Q.U.B.E Earns Its Keep

Indie Puzzler, Q.U.B.E, has made back its $80,000 Indie Fund investment in four days.

In the short time since its release on Steam, Q.U.B.E has sold just over 12,000 copies. That’s earned developer Toxic Games enough to pay back their indie fund budget. As of today, all the proceeds generated by sales of the game are going into the big bag marked “profit.”

The Indie Fund, founded and maintained by a gaggle of big indie names including Braid creator Jonathan Blow and World of Goo creators Kyle Gabler and Ron Carmel, provides much-needed funding for select indie projects in exchange for a proportion of the games profits, assuming there are any. Q.U.B.E is the first game to be made using the fund.

Q.U.B.E’s budget was originally set at $42k, but mid-development it became clear the game was going to run over budget. The Indie Fund ended up paying out another $37.5k for an end-total of nearly eighty grand. A daunting goal for a first-time game from an unproven indie developer. Toxic Games, however, has delivered.

Although a little rough around the edges in some places, and a touch on the short side, Q.U.B.E is a fun little puzzler with a couple of unique ideas. The fact it closely-resembles a certain other first-person puzzle game with a cult-following and a tendency towards sterile lab environments doesn’t hurt either.

You can currently pick up Q.U.B.E on the PC for $14.99.