"It gets a bit tiring to hear that, but at the same time there are much worse things to be compared to."
That is the response to the suggestion that Q.U.B.E offers more than a slight resemblance to the much-loved puzzler Portal. However, when pushed on the game's provenance, it transpires that the initial inspiration came from an animation produced at the Vancouver Film School.
The team have made peace with the comparisons, and no longer seek to make drastic changes to their vision. To do so would simply lead to "making bad design decisions just to get away from that comparison."
Indeed, there are much worse things to be compared to, and Dave Hall, Adam Da Rocha and the team of Toxic Games have a lot to be proud of with their first person puzzle game series. What started off as a third-year university project at Newport became a very well received game, and now Toxic Games are ready to unveil its sequel, nearly five years later.
Looking back at what worked and what didn't, the team found that "people really enjoyed the puzzles, but felt that the story was lacking." While the Director's Cut did have a story, it was essentially overlaid atop the first game."
Explaining what has changed, Adam stated:
"We've started fresh, we have a thought provoking whole new story, brand new characters, a whole bunch of VO. We're intertwining [the two], keeping the game true to its core with the key mechanics of the gameplay but over-laying our own story that interacts with the actual game, and the decisions you make can now affect the outcome of the game."
When asked to expand, I was told that there are multiple endings to the game, another big departure from the original where you could only interact with the environment you were given.
That element of choice has branched out into the core mechanics. While previously you were constricted as to what colour blocks you used, the puzzles in Q.U.B.E. 2 are a lot more open-ended, allowing the player to find multiple solutions to a given puzzle.
As creative director, Dave explained puzzle creation as quite an iterative process, with a lot of testing. It starts with an idea, one step further back on the puzzle solving process. It's not "I have this object and this objective," but rather, "what if I have this object and need to achieve this objective". Ideas that work on paper may not work as well in testing however. Sometimes a player might completely fail to conquer a puzzel, but "it's not always their fault, it's just sometimes you've taught the rules wrong". Dave is mindful that when creating puzzles it's imperative that you be clear on the objective, be clear what you can and can't do, and ensure that every puzzle be based around one core idea.
The first thing I noticed when playing the demo on display was just how beautiful the world was they had created. The futuristic polished aesthetic really compliments the idea of isolation in an alien environment.
The puzzles are still challenging, which makes completing them all the more rewarding. The removal of the colour restrictions really opens the possibilities for trial and error, and as the game moves beyond the tutorial I can envisage players really taking advantage of that to tackle puzzles in creative ways.
Toxic Games first announced they were working on Q.U.B.E. 2 in 2014, and they are finally nearing the point where it will be released. A trailer is expected to drop this month, and the aim is to release on PC, Mac and Linux this summer.
For more information, visit the Toxic Games website
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