Outside the Blocks: Interview with Solo Dev Michał Kubas

Creating Tiny Worlds – A Q&A with Outside the Blocks Developer Michał Kubas

Outside the Blocks is the work of solo developer Michał Kubas, who has been quietly building a detailed medieval diorama sandbox where every wall, rooftop, and tiny prop can be placed, tweaked, and lit just so. After featuring the game as our Game of the Week 30, we wanted to follow up with Michał on how he approaches scope, player feedback, and the realities of building such a polished creative tool largely on his own.

In this interview, Michał talks about why he’s keeping the current set grounded in history rather than fantasy, why 3D printing isn’t on the roadmap, how he’s thinking about updates in 2026, and what players have done to change his plans along the way.

Outside the Blocks

Release: November 4, 2025 (Full Release)

Genre: Creative sandbox diorama builder

Developer / Publisher: Michał Kubas

Platforms: PC — Steam

If you missed our full Outside the Blocks feature, you can read our Game of the Week 30 coverage on Fix Gaming Channel here.

Outside the Blocks – Cozy Diorama Building Gameplay Trailer

1) Scope & themes. Have you considered broadening beyond historical buildings – e.g., themed packs (mythology, fantasy, folklore) or scene “stories” – or do you want to stay firmly focused on architecture and environments for now?

For the medieval set, I plan to stay firmly within a historical setting. I’ll be adding new elements over time, but they’ll remain stylistically consistent with what’s already in the game.

My focus is on expanding both the architectural pieces and the library of props, so players can build scenes that feel richer in storytelling: depicting professions, daily life, or specific moments. I want to give players more tools to tell small, grounded stories within this world, rather than branching out into fantasy.

2) 3D printing. Many players ask about turning their scenes into physical models. Could export-to-print (STL/OBJ) be feasible, and what hurdles do you see (scale, overhangs/supports, licensing of assets, non-commercial terms)?

There’s definitely a group of players who’d love to 3D print their creations and honestly, I think that would be amazing too. Unfortunately, that feature will never make it into the game.

The first reason is licensing: the game uses assets that I have the rights to render in-game, but not to redistribute or export, so making them available for printing would violate those terms.

The second reason is technical – game models and printable models follow completely different rules. The assets are heavily optimized for performance, not for physical structure, so they simply wouldn’t print properly.

3) Solo dev realities. What’s been the hardest part of building Outside the Blocks alone – tools/engine work, art pipeline, performance on large scenes, or something else – and how did you work through it?

The game wasn’t especially hard to make in a technical sense, just incredibly time-consuming and repetitive. There’s a lot of content and a lot of small systems that all need attention, which can be overwhelming for one person.

The hardest part was staying motivated over such a long development time. Finding the energy to keep pushing forward week after week. And it’s definitely not over. I still want to keep pushing, refining, and expanding the project as long as players are enjoying it.

4) 2026 plans. With early feedback rolling in, how are you thinking about a 2026 roadmap – cadence of updates, themed content drops, or a looser “experiment-first” approach?

At this point, I don’t have a detailed roadmap for 2026. I’m mostly observing how things evolve: talking with the community, collecting feedback, and trying to understand what players value most.

For now, I’m continuing with smaller, regular patches to polish and expand the existing content. Over time, I’ll probably shift toward larger updates that introduce more substantial additions at once.

5) Blueprints & sharing. Will players be able to save/export blueprints and share or remix scenes (in-game or via Steam Workshop), and is that on your near-term roadmap?

I’ve thought about adding a dedicated feature for sharing scenes, but the demand for it doesn’t seem very high right now.

That said, players who really want to share their creations can already do so by exchanging project files directly, so there’s always a way to collaborate or show off builds if they want to.

Outside the Blocks interface showing a medieval diorama with cottages, trees, and terrain tools.

6) Mod support. Are you open to limited modding – adding new props/materials/decals – and what’s the safest way to expose that without breaking builds?

Right now, the game doesn’t support Steam Workshop, but I’d really love to add that in the future. It would open the door for players to create their own kits and expand the world in their own ways.

The game is already built around modular blocks, which makes it naturally well-suited for modding. If the community keeps growing, I’m sure there will be people eager to create their own content.

The main challenge is technical. Implementing a proper mod system would require some outside help and funding, which is tricky for a solo developer.

7) Photo mode. What’s in now (DOF, focal length, time of day) and what’s coming to help creators nail that “miniature diorama” look?

The game already offers an extensive set of controls for adjusting scene parameters. You can fine-tune camera settings, switch between lighting scenarios, tweak post-processing effects, experiment with weather conditions, and much more.

At this stage, that part of the experience feels quite complete. I don’t currently have any new features planned for the photo mode. It already gives players plenty of freedom to craft their own vision, and the core tools are all there.

8) Influences. Which games, tools, or physical crafts (model rail, kitbashing, miniature painting) most shaped your approach?

The biggest inspiration was definitely Townscaper it’s such a simple but brilliant concept, and I loved how relaxing and creative it feels to play.

I was also deeply influenced by YouTube channels focused on building dioramas and miniature scenes. That opened my eyes to a completely different creative world. How people think about composition, lighting, and texture when crafting something by hand.

It helped me understand what makes small-scale worlds feel alive and guided a lot of my decisions about lighting, epoxy and scene atmosphere in Outside the Blocks.

9) Player feedback pivots. What did players do that changed your roadmap?

The biggest change definitely came from player feedback about the tutorial. At first, I thought people would figure things out intuitively, but after the first tests, I realized that wasn’t the case at all.

During both the first demo and the Next Fest version, I watched as many YouTube videos as I could, carefully observing how people interacted with the game and where they got stuck. Every small “fail” I saw from players really pushed me to make things clearer and more accessible.

That process taught me a lot about how people actually experience Outside the Blocks, and it’s still shaping how I approach updates and usability improvements.

10) Tough cut. What feature did you shelve to ship, and might it return?

Honestly, there weren’t any big features I had to cut before release. Nothing that’s sitting in a drawer waiting to come back.

My focus now is more on expanding what’s already there: adding new models, terrain presets, and atmospheric effects. I’d especially love to experiment with things like sandstorms or lightning storms in the future.

One area I still really want to improve is localization. The game doesn’t currently support multiple languages, and that’s something I’d love to change.

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