We Interview: The CUBE with Founder and CEO of Mundfish Rob Bagratuni

You thought Mundfish was only treating you to a sequel? In a stunning announcement, another game is coming to the Atomic Heart universe, this one in the shape of something square. The CUBE is not at all what we expected from Mundfish, and the Founder and CEO Rob Bagratuni stopped by to talk about this new spinoff — with the help of a translator to give us the best responses.

People might know the name Atomic Heart, especially more than The CUBE (which is the official title). Although still a growing franchise, the world of Atomic Heart is outstanding with a ton of amazing lore and style. Given its affiliations with the Atomic Heart world, what is the most important element Mundfish could pull from it into The CUBE?

This answer took a very interesting turn. The CUBE is more than just a metaphor, but an event where this, for lack of a better term, huge thing appears. While I’m not completely sure on the timeline, it does occur after the original Atomic Heart. This big event seizes the attention of all the scientists of the world – they want to discover what The CUBE is and what it can offer. Using Atomic Heart’s world as a birthplace for The CUBE was the breeding ground it was able to grow in.

You may not know this, but The CUBE is actually an MMO-style FPS. Building an online game is a new mountain for Mundfish to climb. This poses the question, what challenges have they faced designing a multiplayer game in comparison to a single player one in Atomic Heart?

The technological aspect was one of the largest challenges the team dealt with. Rob said they actually had to rewrite physics, ballistics, gravitation, and fool video cards into not wasting calculations in some of what they were writing in the code. For the first time in the history of video games, building something like The CUBE is possible because of the tech involved. This cube is thousands of spinning objects simultaneously, occurring in real time for players. Mundfish feel like this is their technical masterpiece, being able to craft something of this magnitude. Some of the inspiration in their design came from the Crysis games. It was a game that pushed technological boundaries forward, something Mundfish thinks The CUBE will do as well.

Being an online game also lends itself to another question. Is this a competitive or cooperative experience? Or is The CUBE just a single player game with online elements?

Rob emphasized that this game is an MMORPG. While you’ll be online, the exploration of The CUBE is where their focus is. There are plenty of enemies, and you’ll have to fight them, and possibly even engage them in other ways. You’ll also get the opportunity to play solo, but also in a group if you want to game with friends. Going on the adventure and discovering what The CUBE holds is what will make it special in Mundfish’s eyes, so the online element is more secondary.

If you build an online game, you’re going to have to think ahead with content, which is where the money is made. We had to ask, how does the live service element affect The CUBE? For many studios, they have to pivot most of their team onto the project just to ensure a steady stream of content.

Content is key, the team knows that. They expect with as many times as players will investigate The CUBE that more updates will be crucial to its success. Thankfully, they already have plenty of crazy ideas waiting in the wings, ready to insert as they plan the post-launch phases for The CUBE. They may not be immune to the GaaS formula, but they’re doing their best to make sure The CUBE has a long life span.

Pivoting to an area away from the online talk, we were interested in more of what The CUBE actually is. What is the one thing they want interested players to grasp when they see The CUBE’s first teaser? You can drive interest with mystery, but you can’t always drive purchases without players understanding your hook.

It took a moment for the best translation of our question to come through, but it was worth asking. Rob postulated that player’s minds are tired and overloaded of the constant inflow of media, with the majority of them repetitive. Mundfish wants to bring something fresh and unique to gamers, not something simply regurgitated from every other video game or media. Unique, inspirational, and unusual were all terms used to describe The CUBE, and if you take a look at the images throughout the article, that comes through.

Our last question was more personal, and to Rob specifically. As the Game Director for Atomic Heart 2 along with the Creative Lead for The CUBE, do you feel intimidated at all by the pressure of developing two games at the same time? That’s a whole lot to be working on, and he’s also the CEO of Mundfish.

We loved the answer Rob gave us. He doesn’t view these as two separate games. Similar to Ridley Scott building the Alien universe, what he is working on in the world of Atomic Heart is one creation that is taking on several forms. To him, he’s not doing two games, he’s crafting and imagining the Atomic Heart universe. To us, this is the kind of attitude you need to be able to handle this kind of complex vision, and Rob is acing it in his approach.

It may be a ways away, but The CUBE sounds like one of the most intriguing projects from an AA video game maker in recent history. If they pull off what they’re attempting to create, we know we’ll be all over The CUBE. Thanks again to Rob for speaking with us about the latest  from Mundfish!