- DevBlog #9 - automated testing - 7 July 2025
TLDR automated tests to be sure I'm not breaking anything cleaned the code by deleting 23,000 lines of unused code worked on several cutscenes I am working again on God is a Cube. I am aware that last years I only worked a few days at a time on the game, and that it was mostly because everything is a mess. So I am documenting everything, as I reinstall all software on my new computer (such as Unity), to make the whole process easier. I struggled at some points, then realized that I just needed to read again all previous devblog entries. With hindsight, some of this stuff is crazy, but at least, I can build on the effort I put in the past to make things better. MonoDevelop I wanted to use Visual Studio, but I still don't find a way to connect the debugger. So I will have to use MonoDevelop, at least for debugging. I want to use the dark mode for MonoDevelop, but MonoDevelop has custom th…
- DevBlog #8 - Humble Bundle info - 10 February 2024
TL;DR Steam Cloud Saves will be added Humble Bundle backers list Steam Cloud Saves For the Advanced Features "Online Save feature", it will be provided through Steam Cloud Saves and available to everybody. When I announced an Online Save feature, back in 2015, I did not know about Steam Cloud Saves. I can read it exists since 2008, so I guess it's my mistake not knowing about that. Currently, the Steam Cloud Save is not active, and the game saves its database in your AppData directory. You can easily find your save by launching the game and look in the Options, there is a button to open the directory where the save is. I edited the Advanced Feature page product on Steam to remove mention of the Online Save feature, and I will implement Steam Cloud Saves with their developer tool. Mini crowdfunding When the Early Access was launched in 2017, people could prebuy the game on the website, l…
- DevBlog #7 - sound design, ending cutscenes status, smoother camera zoom - 3 February 2024
TL;DR remove popup ad update the website sounds added smoother camera zoom better dark cubes percentage ending cutscenes status Remove popup ad to join community I removed the ad to join the Steam community, which was launched after the cutscene for completing a chapter. Back in the day, it was an ad to vote for the game on Greenlight. Now that I look at it, I see that some icons are not clear (like already done), and that there is no way to actually say "no" or "don't bother me again". On the plus side, removing this ad was really easy. The game relies on a "playing phases" system, where every part of the game is a phase: editing a solution, playing the solution, displaying the galaxy map, etc. And all transitions between two phases are managed with a specific function, which allows to add custom code for this transition only. The main purpose was to avoid a nightmare of "if" tests to…
- DevBlog #6 - game cache, website, new payment, special thanks - 2 August 2023
TL;DR update the offline cache for level results update the website new payment by Valve a special thank for DevBlog readers Level Results offline cache In case the server is not reachable, there is an offline cache of the levels results inside the game. The offline cache is really old, as it dates from 2016 October 4th. I replaced it with a recent version. To generate the cache, I had to call an online function on the server, from Unity editor. It was rather complicated, as the game needed to load real data ingame before using the editor menu to call the server. Hopefully, Postman makes the whole process easier, as I can use it to call the server in post mode, with binary files (containing the requested level and version list) attached to the body. I can even use the "Save Response" button to directly save the server's data to the cache file. https://i.imgur.com/4HlC6KV.gif With this n…
- DevBlox #5 - Player stats, new release date - 16 July 2023
TL;DR new release date is first half of 2024 the server still records data people are still playing the game Player stats Part of my real life job consists to work on data, mainly to create automated reports. So here are a few reports to see the health of the game's data. On the last 12 months, there is an average of 14.17 different players every month! As those are stats from the server, it also includes stats from pirates. But as pirates often use the default name saved in the hacked game, it shoud not impact the total stats too much. This being said, I have no way to clearly distinguish Steam players from pirates. And Steam does not provide stats from players at all. I know there are websites recording Steam games activity, but they seem to look only at certain time intervals, and the game's numbers are too small and sporadic to be recorded this way. No matter what, I'm glad people a…
- DevBlog #4 - First small feature, todo list, sensitive data, server data - 9 July 2023
TL;DR Started to create new small features Making on a TODO list Removing sensitive info from the GitHub online source save Downloading data from the server to verify it First small new feature: music slider For a first new feature, I'm starting really small. As I worked recently on the Options, I added a small thing I always wanted for the game: a real time music volume slider. So we can hear in real time the volume of the music when changing it in the options. TODO list I am making a TODO list for everything to do for the game. I want it to stay really simple, and to be manageable line by line, so I can easily put higher the things I want to do first. I selected a few action words: add: a new feature remove: something to remove from the project (including cleaning) change: modify an existing aspect fix: correct a bug For writing a TODO element, I am starting with the action verb, then…
- DevBlog #3 - First bug corrected, code editor setup, save code on private GitHub - 4 July 2023
I'm writing down a few notes about my process. I think it is interesting for players, and it could help other developers. Maybe I will make it into a series of article! Also, it will be precious to be able to come back here in a few years, just to find a tool url or info I will have written down. Code Editor I started the project in 2012 with the tools available back then. I spent years using the code editor MonoDevelop, before switching to Visual Studio 2010. The code editor attaches itself to Unity, and can easily debug the game. The thing is, it's now rather difficult to install Visual Studio 2010 with the Unity Tools from back then. And I don't think it's possible to connect Visual Studio 2022 to Unity 4 from 2012. So I have to switch back to MonoDevelop, the one built in Unity 4. I tried to setup MonoDevelop with a dark theme (black screen and white text), but it looks like themes…
- DevBlog #2 - Removing Mac support, can still create executables, some stats - 2 July 2023
I intend to write regularly on my work on God is a Cube. Those will be small news. I think it's better to have too much news than too few. Here is the Dropping Mac support (keeing Windows and Linux support) Can still create working builds (Windows, and Linux I guess) Money lost on the game Still counting on wishlists Next: will correct bugs The unnecessary files After thinking about it, I realize that having too much unnecessary files is not a problem. Yes, it's cumbersome to look at some folders, but it's not blocking anything. I should focus on making sure that all necessary files are still there. The best test to be sure everything is in order is to create a new build of the game. To do: remove unnecessary filesfocus on the build The build The whole build process is still working! I can create new executables, and they are running fine. I just have to change a few lines of configurat…
- DevBlog #1 - God is a Cube resuming development - 20 June 2023
Introduction I intend to resume development on God is a Cube, and to actually finish it. The game is still "99% finished", with a lot of small things to make it better. It's true that there is a lot of unattended business. Questions I did not want to ask myself and things I did not want to see. That's why I did not want to take the risk to open the project, or even to start making another game. But I realized that my real life efforts to improve my life have paid of. My life is stable, I have a good job enough to start working again on a video game project without the risk of devoting again my whole life to it. Besides, I became a C# expert, working on high performance software for top banking and oil companies. All the things that were drawing me back on God is a Cube now feel far much easier. Not that I became smarter, it's just that I clearly did not know how to work properly on a 50…
- Pop Culture Days: a succesful press event in Paris - 11 October 2018
https://i.imgur.com/Z8RrAhl.jpg God is a Cube was presented at the press event Pop Culture Days in Paris, where only journalists and influencers were allowed. https://i.imgur.com/KVD0xi3.png This is me, Marc Kruzik. I'm making the game. There I met tens of journalists, blogers and influencers interested to write about the game. https://i.imgur.com/rj2iEMC.jpg Every journalist got a lot of goodies Of course those articles will be available in french publications, and that's a first very big step. Thanks to all those who tested God is a Cube! If you are interested to know more about this event, here is a full presentation of all geek products presented (in french): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3B5x75G1CY&t=1015s Meet indie video game developers If you are in Paris and want to meet indie developers and play their games, just send me an email and I will give you some invitation. The dev…
