Not too long ago, Nathan Kong had the opportunity to review Cubemen 2, the sequel to the original RTS, Cubemen. This game is by the indie company 3 Sprockets and has received a good deal of positive attention. I sat down with Seon Rozenblum to discuss the game.

 

One up Gaming, Cubemen 2 is a sequel to the original Cubemen. What were some of the things you sought to change with the sequel?

 

Seon Rozenblum, Well, when we sat down to scope out Cubemen 2, our first task was to make a list of what we loved about Cubemen and what we would remove/fix if we had the chance to start over. Then we consolidated a year’s worth of user feedback and took what made while discarding what didn’t fit; from there, we started to create Cubemen 2 completely from scratch.

 

Key areas we were sure we wanted to address were: build a new framework that was fully and easily extendable for new game modes, both single player and multiplayer; ship a level editor from day one that was feature rich, robust, and allowed a structure that any game mode could be played on any level; take the visuals further, but not so far as to impact on the simplicity of the game that has come to be one of Cubemen's key selling points; re-invent the user experience and flow of the menus and game to make it more visual; and incorporate the ability to continue generating income post the initial sale to ensure we can continue adding new free features for a long time

 

I think we achieved all of our main goals and then some!

 

The game is an action RTS, which means it’s up against competition from some huge names in the genre. What do you feel makes it stand out against other RTS’s?

 

Well, Cubemen 2 is more a hybrid of genres, which helps separate it from the regular RTS competition. I don't think we are hardcore enough for die-hard RTS fans, but we are broader and more challenging that regular TD. Our new game modes like CTF (a strong FPS game mechanic) and reinvention of Territory offer pretty new experiences in the RTS arena, so we like to think we are setting a new trend in Strategy genre mashups. I think one of our best "stand out from the crowd features" is our strategy mixed with simplicity. At first glance, Cubemen 2 looks like a simple game to master, but, in fact, the strategy behind the range of levels and modes is quite deep once you understand how to push the game direction around to your advantage.

 

Both games feature a tower defense system with moving units, rather than a static, stationary tower that works really well for the game. What prompted this decision?

 

I am a big TD fan, having made a few "normal" TD games in a past life, and I was always fascinated about bringing TD to the masses - "the casual players", and one thing that most of my friends disliked about regular TD games was the fact that you buy a bunch of towers, setup your level, then sit back and watch, only occasionally interacting with the game to upgrade or buy a new tower, then everything was kind of locked-off once the towers were down. So I wanted to find a mechanic where I could move the towers, initially looking at things like teleporters, or drop-ships that would swoop down and pick-up a tower and move it, but then I was having a chat with a friend at a game conference here in Melbourne, and we both started talking about little men, then little cube shaped men, and well, that was the start of it all.

 

Cubemen 2 looks great, visually. Do you feel like making the game realistic rather than stylized would have taken away from it?

 

Thanks! Well, we always wanted to keep the game visually simple, to keep the focus always on the gameplay, and we were very worried about how the new skins and level themes might detract from the cleanness that was so popular in Cubemen. I think we came up with a good range of skins and themes that offer something for all player types but still stylized enough to fit well with the underlying theme.

 

I often still tend to play using the classic themes, but many users that are making levels are choosing the more complex or visually rich themes for their levels, as you can see by the awesome levels being created in our user level gallery!

 

There was a lot of backlash regarding AIP’s at the game’s launch. 3 Sprockets has since taken it upon themselves to fix the issue. Do you plan on incorporating AIP’s later on in the game?

 

The backlash was really only centered around our marketing showcasing some of the IAP in our game, confusing buyers when they saw the in-game price tag against some items they saw in the screenshots and trailer. It never occurred to us when we made our marketing content that showcasing our best imagery (paid and free) would cause such complaints, but they did. We won't ever make that mistake again!

 

It took us a day to really understand what the uproar was about, then an extra day to chat with Valve and work with them on our ideal solution, and within less than three days from initial launch we had our solution in place. That is what's so great about being Indie. Getting to make your own decisions, change direction quickly and focus on what’s important for you, which in our case, is our fan base.

 

Yes, we are keeping our IAP system in Cubemen 2, for cosmetic items only, and we will continue adding both paid and free skins and themes in the future. We believe it is a great way for us to keep our game price low, attracting more players and cultivating our MP community quicker, and, to be honest, our first three days of IAP (before we refunded it all) proved to us that it’s the right model!

 

Will the AIP’s consist exclusively for aesthetic reasons? Or will players be able to benefit in game from them, via purchasable power-ups, etc.?

 

We are not big fans of the "Pay to Play" or "Pay to Win" scenarios, at least not in the aggressive form that seems to be so popular at the moment. So we don't plan on ever adding any IAP into Cubemen 2 for gameplay/feature or the ability to buy attributes that allow those with more money to win. All of our IAP will remain purely cosmetic and always optional.

 

The original Cubemen was a bit under the radar, but Cubemen 2 has had an overwhelmingly positive reception. Was this increase in popularity surprising?

 

It probably did go under the radar as far as press was concerned, but it sold exceptionally well and was still a very successful title. That's why we pushed forward onto Cubemen 2 with such gusto. I’m not really surprised at the awesome reception we are seeing for Cubemen 2, as it’s everything that was great about Cubemen, plus so much more.

 

Unfortunately, in the first Cubemen Zerg Rushes were still manageable and commonplace. Was there work put into trying to even the playing field strategically in Cubemen 2?

 

We did some work in later updates of Cubemen to help address the ZR syndrome, and those changes are also present in Cubemen 2 with some additional game balance changes, but ultimately, we never felt it was much of an issue or detraction in the game. Most of our players preferred finessing their gameplay rather than spamming levels.

 

We could have locked it out completely by making very rigid game rules, but we felt that would have reduced the freedom in which players can tray different strategies.

 

Can we anticipate another sequel, say, maybe Cubemen ³?

 

We will never say no to a Cubemen 3, but for me personally, I've been in Cubemen land now for almost three years, so I'd like to look at something else for our next title...but I also said that after Cubemen!

 

We definitely want to explore the brand more, so we may look at alternate genres using our CubemenIP.

 

Are there any other projects already in the works?

 

We have a few promising projects that are early in the development stage right now that I’m not quite ready to talk about, but for the next few months at least, we are all hands on Cubemen 2 as we finish up our iOS and Mac App Store versions and look at some other un-announced platforms.

 

Cubemen 2 is out right now and currently available now on Steam!