The Unity Cubeis an objectively terrible game that was built to test the limits of what Quest content Meta would allow into its uncurated App Lab program. The experiment continues to prove its worth; now that Meta has dissolved App Lab,The Unity Cube hasmoved tothe main Quest store and shown that Meta is truly hands-off when it comes to the scope or quality of what can get listed in its VR game store.
For a long time the only official way to distribute an app on Quest was to submit it to Meta for manualreview. But Meta would only accept applications which met opaque quality criteria, like how much content the app offered and whether it was appropriately polished. This made it difficult for developers to get smaller or experimental apps in front of the Quest audience, leading to significant developer outcry for a more open process.
That prompted the creation of ‘App Lab’, an alternative distribution approach for Quest which allowed developers to submit applications for distribution without any judgement on quality or scope. But it came with the caveat that App Lab apps wouldn’t be shown in the main Quest store, leaving it up to developers to point their audience to the app’s page.
To test whether Meta was going truly hands-off when it came to the quality of App Lab apps,developerTony “SkarredGhost” Vitillo createdThe Unity Cube.
As the name implies, the app is simply a blank Unity environment with a grey cube—that you can’t even interact with. Even at the great price offree, this app would have never stood a chance of making it onto the main Quest store. But could it make it onto App Lab?
Indeed, Meta allowed The Unity Cube into App Lab, proving it would let just about anything into the program, as long as technical requirements were met and content guidelines were respected (ie: no adult or illegal content).
It was good news that developers could submit any app to App Lab for distribution on Quest without worrying that Meta would block an app on the grounds that it wasn’t complete or polished enough. Butsentiment remained that having this ‘unlisted’ Quest store made it unnecessarily difficult for developers to find customers.
After several years of App Lab, developer pressure finally pushed Meta to dissolve the program, ultimately merging the App Lab store with the main Quest store. This meant anyone could submit an app of any quality to the main Quest store where it would be visible to customers through browsing and searching.
Last week The Unity Cubecompleted its journey and became listed on the main Quest store, along with other App Lab apps, again proving that Meta would be truly hands-off on curation.
And though it’s still possible for developers to mark their Quest apps as “Early Access”—to tell customers to expect something experimental or incomplete—The Unity Cube’s creator joked that “it’s not even in Early Access because it is perfect as it is!”
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Don't forget how now-app store darling Gorilla Tag spent ages languishing in AppLab.
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Sven Viking
See AlsoHow To Find And Install App Lab Games On Quest 2 (Updated 2022)App Lab für Oculus Quest (2): Alle Spiele, Apps und ErfahrungenBest App Lab Games To Play On Oculus Quest And Quest 2How To Find And Install App Lab Apps On Oculus Quest - Virtual UncleIt was there for some time even after becoming [one of?] the most popular apps on Quest.
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Christian Schildwaechter
AFAIR Gorilla Tag even became the most profitable Quest game while still on App Lab, which was an extremely impressive achievement.
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Bram
Nice review, but I think you're being to critical! The unity cube is ranked 4.5 stars and for a reason. It's the asmr of visuals. Anybody searching true balance in It's life should try it. Inner peace guaranteed. I would only suggest a quest 3 visual upgrade to the developper, but apart from that it's perfect!
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Andreas
The cube made me reflect on my life choices in a way that few VR experiences ever had before. I laughed, I cried. Solid 4 stars out of 5.
Look forward to the inevitable sequel.
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Nevets
It sounds better than any cuboid promise Peter Molyneaux would make.
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xyzs
I'd love to hear about the latest best VR game, but since nothing like that has existed since March 2020, we have articles about the newest worst ones..
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Christian Schildwaechter
How can it be the worst Quest game, when the first image clearly shows it got two thumbs up? It even served a real purpose by testing App Lab limits, and I'd argue that it cannot be the worst Quest game, simply because by doing nothing, it won't cause harm to the players, something other VR games clearly manage.
I vividly remember a badly optimized Cardboard racing car game where you had to drive through a vertical loop. Very low frame rates made it difficult to even enter the loop, let alone with the right speed to make it around. So the game play was 10sec of trying to aim for the loop, followed by immediately getting thrown out and then tumbling around three axis at less than 5fps due to the physics overwhelming the phone. Basically a slideshow of random perspectives from inside a car tumbling down a cliff. My VR stomach is made of chrome vanadium steel, and this was too much even for me. Compared to that the Unity Cube provides a nice and relaxing atmosphere without reproducibly making you want to puke 15sec after you've launched it, making it an objectively better experience.
And I'm sure that even this Cardboard loop racer wasn't the worst VR game ever. The worst VR game ever was probably immediately destroyed by its developers out of shame, fearing horrible retribution against themselves and their families, causing them to destroy all evidence it ever existed and then burning down the house, just to be sure. Fortunately they didn't resort to nuking it from orbit.
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Simplex
"How can it be the worst Quest game,"
Because the title is clickbait.
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ZarathustraDK
This is just the PCVR-game "Unity Dodecahedron" scaled down to work on standalone Quest hmd's at an acceptable framerate.
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Itakis
The Unity Cube is probably the more and most perfect app in VR history.
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The author illuminated how to 'app lab'.
The whole process was publish showing the yellow bricks road to Oz.
Thaks for the best app lab app ever. XD-
Arno van Wingerde
Ah! Essentially it is a very Zen type meditation App!
But … will they ever make a Cube v2 with optimisation for the Quest3?-
Christian Schildwaechter
Hm, difficult. The Unity Cube was released on Quest 2, which, as the name implies, will only process 2D data from its tracking cameras. Now you would expect an advanced VR app like Unity Cube to require actual 3D data that only the depth sensor on the aptly named Quest 3 can provide, but thanks to advanced tracking algorithms created by Meta scientists, pseudo 3D data could already be faked very well on the 2D Quest 2, barely distinguishable from reality.
So the Unity Cube wouldn't gain a lot from the data point cloud that the Quest 3 can now provide. I suspect we will have to wait for Quest 4, which obviously should integrate 4D data sensing, for either a remake or a sequel called Hypercube that can fully utilize the extra dimensions added with every new Meta VR hardware generation.
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Christian Schildwaechter
If you'd do the same to a tea pot and a bunny, you could claim to have successfully tracked down all the legends of 3D. Maybe also add a low poly monkey head to avoid getting chastised by the FOSS community for ignoring their not only golden, but multi-material idol.
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Sven Viking
They may have overcorrected.
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Simplex
Thank you Tony for creating one of the best VR apps ever.
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LazyFox
This looks far more advanced than a 'game' I recall people sarcastically pushing in the early 2000s called The Darkened Room or something like that.
I can't find it now, but that 'game' was literally nothing except an empty window.
This one has a cube!
