With the gaming industry becoming more and more lucrative in the country, indie studios are springing up like never before. The big players of the industry are now collaborating with indies to publish games and hence small games are coming into prominence. But whatever it may be, it’s the efforts of the makers that bring a game into the limelight.
So, how big a team is needed to make a game which engages the audience while entertaining them with equal élan? Sometimes it just needs a team of two and a resolute aim.
Such is the story of Rubek that’s created by Xigma Games. A simple yet immersive game Rubek will leave you wanting for more. Created by a team of just two, the game is a good example of how minimalist games can be extremely immersive.
Speaking to AnimationXpress, Xigma Games, founder, Himanshu Manwani shared the idea behind the conceptualisation of the game.
“With the goal to reach at the end point, Rubek is a minimalist puzzle game wherein you need to roll a cube to pick up and match colours on the floor. The initial inspiration was from an old school flash game “bloxorz” and Rubek is our fresh take on the puzzle mechanics and new gameplay elements. We first paper prototyped the game and experimented with the gameplay but later struggled in getting the game to look good. We almost dropped the project when one day we stumbled upon some concept art of a minimalist game which had strong emphasis on colour and then drew inspiration from similar minimalist aesthetics for the look of the game.”
The duo – Himanshu Manwani and Govardhan Gosavi – sweat day and night for seven months to breathe life into the game.
But why is the game called Rubek? Is it because it is a puzzle game and sports a cube? You will not be completely wrong if you thought so, as Manwani explained, “Earlier game was called Huebe (Hue + Cube) and when we showcased the game at PGC 2016 we noticed that it was not an easy name to pronounce and remember, so we decided to change the name and we wanted to keep it close to Rubik’s Cube because both involves Cube and Colour hence Rubek.”
Created under a budget of around Rs 3 lakhs, the game has been released on iOS only and is priced at $1.99 as premium games are not as popular on Android. The game will however be coming on Steam in October and the game may be released on Android later but it won’t be anytime soon, hinted the creator.
The game is a slow-paced and engaging one, the type which you would like to play while distressing or relaxing on the couch on a lazy afternoon. What exactly was the target audience kept in mind while creating this game?
“Since we were making a puzzle game with emphasis on beautiful, minimalist graphics we knew that it had to be a premium experience which would be hard to sell in India. From day one we were targeting a western audience who like to play a puzzle game and want a relaxing experience.
Women are an often ignored section of gaming audience which is potentially fifty per cent of the market. We tried to reach this overlooked segment by using a soothing colour palette. Also, because our game does not rely on quick reactions and fast paced gameplay, we were also well received by mature audience.”
These kind of games often have a pretty subtle background score which compliments the gameplay and overall experience and Rubek was in luck as Manwani informed, “In a relaxing and slow paced game like ours, the background score is very important. We lacked the resources to create compelling music as neither of the team members are skilled musicians. Initially we were using some royalty free music available online. As we promoted our game on various developer related forums, it caught the eye of the Enrique Ponce (an independent musician) who loved the game and decided to provide us with the background score. He did a fantastic job and the game’s music was praised by our players.”
Given all that, at the end of the day, it all boils down to the revenue generation procedure. As the Indian audience still tends to evade paying for games (premium), it can be tricky for developers to witness good revenues from the premium model, but fortunately it has been a good run so far for Rubek. The game is featured on App Store Main Banner in 85+ countries and ‘New Games we Love’ in 145+ countries and was well received across the globe. It reached up to rank #4 in Top charts in Games category in India and it reached rank #1 in 24 countries in Puzzle (Games) category.
The team has plans for additional updates which would come free of cost, but have no fixed date in mind.
The few stages of the game that I have played were pretty amazing. I hopped into the first stage after a small tutorial and kept playing for a while, so did some of my friends. The neat visuals and crisp gameplay gives this game a definite edge when it comes to puzzle games and it is definitely a must try!
