We’re now a month since launch, and we’ve had some time to think about what worked and what didn’t about our original vision for Cubed and Dangerous. In the last two weeks, we’ve put together some new content that we hope will elevate the game to the next level!
Relics
We noticed that the game didn’t previously present enough things that would fundamentally change the plans that you made as you progressed through the game. We needed something that altered character construction more strongly and made different runs feel significantly different.
Relics are more strongly build-warping than existing gear and perks, redefining the way that you think about different items and your gameplay. You can now find Relics as part of the loot you encounter, and we’ll even throw in one free Relic when you start each run!
Campaign Map Overview
At the start of each Act, it was customary to peruse all of the different levels in the Act and check all of their risks and rewards. This became a chore, but also showed up a different and much worse problem - once you already know what rewards are in a certain level, the level itself would become much less exciting.
To fix this, we’ve hidden item drops for levels, and crucially, we’ve tied the drops more strongly to the difficulty of a level. You’ll no longer be able to scan all the loot drops ahead in an Act, but to compensate we’ve raised the bar on drops and you will be much more likely to drop valuable loot in any given level, as well as able to tilt the odds in your favor by pathing through harder levels. You’ll also see what loot you get as you find it in the level, giving you a sneak peek if you know what you’re looking at!
Foil Items
We wanted to have more of the “woah that’s a sweet shiny drop” reactions, but also to not make those items run-winning in their own right. Cubed and Dangerous had some form of chase items before, but this was mostly restricted to specific Legendary gear and Legendary Perks. So we added rare special versions of items, and LITERALLY made them shiny.
A foil gear item will double the strength of all the forged modifiers on that item. Foil Relics come with a secondary large upside bonus. Beating the campaign with an item will also grant a small chance for future drops of that item to be foiled as well!
Friend Leaderboards
You can now compete against your friends for the title of Most Dangerous Cube! Steam’s Friend Leaderboards feature powers a new button on the main menu. See who can get furthest into the Infinite Desert!
Additionally, we’ve added some refer a friend bonus unlocks to the game. Simply observe Steam Friends’ scores on the leaderboard to collect the rewards!
Character Updates
Many of the characters in Cubed and Dangerous have been updated. We wanted them to have more unique traits, so each character has been given something to make it stand out, and we've also added brand new art to them all. There are also two new characters to unlock!
Bug Fixes and Improvements
- Lots of small visual improvements - lighting, character/enemy models, explosions, the floor and more have been incrementally adjusted and improved
- Some significant CPU performance improvements by cutting down on redundant physics entities being simulated
- Some big performance improvements for Steam Deck (including input polling)
- Added the ability to hover over your unboxed loot and check it all out before going to the inventory screen
- The Pirate Hat will now show item crates as well as gold bags on the minimap
- Fix an issue where the Energy Shield could get stuck on
- Fix Three Ninjas airborne movement to look smoother
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