Cube Sweeper

Inspiration

I really liked the game Cubism and how it was able to turn a simple 2D style of game into a clean and polished 3D VR experience. I also really enjoyed the game minesweeper, and a number of it more recent derivatives such as Hexcells or Hexceed. I then realized that I had to make Cube Sweeper, a 3D minesweeper like game.

What it does

Cube Sweeper is a casual relaxing puzzle game. All you have to do is work out which cubes are red and which cubes are empty. Numbers show how many adjacent cubes are read and from that information you can solve all the levels in the game without guessing. There's a short campaign of handcrafted levels to complete, with more game modes planning to be supported later.

How we built it

The game was built in Unreal Engine 5. In order to create the levels in the game I created a VR level editor allowing me to easily create new levels. I have a strong computer science background, but my 3D modelling skills extend as far as making a cube. This made this project well suited for me and my skillset.

Challenges we ran into

It was initially difficult for people to quickly pick up the game. It required a number of sessions of play tests and iteration in order to make sure that people could learn the game easily. Additionally it was quite difficult to get all of the features that I wanted in the game ready for this submission date. There were a number of features that I had to cut in order to make sure that I could submit.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

I am really proud of the overall polish and feel of the game, particularly considering the short development time.

What we learned

This was the first time that I implemented pass through in a game and so I had to learn the different options of how to implement it. Using the meta provided unreal samples was very helpful to see some full implementations of different options.

During the competition

While I had started this project previously most of the work was done during the competition. It was previously a unannounced side project but I made it a priority during the competition. During the competition I did:

All user testing and iteration based upon that user feedback
All menu user interfaces
All tutorials
All levels for the game
A ton of small tweaks and bugfixes
Passthrough implementation

What's next for Cube Sweeper

I hope to get this game released later this year, but if not definitely early next year. There's also lot of potential for new levels and game modes. For example I'm hoping to implement a daily challenge level, a random level generator, and more campaign levels with unique hints.

I also hope to implement hand tracking and clean up some user flows based upon feedback.