If what many people are saying is true, that is that Cube World is set to be the next big indie hit, then this new video just released by Wollay should be of a high interest to a lot of you. Prepare to absorb a couple of minutes of Cube World style slow motion combat! After having improved combat, introducing the Spirit system and creating dungeons in Cube World, Wollay has released a new video that neatly wraps these new features into one place for your convenience.This game just gets better and better.

Original Source: Slow Mo Swingers: New ‘Cube World’ Video Showcases Combat

This Article was originally posted on our sister site, The Indie Game Magazine written by Chris Priestman.

Cube World is fast turning into my most anticipated indie game. Scratch that it’s turning into my most anticipated game period. You guys have seen me gush quite a few times in the last week or so over Cube World’s aesthetics and the gameplay. Today, we’re gonna talk about the new Spirit System which allows you to upgrade your weapons with finishing moves.

I’m consistently impressed with what developer Wollay is doing on his game Cube World. From the aesthetics to the ambitious plan everything seems to be falling right into the place I was hoping it would. With these latest screenshots, I’m even more impressed with what’s coming which includes some sort of building type gameplay using something called blueprints.

UPDATE: Thanks to commenter nobody for pointing out that Wollay has, in fact, decided to remain independent of Mojang for the time being according to a Twitter post from Notch early last week that we missed. Very happy to hear this. Carry on… screenshots are still just as amazing.

When Mojang picked up Wollay, the developer behind Cube World, for an unspecified project a couple months ago I was pretty distraught at the idea that Cube World would probably not continue, or, at the very least, not continue at as fast a pace as it was previously being developed. Luckily, at least for now, the game is still happily churning along and these new screenshots prove that there is still a lot to see.

Can’t say I’m too surprised by this, considering that Wolfram von Funck’s (aka Wollay) game Cube World has been lighting the internets (yes the ‘s’ is there on purpose) on fire for the last few days. We’ve been quite happy with what we’ve seen as well in it as well as we’ve monitored the game’s growth over the last 6 or so months.

A while back we reported on Cube World in its infancy. At the time it was little more than a tech demo it seemed with some very simple layouts and very little to actually do beyond that. Still, it had the promise of being a finely crafted hybrid of Zelda and Minecraft which were both huge inspirations for the developer of the game. Fast forward about 6 months and, hot damn, the game is coming a long quite nicely!

So, you’re starting to get a little bored with the same ol’ same ol’ that Minecraft delivers, huh? Perhaps you’re looking for something a little more, a little different, or maybe just something that gives a console-level experience rather than always being stuck at the old PC. If you are one of these people, then you’ll enjoy this little list I’ve put together of Minecraft-like games. Some came before, some came after, regardless, they all hold special elements of the Minecraftian like universe.

Also, even if you aren’t yet looking for something new you’ve gotta admit that it was a little disheartening to find out that the revolutionary Adventure update promised in 1.7 has now been delayed to the 1.8 release which is much farther out. That, in and of itself, could be reason enough to explore other options.

Please keep in mind that this list does not contain only Minecraft rip-off games. They are meant to be alternatives that offer some similar gameplay, but might not be exactly the same game unto itself. So, with that said, enjoy what I’ve dug up!

Cube World

I reported on Cube Worlds a few days ago based on it’s remarkable familiarity towards both the Minecraft and Zelda series of games. The relation holds true as the developer confirmed to me shortly after that he did draw inspiration from both games. Cube Worlds, however, is not meant to be a direct combination of both as it will be lacking any sort of crafting experience we’ve grown accustom to in Minecraft. Instead, it will feature a dynamically generated, destructible world with a series of quests for you to complete.

Cube Worlds is currently not yet released.

Cubelands

Cubelands, on the other hand, is more of a direct competitor to the Minecraft classic game, but with a special emphasis on multiplayer. The game was created late last year taking from Minecraft the glory in simply building great structures without having to dig around for resources or fumble with crafting anything. You build, that’s it. Additionally, the game’s multiplayer is far more accessible based on the fact that you don’t need an IP address to log in. Quite handy…

[Cubelands]

FortressCraft

FortressCraft was released to the Xbox Live Indie Games channel a few weeks ago filling a hole that Notch and the gang at Mojang has left empty since Minecraft exploded onto the scene last Summer. That said, it’s still very much like Cubelands in that it’s primarily about building rather than mining or crafting various items. For this reason, despite its popularity, it’s still not seen as a complete Minecraft experience on the console. But with the developer promising updates, perhaps it won’t be too long before we see a full Minecraftian experience using nothing but the Xbox 360 controller.

[FortressCraft]

Terraria

“It’s like a 2D Minecraft!” Or so said the throngs of gamers upon watching their first Terraria trailer. Truth is that, despite some similarities, Terraria is strong enough of a game to stand on its own feature set. Sure, the game is certainly inspired by what Minecraft has done, allowing you to dig and build to your heart’s content. But where Terraria shines that Minecraft does not is in its adventure. This isn’t a game that’s so much about building rather it’s about adventuring, creating better weapons, and digging deeper and deeper to kill bigger and more horrible monsters. It’s almost as if Minecraft and Metroid had a very wonderful baby…

[Terraria]

Detonate

Our own Arsen Nazaryan reported on this game just a few days ago and for good reason: it’s awesome! Detonate is a game that’s all about building different structures with hundreds of different materials. Once created you then turn to destroying it in all sorts of manners, for example, you can set the place ablaze if you deem it.

It’s definitely a different sort of game than Minecraft, but for those of you who are really into the building aspect of the genre, perhaps this game would suit you just as well. After all, who doesn’t sometimes want to see how things look when they get destroyed?

[Detonate]

Haven & Hearth

So this is actually a bit of a stretch from the usual Minecraftian types games I’ve listed already, but I decided to include it regardless.

Haven & Hearth is an online game that gives players a sense of creation and meaning to the world, as opposed to a typical MMORPG. It does this by allowing players to build their own settlements, farms, and various craftings and placing them in a real time world. It’s quite unique for an online game.

The reason why I’ve chosen it for this list is because it has quite an extensive crafting and exploration aspect to the game that is a lynchpin for Minecraft. Despite it’s relatively crude isometric graphics, this could be a game that has far more depth and meaning than what Minecraft currently offers.

[Heaven & Hearth]

Did I miss a game? Let me know in the comments below!

Last week I wrote about a game that looked remarkably similar to both the Zelda and Minecraft franchise of games. Cube World seemed to mesh the two in such a way so as to bring together the procedurally generated worlds of Minecraft along with the world destruction and mesh them with the questing and adventuring aspects of Zelda. It was able to achieve all of this while still only being a few weeks into the development cycle. Amazing, to say the least.

Unfortunately, there was still a lot about the game we didn’t know like whether or not Minecraft and Zelda were inspirations, when the game was supposed to get released, or even what the planned distribution channel was for the game.

Luckily, the game’s developer Wolfram von Funck, got a hold of me to answer a few questions. Enjoy!

Can you explain a little bit about yourself as a game developer and what you’ve done previously?

I’m 32 years old, live in Germany, and have programmed games and engines half of my life. Besides that I’m also interested in drawing and digital art. I have studied computer science and after receiving my PhD, I started my own small graphics software company (www.picroma.com). Game programming is still my hobby and Cube World is my first “serious” game project.

Your game, Cube World, looks remarkably like a Minecraft/Zelda hybrid. Was this your intention? What was your inspiration behind the game?

Making a hybrid of those games wasn’t my intention from the beginning, but the idea developed over time. Both Minecraft and Zelda were definitely big inspirations for me.

What I like about Minecraft is the fact that a procedurally generated world made up of cubes allows a single developer to create a full 3D game with a huge world to explore. You don’t even need level editors, modeling software or a team of artists. Furthermore, programming a game engine based on voxels is by far easier than a full-blown 3D engine like CryEngine or UnrealEngine – at the cost of realism, which brings me to the next inspirations: I love games like Zelda, Landstalker, Secret of Mana and Final Fantasy. As a child I’ve always dreamt of making such a game by myself. So the next step for Cube World was to translate the typical JRPG pixel art style (big head, spiky hair etc.) into the world of voxels. That’s what I did, and a Minecraft/Zelda baby came out of it!

How long has Cube World been in development for?

I started the project this year on May 25. I was captivated by the project right from the start so it reached a rather mature state already after a few weeks (including some sleepless nights).

What sort of gameplay are you planning for Cube World? Questing? Crafting? RPG elements?

I’d like to put a strong emphasis on questing, so there’s always something meaningful to do. As the world is procedurally generated, the quests will be procedurally generated, too. This saves me from scripting hundreds of quests and the players get new tasks all the time. Another focus should be the exploration of the Cube World as well as character advancement in the typical RPG style by skills and equipment. Combat is planned to be Hack’n'Slash-like and fast-paced. There will be no crafting or mining.

The game seems to already be set up for multiplayer. Are you planningon this being primarily a multiplayer game?

I have built in multiplayer right from the start to avoid complications in the future development. I see the game as both single player and multiplayer game.

This might be a little ways off, but have you thought about how you’re going to release/distribute the game? Are you thinking about a similar process as Minecraft where players bought the “Alpha” version?

I don’t have any concrete plans yet. I can’t even estimate when the game will be finished. However, the Steam platform seems attractive to me.

Anything else you can think of to tell us?

I had never expected such a huge feedback for my little game project. It all started over at TIGForums (forums.tigsource.com) where I just intended to share my project with other indie developers to get feedback and inspirations from like-minded people. I recommend it to other indie developers – you get lots of constructive critique there.

–

We’ll be keeping close tabs on this game in the future as it develops.

Minecraft meet Zelda, Zelda meet Minecraft. This, apparently is how the beautiful relationship started off that lead to the tiny burgeoning game called Cube World. The name might be a little uninspiring and, honestly, I’m not even sure if the developer was truly inspired by either of these games, but when I first saw the gameplay video (below) that was what my mind immediately jumped to. Zelda-like characters in a Minecraft world. Almost makes you wonder what Minecraft’s 1.7 Adventure update will bring…

Anyway, not too much is known about Cube World yet so I’ll simply leave you with the video below. We’ll be keeping tabs on this game as the development continues.