Cubeworld Updates
Amilcar Labrosse
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 of the game was released on July 2, 2013, but saw sparse updates and communication from von Funck, with many considering the game to be vaporware until he officially released it on September 30, 2019.
In Cube World, the player explores a large voxel-based world.[1][2] It contains dungeons, including caverns and overworld castles, as well as biomes including grasslands, snowlands, deserts, and oceans.[3] Players can use items such as hang gliders and boats to traverse the world more quickly.[4][5]
The game features character creation, which involves the player first choosing a race and sex, then customising the look of the character.[3][6] The player then chooses one of four classes: warrior, rogue, ranger, or mage, each of which have access to unique armour, weapons, and abilities.[7] 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.[8] 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.[3][6] Crafting is also a part of the game; it allows players to create food, potions, weapons, and armor, as well as cosmetics.[6][9]
Cube World began development in June 2011, with designer Wolfram von Funck describing it as a 3D voxel-based game with a focus on exploration and role-playing game elements,[10] citing games such as The Legend of Zelda, Secret of Mana, and World of Warcraft as inspiration.[11] He was later joined by his wife, Sarah von Funck, who contributed the game's sprites and assisted in implementing new content.[1][11] In January 2012, it was erroneously reported that Minecraft's developer Mojang had hired von Funck to help support him in developing Cube World.[12][13][14]
An alpha version of Cube World was first released on Picroma's website on July 2, 2013, but was eventually made unable to be repurchased.[15][16] At the time, the game's download server suffered a DDoS attack, an unexpected event which von Funck later described as traumatizing.[17][18][19] 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 vaporware, despite him stating several times during development that the game was still being worked on.[20][21][22] 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.[23][24][25]
The full release of the game has been criticized for its region-based progression system and balancing issues.[26][27] James Davenport of PC Gamer criticized the repetitiveness of the game, calling it "shallow" and "boring".[28] 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".[29] Some reviewers commented that the game could not live up to fans' expectations after an extended wait.[26][29] However, the alpha version was praised by Rock Paper Shotgun for its compulsion loop and visuals.[30][3][1]
This week, Picroma announced the voxel-based action-RPG Cube World would hit Steam in the next couple of months - six years after its controversial alpha release (more on that in Matt's report on Cube World's launch announcement).
Following that announcement, developer Wolfram von Funck issued a message to the Cube World community, saying an early distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack "traumatised me and kind of broke something inside me".
"I'm also a bit pefectionist and it made me rework everything from scratch several times. The version I'm planning to release is basically Cube World 2.0. There are still many things I'd like to add in the future, but I think the version is already fun."
As Matt said: "Although Cube World's alpha was an enjoyable experience in its own right, purchasers, who were expecting regular updates to the game, understandably grew wary when von Funck embarked on an extended period of radio silence not long after launch. Since then, although the developer has resurfaced intermittently to confirm that development is still progressing and to guarantee eventual release, communication has been sporadic at best, with whole years passing between social media posts."
When Cube World comes to Steam, it'll be the first chance to see what's changed in the years since alpha release. According to the game's recently launched Steam listing, the new version will feature four classes - Warrior, Ranger, Mage, and Rogue - plus, combat, spells, magic artefacts, weapons, armour, potions, elixirs, and food, as well as tameable pets that will fight alongside heroes and can be used as mounts.
Cube World had something of a messy launch back in July, thanks to a bittersweet and server straining combination of enthusiasm and DDoS attacks. The internet waters having calmed, people were finally able to buy the voxel RPG, but in the months that followed, the alpha received no further updates. With players fearing development had been abandoned, developer Wolfram von Funck used Twitter to assuage their worry.
"The new update is coming along nicely. We're still experimenting with some features and are working on an improved launcher. At the moment there's just a lot of work going on behind the scenes, like customer support, server/website development, and we're currently moving to a new apartment with more space for our development studio.
"There's an option for a smaller user interface, the controls will be configurable and there are a few new creatures," he continued, when asked about what the future update would contain. "We're tweaking game balance to make it easier at lower levels and harder at higher levels. We're also experimenting with some major changes but I'm not sure yet which ones will make it into the next patch."
Phil has been writing for PC Gamer for nearly a decade, starting out as a freelance writer covering everything from free games to MMOs. He eventually joined full-time as a news writer, before moving to the magazine to review immersive sims, RPGs and Hitman games. Now he leads PC Gamer's UK team, but still sometimes finds the time to write about his ongoing obsessions with Destiny 2, GTA Online and Apex Legends. When he's not levelling up battle passes, he's checking out the latest tactics game or dipping back into Guild Wars 2. He's largely responsible for the whole Tub Geralt thing, but still isn't sorry."}), " -0-10/js/authorBio.js"); } else console.error('%c FTE ','background: #9306F9; color: #ffffff','no lazy slice hydration function available'); Phil SavageSocial Links NavigationEditor-in-ChiefPhil has been writing for PC Gamer for nearly a decade, starting out as a freelance writer covering everything from free games to MMOs. He eventually joined full-time as a news writer, before moving to the magazine to review immersive sims, RPGs and Hitman games. Now he leads PC Gamer's UK team, but still sometimes finds the time to write about his ongoing obsessions with Destiny 2, GTA Online and Apex Legends. When he's not levelling up battle passes, he's checking out the latest tactics game or dipping back into Guild Wars 2. He's largely responsible for the whole Tub Geralt thing, but still isn't sorry.
Mats Valk, a 20-year-old Dutch speedcuber, just beat the previous record of 4.90 seconds set by then 14-year-old Lucas Etter in 2014. Valk twisted and turned his way to victory during the Jawa Timur Open 2016, a large competition in Java, Indonesia hosted by the World Cube Association.
During his impressive speed trial, Valk used a Cubicle Valk M cube (yes, it's named after him), one with 48 strategically place neodymium magnets inside the cube to maximize speed and efficiency. This custom cube will run you a cool $49, which is quite the inflation from the $14.99 of the official Rubik's Speed Cube.
Valk, a well-seasoned competitor, is very active in the speedcubing world. He keeps a very active YouTube channel, which he routinely updates with videos of him solving the cube at major international competitions or major international landmarks, such as the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France or China's Great Wall. As someone who considers it a great personal accomplishment to complete a single side without the pressure of a timer, watching any of his videos blows my mind.
The Rubik's Cube has been in stores since 1977 and is the world's best selling toy of all time. According to the official Rubik's Cube website, "In the time since its international launch in 1980 an estimated 350 million Rubik's Cubes have been sold." Once people started getting their hands on this new puzzle, the obsession with trying to find the quickest solution became widespread and the first international Rubik's Cube competition was held in Budapest, Hungary in 1982.
If you'd like to give solving the 3x3 cube a shot and don't have the patience or time to work out the algorithms and permutations on your own, here's a handy guide from the company. You can also check out our beginner guide, or any other of the Rubik's Cube tutorials on WonderHowTo.
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