A free logic puzzle from solo developer Markus (Hinten Software), with a demo live during Steam Next Fest and the full game arriving November 5.
The Cube Sweeper demo is a free logic puzzle from solo developer Markus (Hinten Software), built on the rules of Minesweeper but played on a cube you can rotate. Every number counts the mines touching that tile, and here “touching” continues over edges, corners, tunnels and holes. According to the developer, every board is solvable by pure logic, with no guessing.
Once the rules clicked, I really enjoyed it. It rewards reasoning and deduction, and it also exercises memory: you have to keep track of where the logic has already placed a mine while you rotate the board and read the next face.
🖱️ The game relies on right-clicks and Ctrl + right-click probes. A comfortable gaming mouse makes long deduction sessions easier on your hand.
A Tutorial That Works as a Manual
The Learning Journey has 25 chapters, and the game says you can open any of them at any time. Part I covers the basics: reading numbers, flagging mines and chording, which reveals a number’s remaining neighbors once its flags are in place. The tutorial warns you to chord only when you’re sure, and in the Learning Journey the first mine you hit only gives a warning.
Part II moves into 3D, and this is where the challenge gets interesting. The tutorial gives you one image to carry through the whole game: pour water on the surface, and wherever it flows in one step, a mine’s count travels too. A probe (Ctrl + right-click) draws a violet outline around every tile a tile touches, over every edge, and the outline stays while you turn the board. Each chapter then adds a new shape to read: edges, corners, folds, pits, thin walls, tunnels. The tutorial itself calls tunnels the hardest reading in the game.
Layers That Deepen the Challenge
- Gems. In Gem hunt mode, amber dots on revealed tiles point to cubes that hold a gem. You read them like numbers, and you dig only once the dots have pinned the cube down. Mines decide the game and gems reward it, so you are solving two puzzles on one board.
- Expedition. Every three gems form a Lifeline that absorbs one mine hit, so skillful digging buys you a margin for error.
- Techniques. The late chapters teach classics like the 1-2-1 pattern, reduction (subtracting known mines from the numbers around them) and the what-if, where you assume a flag and test it until a number contradicts it. The mine counter is a clue too. The final chapter shows these patterns working on an edge of the cube.
- Hints. The Hint button never plays for you, and every press is recorded on your result.
What I like most is that the tutorial doesn’t just explain the rules. It gives you tools that make you want to think harder. By default, the first click is always safe and every board is certified solvable by logic (a Hardcore switch in Settings turns both guarantees off). When a board stumps you, the answer is always there to be deduced.
Try It
The free demo includes unlimited Easy boards, sixteen Intermediate and Professional boards, daily boards on all four tiers and the full Learning Journey, and your progress carries over to the full game. The Expert tier is locked in the demo. The menu says the developer has never beaten it.
The demo is on Steam during Steam Next Fest (October 19 to 26). The full game launches on November 5 for Windows and Mac at $9.99.
🧊 Prefer your cubes in the real world? A classic Rubik’s Cube is a great companion for anyone who likes rotating shapes and solving them.
Free demo on Steam: Cube Sweeper | Trailer: watch on YouTube
Images courtesy of the developer.
Disclosure: the developer contacted QG Reloaded and provided press material. I played the free demo only, without a press key, and this post was not paid for.
As an Amazon Associate, QG Reloaded earns from qualifying purchases.
