Cubzh wants to build the next-generation Minecraft

Meet Cubzh, a new free-to-play video game that is all about user-generated content through a cube system. The company has designed a new platform from scratch and wants to empower creators with the ability to create new objects, build worlds and define games rules thanks to a scripting environment.

This summer, the company raised a $3 million seed round led by New Wave with several angels also participating, such as Docker founder Solomon Hykes and Sorare CEO Nicolas Julia.

“It’s a homemade engine. That’s why we have spent a long time in stealth mode making sure it works,” co-founder and CEO Adrien Duermaël told me.

This C/C++ engine runs on PC, macOS, iOS, Android and web browsers. In other words, if you are reading this post, chances are you have a device that can run Cubzh.

What you will play in Cubzh will depend on other users. Essentially, Cubzh is a gaming platform that can power different gaming experiences — a bit like Roblox.

“Players who can’t write scripts will be able to create objects, draw swords and vehicles. Soon, we will add an animation editor. Those who can code will be able to incorporate those objects in their games,” Duermaël said.

As for game development, Cubzh isn’t using a no-code approach. Everything is currently based on Lua scripting. Cubzh takes care of the basics, such as collisions and multiplayer code. The rest is up to the players’ imagination.

Right now, Cubzh is available as an alpha test. The company is thinking about web3 mechanisms as a monetization route. For instance, Cubzh could take a cut on primary and secondary sales of objects. Content creators would earn royalties on their creations based on usage.

But the company hasn’t launched a marketplace just yet. It doesn’t know if there will be a utility token either. Now that the basic features are here, the company will focus on all these upper layer features.

Eventually, Cubzh hopes that it can create a sort of digital version of Lego. And maybe some Minecraft creators will find Cubzh more interesting and move to this new game platform.