. A purified from sulfur match corresponds to a melee enemy, and a match with a dash on one side corresponds to a cannon. All the cells of the cubes were drilled to fix the game models.
An example of a model of one of the 3x3 levels with a cannon and two enemies
A set of cubes ready for modeling levels
Evolution of graphics and more
In July 2022, I found a 3D modeler (the principle of 6 handshakes is strength), and the process of creating low-poly models for the game finally began.
It turned out like this. Do not rush to close the post, it will be better from now on!
Then in September 2022, the process of creating models begins anew, because I did not like the graphic style.
(January 2023) There are also cards that allow the player to simplify the passage of the level.
At the same time, I came up with another game mode called "Assemble the Castle." Imagine that the Great Wall of China was let on the cells of the Rubik's Cube. Then the cube is tangled, and the player's task is to untangle it all back. It doesn't sound easy, does it?
This is how it looked on older models with an experimental interface.
After 29 levels were collected and tested, I decided to create a page in Steam and prepare for launch.
And what came of it?
The page is done, the wishlist is slowly dripping, I can prepare for the launch, and everything seems to be fine.
(October 2023) Old Gameplay Trailer
But no, players tell me that the graphics are very dull, and it's better to postpone the launch. Therefore, we are starting to completely redo the models, trailers, and page in the Steam
And so, in April 2024, all the models were made (people finally don't spit on graphics), and the Steam page and trailers were updated.
The current version of the gameplay trailer
At the moment, I am polishing the product for release and intermediate testing of the game.
Thank you for reading the article!
👤 Developers bio:
Andrew Averyanov is a 20-year-old student, game developer, and gamer.
Secretly in love with a Rubik's cube.
Contacts:
- Telegram: @GM_ork
- Discord: igromashina