Cube Survivor

Design Pillars:

• “Tactical Movement Meets Automatic Mayhem” – You move. The dice destroys.
• “Dice as the Hero” – The weapon isn’t just a tool—it’s a character, with its own story and chaotic personality.
• “Evolving Chaos” – Build power through unpredictable combos, stacking abilities, and surviving the storm.

Control Simplicity, Tactical Depth:

• Joystick-Based Movement:
  Easy one-thumb control, focused entirely on dodging and positioning.
• Automatic Dice Combat:
  The dice independently hurls itself at nearby enemies on a cooldown—dealing AoE damage both mid-flight and on impact.
• Power Unleashed on Impact:
  Each time the dice lands, a magical effect is triggered—random or chosen from your arsenal of powers. The twist? These powers are wildly different, often synergizing in surprising ways.

Control Simplicity, Tactical Depth:

• Joystick-Based Movement:
  Easy one-thumb control, focused entirely on dodging and positioning.
• Automatic Dice Combat:
  The dice independently hurls itself at nearby enemies on a cooldown—dealing AoE damage both mid-flight and on impact.
• Power Unleashed on Impact:
  Each time the dice lands, a magical effect is triggered—random or chosen from your arsenal of powers. The twist? These powers are wildly different, often synergizing in surprising ways.

I designed these dice impact abilities with visual pop, mechanical variety, and combo potential in mind. A few standout favorites:

• Tesla Coil: Spawns a static turret shocking enemies in its radius. Great for crowd control zones.
• Holo Fist: Buffs the dice with a massive, glowing hand—wider hitbox, higher knockback. Good for tunnel maps.
• Shadow Clone: Drops a decoy that taunts enemies, then explodes. Combines stealth with burst damage.
• Black Hole: Creates a vortex—draws in enemies, then crushes them. Great for timing with dice cooldown.
• Ricochet Turtles: Bouncing projectile chaos—especially strong in tight corridors.
• Thunder Strike Cloud: Periodic lightning strikes—excellent against slower, tanky enemies.

Design Note: Each power was balanced across impact radius, duration, synergy, and cooldown windows, to support varied run strategies.

In-Run Enhancements (Roguelite Style):

• Choose from randomized upgrades after leveling up on the progression system. These can enhance:
  • Various Powers
  • Dice cooldown speed
  • Damage radius
  • Power duration or number of triggers
  • Movement speed or dodge window

Permanent Progression:

• Currency from each run is used in a meta-progression system:
  • Upgrade base health, dice damage, or unlock new powers.
  • Gain access to multiple dice mid-run—each with unique visual themes and cooldown cycles.

The Dice Isn’t Just Magic. It Talks.

One of my favorite touches: The trapped mage speaks to you.

• Through floating text stingers, the mage offers sarcastic advice, lore tidbits, or strategic hints.
• These escalate as the player unlocks new powers—unfolding the backstory about how the mage was cursed and why he needs you to survive long enough to break free.

Challenge: Balancing strategic freedom with auto-combat.
Solution: By letting the player control positioning only, we tuned enemy density and arena layouts to force smart jukes and movement patterns. The unpredictability of dice powers encouraged adaptive runs.

Personal Highlight: Designing the multi-dice system. Watching players juggle three dice, each triggering black holes, turrets, and clouds simultaneously—it was the kind of chaotic fun that feels earned through smart upgrades.

• Modular Power Framework: All powers are structured as scriptable events triggered on dice impact. Easy to iterate, swap, and test combinations.
• Enemy Spawning System: Built with curve-based wave escalation—early waves teach movement, later waves overwhelm on purpose.
• Performance Optimization: We had to use pooled projectiles and simplified geometry to keep the game fluid even when 100+ entities are on screen.

Cube Survivor gave me a chance to push roguelite mechanics into a fresh space. It blends the chaos of Vampire Survivors, the humor of a talking mage sidekick, and the satisfaction of tactically mastering movement under pressure.

It’s one of those games where the screen turns into a swirling storm of destruction—and you feel like you’re the eye of the hurricane.