[2] Like the original Cube 2, it features multiplayer gameplay as well as in-game level editing, but with improved graphics and a focus on parkour movement.

Game modes include: Deathmatch (kill to score), Capture the Flag, Defend and Control (players must secure control points to win), Bomber Ball (a bomb must be brought into the enemy goal before it explodes), Race (players compete for the number of laps), as well as online cooperative map editing.

[8][9] Red Eclipse was branched from the defunct Blood Frontier project, itself a fork of Cube 2: Sauerbraten that began development in 2007.

Tesseract's graphical improvements allowed Red Eclipse to use more advanced rendering and lighting techniques — most notably deferred shading, better shadow-mapping, and support for reflection and refraction.

[16][17] The researchers noted in their IllumiRoom paper for the CHI 2013 that access to Red Eclipse's source code enabled a "rich, interactive experience".