Cubeats

Inspiration

We intentionally steered away from the common futuristic look of many VR rhythm games. Our core inspiration comes from nostalgia for 90s analog technology, specifically the satisfyingly clunky experience of using cassettes and recorders to create simple, physical tracks.

This guided our aesthetic toward a retro cool & cozy visual style, blending:

Warmth: Simple paneling and soft, ambient lighting (the "workshop" environment).
Pop: Striking, vibrant neon and LED elements for the visual feedback (the samples and cubes).

By leaning into this tactile, vintage aesthetic, we aim to offer players a unique and cozy VR experience that feels genuinely hands-on and distinct from the sleek, digital environments often found in the genre.

What It Does

This is a VR rhythm puzzle game where the player acts as a music engineer. The goal is to rebuild a target musical sequence using physical, tactile objects instead of traditional graphs or charts.

The core loop involves:

Selection: Inserting old virtual cassettes to define the musical mood.
Extraction: Grabbing sound samples (symbols) emitted from the player.
Creation: Merging the sample with a colored cube to create a vibrating, animated musical block.
Sequencing: Arranging these blocks in the correct order on the Sequencing Table.

The design goal is to provide a truly cozy, tactile, and retro experience where the abstract concept of a musical note is transformed into a tangible object you can manipulate.

How We Built It

We used Unity 3D as the primary game engine for its robust VR development pipeline. All custom analog components and the cozy workshop environment were modeled using Blender.

We adopted an agile development philosophy:

We started with a broad, ambitious concept.
We rapidly extracted the core game loop (Cassette to Sample to Cube to Table).
We focused all efforts on making this single loop fun, tactile, and visually compelling enough to stand as a simple, compelling level for the prototype phase.

Challenges We Ran Into

Our primary challenge was the strict time constraint. We had only three weeks for concept ideation, asset creation, and initial development. This required disciplined scope management to ensure the core loop was polished rather than attempting to include all planned future features. Despite the short timeline, we maintained focus and successfully implemented the core tactile mechanics.

Accomplishments We're Proud Of

We are most proud of successfully achieving the intended tactile and atmospheric experience.

Visual Fidelity: The game is visually cohesive, successfully merging the retro-analog aesthetic with vibrant neon light effects.
Tactile Feel: The interactions (grabbing samples, slamming them into cubes) feel satisfyingly chunky and physical.
Atmosphere: The animations and visual effects create an engaging, cozy atmosphere that truly complements the music creation process.

What We Learned

Audio Implementation: We gained a deeper understanding of music samples, including how they must be precisely timed and layered to fit seamlessly within the same rhythmic time loop.
VR Best Practices: We refined our knowledge of best practices for intuitive VR interaction, particularly in designing tactile hand-tracking mechanics (using Meta's SDK build blocks) that feel natural and satisfying.

What's Next for Cubeats

Gameplay Refinement: Return to the drawing board to implement the future mechanics identified in the GDD, such as tempo/pitch tuning, negative samples, and multi-hand interactions.
Content Expansion: Significantly grow the sample and cassette library to increase replayability and genre diversity.
Robust Development: Transition the prototype into a more robust, stable game, ready for wider testing, expansion, and exhibition.