Our interview with the GameOver Studio Team, the creators of Double Cube!

Today we are publishing an article we’ve been wanting to share with you for a very long time…

Do you remember our review of a game called Double Cube? Double Cube (Published by Nanovation) was the first “easy to play” runner game we’ve ever seen where you control two players.

For those of you who missed out on reading our original review of this amazing 3D game, check out our original review of Double Cube here!

Today we would like to share with you our interview with the GameOver Studio Team, the creators of Double Cube .

Before we start, we’d like to thank the GameOver Studio Team for participating in our interview, and for spending some of their valuable time answering our questions. Thanks guys!

Now without any further ado, our interview begins.

 

Ok first up, why did you decide to make Double Cube?

The inspiration for Double Cube came from multitasking.

Although multitasking is detrimental to productivity, we do it every day. And still, we look at our phone screen 150 times a day. Our average attention span is less than 2 minutes. In the creative industry, the situation is even worse. So one beautiful morning, we decided to make a game about multitasking. The initial idea was to create a game that would showcase the loss in productivity and stress caused by multitasking. We went with the space theme as it also represents time. Controlling two characters represents doing two things at once. And the problems were represented by spikes and other obstacles.

Ok, a very creative way to visualize our everyday lives😉

 

One interesting thing we noticed while playing the game was that Double Cube isn’t really difficult. For a challenging game like Double Cube where the player is required to control two characters at once, the difficulty level is (in our opinion) pretty much perfect!

Was it difficult to fine tune how difficult to make the game?

Well if I’m honest we also started off with a very difficult version of the game. And the big problem we face is, being game developers we are generally good with games. And at times we lose focus on our core players and think that the game is easy!

So for Double Cube, we had a pool of beta testers (most of them are not avid gamers). We listened to them when they said the game was insanely hard (1st and 2nd version) and changed accordingly.

I think everyone should test their games with children as they tend to give more honest feedback. It is also very important to ask the right questions to your players. Instead of asking ‘How do you like this game?’ we asked questions like, ‘You have two options, you can make the cubes jump higher or further. Which one should you pick?’’ or ‘Which version of the spikes do you prefer more?’

Ahh, so the “magic” is in the questions…!

 

Cool, so what programming language and/or software did you use when making Double Cube?

We used Unity as the game engine. And we generally code in C#. The reason behind choosing Unity is the versatility it provides. We can make any customizations we want.

Unity is also very mobile-friendly. It works with almost all platforms and SDKs. Oh, by the way, I have an article on game engines to help new developers choose an engine!

3 Game Engines Every Indie Developer should Try!

 

This is a very geeky question but we will ask you anyway. We’ve seen a lot of amazing games published by the Nanovation Team, but in our experience, Double Cube is the first 3D game published by their team.

How was it working with the Nanovation Team?

Working with Nanovation is an experience on its own. They are very helpful. We have worked very closely on developing this version of Double Cube. When we first approached them with our 2nd version of the game, they immediately told us they wanted the game but also encouraged us to experiment more with the graphics.

From there on, we sort of co-developed the game. Whenever we had an issue with anything, they were there to provide a solution. For example, we ran into some problems with a particular SDK; they introduced us to a senior official of that company and it got solved real quick. Also we as the studio have a say on the marketing of our game.

 

 

Was it exciting being the creators of the first 3D game published by Nanovation?

Yes! And we are also very excited to see our relationship grow. Also, we are working with them on a new 3D Game aiming to hit the market around Christmas time.

 

Ok, here is a difficult question. What was the hardest problem you needed to overcome when developing Double Cube?

Well, the main problem we faced was the performance issue. Although a full 3D game, we wanted Double Cube to feel as smooth as a casual 2D game. So we had to do a lot of optimization. And also we were struggling with the Apple TV controls as this is our first game for tvOS.

 

Last question. Where do you get your inspiration or ideas from?

Well, this is a very difficult question. We always explore the market and understand the trend. That means closely following game focused magazines like Polygon, Pocket Gamer, and IGN. Twitter makes it easy to follow all the prominent Indie Game studios, game reviewers, tech journalists and game enthusiasts. Also, we listen to podcasts and books like Tinkertoys to help us to think more deeply about game designs. And of course, team meetings and also meeting people outside of work is also a great way to get fresh ideas.

 

A few words to Double Cube fans on Edamame Reviews.

Our team is working hard on a few new games actually. We have a long-term pet project that will be launched in Mid 2017. But for now, we are also launching a game for the holiday season.

 

Lastly a few words on how you feel about Edamame Reviews and our service.

Personally, I think this blog is quite bold and innovative. It is focused on game reviews only. But interestingly they are also trying to reach the minds of developers all over the world. They are collecting their views and thoughts, bringing out the unique inspirations behind popular games, which is very helpful for indie developers. Hopefully, they’ll work hard like this always in the near future! All the best to ‘Edamame Reviews’ <3

Were you inspired by this awesome interview? We sure were!
Interested in giving Double Cube a try…? 

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