This was my first proper game, made in GameMaker Studio, in the first term of my freshmen year in college. I made this game for one of my classes, which required students to make a game in whatever software they wanted to. We didn’t have any knowledge of game developing software (or at least I didn’t), and we were told to make a very simple game. I ended up making this 2D platformer which was praised for its impressive 2D physics.
What is this game about?
The concept is basic: you are a cube. You can shoot bullets, but they don’t damage the enemy. You have to use the bullets to destroy ice blocks to make way for yourself, or to get the enemy out of the way.
Do the enemies have any AI?
Yes, albeit a very simple one. They basically have two states: a sleep state and an active state. When the game starts, all the enemies are inactive; they don’t do anything. When the cube approaches the enemy (gets within a certain distance from the enemy), they enemy activates and starts moving towards the cube. The speed of the enemy isn’t much, and the player can escape the enemy pretty easily. Once the player gets out of the enemy’s range, the enemy goes back to the sleeping state.
Why have such easy enemies?
When I first started making this game, I didn’t want to make a 2D platformer in which you shoot at enemies, they die, and you move on. No, you can’t kill the enemies in The Flawless Cube. Maybe the cube isn’t so flawless after all, eh?
The point of the game is to use your bullets as a way to clear path for yourself, or to get the enemy out of your way. Consider this game more like a stealth game, in that you don’t really ever fight the guards. If you alert the guards, you have to either kill them (which in some stealth games, leads to a mission failure), or to hide and let the guards go back to their “un-alert”, or patrol state. The Flawless Cube also has the same concept, just much, much more simpler.
Is there a tutorial at the beginning of the game?
Ah, this. No, there’s no tutorial. The game has constant “help signboards” at different points, that sometimes give you very subtle hints using sarcasm, or just straight up tell you the exact opposite of what to do. You are supposed to understand what the hints are there for.
If you would like to give the game a try, please download it from here.