Dev Diary: sci-fi shooter and roguelike AEROCUBE | Unreal Fellowship: Games | SoloDev

Aleksandr Mukhitdinov
Thu, 29 May 2025 19:32:25 +0000
Showcase

store.steampowered.com

AEROCUBE on Steam

AEROCUBE is a Ski-Fi Roguelike + First-Person Boomer Shooter in a huge mysterious cube that always rotates randomly. Each room of AEROCUBE is different, but one thing stays the same: something’s always behind you, ready to kill.

Genres: Arcade, FPS, Roguelike, Sci-Fi, Space, Action, Dystopian.

My name is Alexander Mukhitdinov, I’m a solo developer who has worked with game engines like Unity, RPG Maker, and GMS2, but in my opinion Unreal Engine is the best fit for the choices I make in game development. I was incredibly lucky to be selected as one of only 50 participants out of 500 applicants worldwide for the Unreal Fellowship: Games.

Fellowship lead Edward Bennett said on Youtube in Everything about Unreal Fellowship that Unreal Fellowship can be considered as “an intense game jam” and I think it really fits the definition of Unreal Fellowship.

It was the first game jam I’ve ever participated in, and I used all my knowledge to make the best game I could in such a short time. Since I’m a solo developer who sells games on Steam, I’ve gotten used to making my own assets and AEROCUBE wasn’t an exception. Assets that have been used are created by me.

Fellowship gameplay trailer (2 min):

AEROCUBE: game made solo with my own assets (Early version)

I was working on the game as a fellowship project in May 6th - May 27th (22 days), although I wasted some days because l was making stylized assets which I had to leave behind.

Fellowship Week | Date | Stage | Description
Week 1 | May 6 - May 11 | Idea stage | It’s really important to decide on the genre and style early on. Especially if you’re creating your own assets like I do. At first, I was working on a stylized shooter called Cubie shooter, but I ended up completely changing the concept to a more serious sci-fi game called AEROCUBE. Below is a completely finished robot I spent 2–3 days creating, but I had to scrap it once I decided to switch to a realistic style

Fellowship Week | Date | Stage | Description
Week 2 | May 12 - May 18 | Creating systems | 1)Created shooting system; 2)Created realistic lighting; 3)VFX; 4)Created all materials; 5)UI; 6)Added some 3D models.

Fellowship Week | Date | Stage | Description
Week 3 | May 19 - May 25 | More systems and polisihing | 1)Chaos destruction; 2)System of movement; 3)Sounds; 4)Fixes

Fellowship Week | Date | Stage | Description
Week 4 (2 days only) | May 26 - May 27 | Packaging, fixes then rest | In May 27th for first time in my life in one day I made 5 builds in one day to fix bugs as fast as possible for testers. I’ll never forget this the most intense day of fellowship.

Even though the Unreal Fellowship has ended, I’ll continue updating the game. (See the next message for updates.)

Advice for Unreal Engine developers:

1. If you make game on a slow PC it’s actually great, because your game will turn out to be optimized since you’ll be always careful

2. The earlier you decide what game you’re going to make the better

3. Publish the page on Steam or Epic Games Store as soon as possible and keep working on your game

4. If you make all assets on your own like me please decide in the beginning what kind of game it will be and be sure its the best option for you

5. If you live in a hot country like me - be prepared and good luck! I had 33-40°C almost each day, it slowed my work with the game a lot, but if you start something great like a fellowship game you should never stop.

I hope you like what I did. Let me know what you think.

Also don’t forget to wishlist and follow AEROCUBE on Steam:

store.steampowered.com

AEROCUBE on Steam

AEROCUBE is a Ski-Fi Roguelike + First-Person Boomer Shooter in a huge mysterious cube that always rotates randomly. Each room of AEROCUBE is different, but one thing stays the same: something’s always behind you, ready to kill.

EDIT:
Systems that were used in this project:
-Lumen;
-UMG (Widget animations, rich textes);
-Chaos destruction;
-Physics and gravitation;
-Materials;
-Niagra (VFX);
-Blueprints;
-AI;
-Post-process.

Cheers,
Alexander

4 posts - 2 participants