Q.U.B.E Earns Its Keep

[The Wooster]

Q.U.B.E Earns Its Keep

Indie Puzzler, Q.U.B.E, has made back its $80,000 Indie Fund investment in four days.

In the short time since its release on Steam, Q.U.B.E has sold just over 12,000 copies. That's earned developer Toxic Games enough to pay back their indie fund budget. As of today, all the proceeds generated by sales of the game are going into the big bag marked "profit."

The Indie Fund, founded and maintained by a gaggle of big indie names including Braid creator Jonathan Blow and World of Goo creators Kyle Gabler and Ron Carmel, provides much-needed funding for select indie projects in exchange for a proportion of the games profits, assuming there are any. Q.U.B.E is the first game to be made using the fund.

Q.U.B.E's budget was originally set at $42k, but mid-development it became clear the game was going to run over budget. The Indie Fund ended up paying out another $37.5k for an end-total of nearly eighty grand. A daunting goal for a first-time game from an unproven indie developer. Toxic Games, however, has delivered.

Although a little rough around the edges in some places, and a touch on the short side, Q.U.B.E is a fun little puzzler with a couple of unique ideas. The fact it closely-resembles a certain other first-person puzzle game with a cult-following and a tendency towards sterile lab environments doesn't hurt either.

You can currently pick up Q.U.B.E on the PC for $14.99.


Permalink

 

[FalloutJack]

This may be man's attraction to shiny objects speaking, but I LIKE the look of this game.

 

[Metalrocks]

the game is really good. some challenging, well thought out puzzles and easy to control. really a very well made game. if you like portal, you will like this game. even when you dont create portals. and, it uses the unreal engine. so it really looks nice.
this game strongly reminded me of the movie cube and as mentioned before, portal.

 

[FalloutJack]

the game is really good. some challenging, well thought out puzzles and easy to control. really a very well made game. if you like portal, you will like this game. even when you dont create portals. and, it uses the unreal engine. so it really looks nice.
this game strongly reminded me of the movie cube and as mentioned before, portal.

Thanks for putting the creepy edge to it. I've seen those movies.

 

[TilMorrow]

Yea when I first saw this game on Steam, I immediately thought Portal. Though it's not the same in gaming concept and slightly similar in looking style, it still looks pretty good in it's own right. But the games description does suggest a large Portal influence.

Oh yes and Q.U.B.E? Quick Understanding of Block Extrusion? Makes me think of Jenga .

 

[Metalrocks]

the game is really good. some challenging, well thought out puzzles and easy to control. really a very well made game. if you like portal, you will like this game. even when you dont create portals. and, it uses the unreal engine. so it really looks nice.
this game strongly reminded me of the movie cube and as mentioned before, portal.

Thanks for putting the creepy edge to it. I've seen those movies.

lol, i should ad that you cant die and that you dont have to avoid deadly traps

 

[SenseOfTumour]

It's just pleasing to hear that it's been a success, as in AAA titles, an awful lot of indie games are pretty poor, but when there's quality, I still believe it'll shine thru and get bought.

 

[Qhartb]

The fact it closely-resembles a certain other first-person puzzle game with a cult-following and a tendency towards sterile lab environments doesn't hurt either.

I wouldn't say its obvious visual similarity to Portal "didn't hurt." In fact, it's the biggest criticism the game keeps getting. It bangs you over the head with comparisons to a game that it's not as good as. Obviously, a game doesn't need to be as good as Portal to be a good game, but I would argue that it didn't help critical reception that the game constantly exudes an air of "like Portal but not as good."

Of course, the comparison and the criticism surrounding it have actually drawn some attention to the game, which probably helped sales. In the first-person puzzler catergory, I would argue that The Ball is as good or better than QUBE, and it has its own unique visual style to boot. I expect QUBE will sell better, not on its merits as a game, but because of the attention it got due to the visual similarity to Portal.

edit: I don't want to sound overly critical. I beat and enjoyed QUBE and am very happy to see Indie Fund succeed. It could have been better, but if they were already at $80K, I absolutely agree with the decision to release it in its current state.

 

[AvsJoe]

Once again I am reminded of the Playstation game Intelligent Qube [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_Qube] and, once again, I am pissed at myself for never having played it. Maybe if I play this I'll stop feeling bad about the PS1's IQ.

 

[The Wooster]

The fact it closely-resembles a certain other first-person puzzle game with a cult-following and a tendency towards sterile lab environments doesn't hurt either.

I wouldn't say its obvious visual similarity to Portal "didn't hurt." In fact, it's the biggest criticism the game keeps getting. It bangs you over the head with comparisons to a game that it's not as good as. Obviously, a game doesn't need to be as good as Portal to be a good game, but I would argue that it didn't help critical reception that the game constantly exudes an air of "like Portal but not as good."

That's a good point, and something I was considered while writing the article. A lot of reviewers criticize the game for being like Portal, then criticize it for not being quite enough like Portal.

On the other hand, in terms of raw sales, I imagine the comparisons are mostly beneficial.

 

[Zhukov]

Really didn't like what I've played of Q.U.B.E.

However, I'm glad they're doing well. It's always nice to see a bit of indie success.

 

[Dandark]

I think I remember hearing about this indie fund on extra credits.
Anyway glad to hear that it's actully doing well and that Qube sold well.

 

[ReinWeisserRitter]

Eh, I thought riding the backs of others' success was supposed to be one of the things independent games strove to avoid, instead attempting new and inventive things of its own.

Then again, there's the fact that most of them are on the "games as art" bandwagon, so maybe not.

 

[Nenad]

I'm glad that Indie Funds can be as successful as the big corporations ^^

 

[Dr_Pie]

What's not good about this is how my friend won't shut up about the game. I mean, yeah, he was one of the guys who developed it, but jeez. Talk about something else for once.

 

[Fasckira]

A lot of my friends have played this and all have suggested I play it. However every summary of it opens up with "Its like Portal but-". Not sure if thats a good thing or not, I guess I should really just go ahead and play it.

 

[Dr_Pie]

A lot of my friends have played this and all have suggested I play it. However every summary of it opens up with "Its like Portal but-". Not sure if thats a good thing or not, I guess I should really just go ahead and play it.

The only thing Portal-like about it is the stark white aesthetics and that it's a puzzle game.

 

[Metalrocks]

A lot of my friends have played this and all have suggested I play it. However every summary of it opens up with "Its like Portal but-". Not sure if thats a good thing or not, I guess I should really just go ahead and play it.

The only thing Portal-like about it is the stark white aesthetics and that it's a puzzle game.

true. every room is a puzzle, just like portal. and as you said, everything is white.

@other related matter
i dint even know people were complaining that its either a poor portal copy and not as portal. i just saw it on steam since it was on special, downloaded the demo, liked it, and got the full version right away. should have done my homework on that

 

[GeorgW]

It looks like a fun game, I'll wait for a sale though.
Also, what happened to the other $100000 in sales? Does Steam take that big of a cut?