Cube Crusaders Launches on Steam With 16-Player Horde Chaos

Released after several years of public development, Cube Crusaders is now available on Steam with a campaign built around side-scrolling sci-fi combat and a separate Horde Mode capable of supporting up to 16 tested online players.

Developer and publisher Frentwick Indie launched the Windows version on September 18. A free demo remains available, while the full game currently has a 15% introductory discount until September 25.

The story sends a Cube Crusader beneath the surface of Adoros after a Void Anomaly begins distorting the planet and producing increasingly hostile creatures. Its campaign mixes platforming, shooting, bosses and exploration through what the developer describes as Metroidvania-style underground environments.

The campaign can be played solo or with two-player local co-op, while online multiplayer is reserved for Horde Mode. Developer Jacob Francis explained to GLN that mouse and keyboard is his recommended setup for solo play, while two controllers are preferable for local co-op.

Frentwick Indie estimated earlier this year that a normal campaign run should take roughly two hours, with quicker completion possible once players know the most efficient routes between objectives. Horde Mode and the game’s replay modifiers are intended to extend the experience beyond that comparatively short story run.

Horde Mode Gets Much Bigger Than the Campaign

Horde Mode shifts the game away from structured exploration and towards endless survival against increasingly numerous and dangerous enemies.

Frentwick Indie says the mode has been tested with up to 16 players online, while two people can also play locally. Unusually, hosts can configure a lobby as high as 200 players, but the developer openly warns that anything beyond 16 has not been tested.

I think that warning is important because “supports 200 players” would make for a great headline while giving completely the wrong impression. Sixteen-player Horde is the tested feature; 200 is essentially an experimental host setting that may or may not survive contact with an actual lobby full of people.

Credits earned through the campaign and Horde Mode can also unlock Nightmare Mode, which substantially increases the number of enemies thrown at the group. Curse Modifiers provide another route to replayability by altering the rules rather than simply increasing enemy health or damage.

During the game’s SAGE 2025 appearance, Frentwick Indie showed examples ranging from total darkness and reduced ammunition to instant-death conditions and even birthday confetti. The same showcase advertised more than 200 possible gear combinations across armour, visor colours and particle effects.

None of that customisation is being sold separately. The current Steam listing states that unlocks are obtained exclusively through gameplay and that Cube Crusaders contains no microtransactions.

Cube Crusaders Has Been Growing in Public for Years

The September launch is the end of a much longer public development cycle.

Frentwick Indie brought an earlier version of Cube Crusaders to SAGE 2023, before releasing its standalone Steam demo on May 10, 2024. The demo continued receiving significant changes afterwards, including new weapons, friendly AI and additional campaign content.

At SAGE 2025, developer Jacob Francis described himself as a solo developer from Canada who had already spent more than two years working on the project while balancing development with work and his personal life. That version of the demo contained the entire Horde Mode, character customisation and the first full campaign level.

An earlier developer diary gives some insight into where the game’s visual identity came from too. Francis singled out Halo as the major inspiration for Cube Crusaders’ armour customisation, particularly the idea that a player’s equipment could suggest something about the character they had created rather than simply changing colours.

That development path is not unusual among the smallest PC releases. O.B.O.L recently made its own jump from an experimental indie project into a full Steam game, while Cube Crusaders has spent years using demos and showcase builds to gradually expand its campaign and multiplayer systems.

The game was still changing substantially only six months before launch. A March 2026 update added eight campaign areas beyond the original demo level, early mech controls, NPCs, objective tracking and major changes to lighting and loading behaviour. Frentwick Indie was still targeting an August release at that stage.

By June, development had moved further into Horde Mode optimisation, including work designed to reduce CPU spikes as large groups of enemies were killed simultaneously. That update also added Player 2 healing, respawn changes and additional co-op information above characters.

The final Steam launch ultimately arrived on September 18, after earlier storefront listings had pointed to dates earlier in the month. SteamDB records the release build becoming publicly available at 15:39 UTC that day.

Frentwick Indie is not treating release as the end either. The developer currently promises six months of post-launch updates, with community suggestions and bug fixes expected to feed into that period. Francis also told GLN that he is “quite aggressive in tackling feedback”, encouraging players to report any game-breaking bugs they encounter.

For PC requirements, Cube Crusaders asks for Windows 10, 8 GB of RAM, a quad-core 2.5 GHz CPU, DirectX 11 and 15 GB of storage. An NVIDIA GTX 470 or AMD Radeon HD 6870 is listed as the minimum GPU. The current release supports English interface text, subtitles and full audio, and includes 18 Steam achievements.

With only a handful of user reviews available so soon after release, there is not enough evidence yet to draw any meaningful conclusion about player reception. For now, the free demo remains the most useful way to see whether its mix of platforming, shooting and co-op Horde survival clicks before buying.