Thank you for downloading Marble Blast Emerald and supporting the team. I hope that you did not download BlazerYo's version of the game, and that this is a new experience for you!
Overview --------
Marble Blast Emerald is a game full of marbles in a truly new light. Race your customizable marble through more than 60 official levels and more than 25 Custom levels!
What's New in Marble Blast Emerald? -----------------------------------
Marble Blast Emerald comes with a number of great features, including:
85+ new levels! Custom Resolutions Camera Turn Speed options Customizable HUD for displaying time, gem count, and powerups. A "Bounds Generator" which sets the Play Area automatically! Optional Emerald time, and Qualify time notifications! Random Level Choice Progress Bar and Dialogue Hidden Sapphires! Collect them all, and beat your best time getting to them! A whole new way to play! Level Search Awards (Achievements) Custom Marble skins, just add your .dts to the marbles folder! Tunnel Vision - Can you beat all the levels with a limited view? Fixed Camera - Some levels can be beaten with no camera rotation. No Jumping - Some levels can be beaten without jumping. First and Last buttons to zoom from front to back in no time! Best Times dialogue to see the best times, and the emerald times while playing a level! Speedometer and more!
The MBE Staff List ------------------
Leader and Creator - Ian Valentino Council Member - HiGuy Council Member - Jeff Hutchinson
Level Team
- Ian Valentino - HiGuy - Jeff Hutchinson - Marble2 - Greg Hutchinson - Kostas - Sonic Warrior1 - jack59splat59 - rct3fan00 - Luke - Martin5656565 - BlazerYo - Alexis - w2rockstar - UltraMarble
Graphic Design
- Ian Valentino - HiGuy - BlazerYo
Coding
- Jeff Hutchinson - HiGuy - whirligig
Testing
- Ian Valentino - Andrew Sears - Sonic Warrior1
Skies by w2rockstar Main Menu Music by Alexis Game Music by Brian Holmes 3D Graphics by Cyberfox Marbles by RDs.Empire
Special Thanks
- Cawdude - Matan Weissman - The Community - idogampd - Brian Holmes
If you find that a level is locked out of Fixed Camera or No Jump, and you have found that you can, in fact, complete it, please inform us, and we will cover it in the next version.
Please read my blog on this website, or my Wordpress for a more inside set of thoughts about the game.
One of the awards is finding my hidden secret in the game. I will release a hint daily to help you find it:
Hint 1: It is a hidden button. Hint 2: Corners hold the secret.
I'm so pleased to see that this mod has (legitimately) been released to the public after three long years of work. This is now the third "major" mod to be released in this community after MBP and MBA (mods done by one or two people such as MBRevived and George's mod are what I like to call "minor" mods). You've proven that mods can be completed and released even through the most dire of circumstances, and MBEmerald certainly had a tumultuous road to this point. I am happy to have been given the opportunity to test out the game before release, and I think that the community will enjoy MBEmerald very much. I look forward to seeing people's videos and speedruns.
BTW, look out for a video guide from me in about a week that shows how to get all the sapphires in the game.
Well i've deprived myself from sleep to wake up and download this haha, man im going to be tired at work. Buzzing to start playing, well done getting this released on time, cant wait to start playing!
Just posting my initial impressions.. obviously don't take this to be my final say and as I mention I haven't played the levels yet.
Installation
- Would have liked a better resolution icon to use, preferably 128x128 in icns format (as supported by Mac) and instructions to install that in the Contents/Resources folder.
- Let's hope everyone on a Mac who plays this has installed MBP in the past or else divisions will be a problem, should have included those instructions (there's also a typo in that installation file).
- An applescript or some attempt at an installer wouldn't have hurt; also it seems to automatically convert it to an app so adding the .app extension isn't necessary
The Game
- New cursor and startup gui's are really nice
- Love the main menu gui background
- Don't really like all the different fonts going on, would flow better with just one or two used throughout the game
- Play GUI is very cramped, especially at the bottom. The first and last buttons are quite prominent, couldn't you just have used a couple arrows pointing left and right? A lot of the button backgrounds look out of place and amateur compared to the very clean and professional looking main menu gui + background and startup gui's. The font used in level description looks fine, but the fonts for the level name in the picture and top times look out of place and lazy. NJ and TV I could deduce what they stood for from the buttons on the right but not in order, and what does FC stand for? The S in top times, is that the slowest time? If so, what's the point of that? Overall the Play GUI just looks like it was thrown together with various button styles, fonts, etc and could be decluttered.
- I LOVE the search GUI (different ways of sorting, how fast it is) but it doesn't seem to be listing all the levels (a bunch of levels in the /custom directory, a 3 from other directories). Do you need a whole separate tab for displaying author names or could that just be enabled from a checkbox? Also, the description search doesn't work.
- The progress GUI looks awfully familiar..
- If no jumping and tunnel vision are so integrated into the game (with buttons to enable/disable on the level select GUI), why aren't there separate displays for the top times for each setting (aka, top no jumping times, top tunnel vision times, etc)? I like how the buttons enable/disable depending on whether it is possible to complete the level with that setting (I presume?).. let's just hope you're right on all of them
- Really like the loading GUI in terms of the font (like was on the main menu buttons.. should stick with that font!)
- Pause screen, I like how you can quickly go into options to say disable the audio, but besides that what would be the common uses for it? You could just have a volume slider on the pause screen to simplify. I also really like the checkboxes in the options GUI, circles with color indicators showing on/off. Is a best times button really needed?
- Ready, set, go audio kind of bugs me because of your voice (no offense!).
- Speedometer isn't very useful because it's numbers--you can't quickly glance over to check your speed, and with no speed gamemodes of the sort it really just serves a novelty purpose.
- Especially at lower resolutions (like the default 800x600) the play GUI is very cramped. Most of this is due to the large container circle at the top, which although looks nice could be done without. Why does it need to be labeled MBE hud?
- How to: Jumps, the custom level, is missing a preview picture.
- Capitalization in level names should be more consistent; I noticed on level with only the first word capitalized, and another with a mid-name "the" capitalized (rest of levels don't capitalize "of's," "and's," etc).
- Tunnel vision mode is kind of cool, but I see it as more of a novelty feature.
- SO MANY GREEN MARBLES TO CHOOSE FROM!
- Help GUI could be more.. helpful, haha.
- Exit-game credits seems familiar..
- Oh, I forgot to mention, the edge_white trim texture is very contrasted, maybe tone that down a bit
Overall, a very mixed bag. I liked some of the GUI's but the overall feel of the GUI's was inconsistent because of the various fonts, button styles, and degrees of "cramped-ness." I didn't really see any cutting edge features that remind me this is a totally new mod and the lack of any networking or leaderboards features doesn't really draw me back to the game to compete for times. I have yet to play the levels, which are certainly an important part of any mod!, but I will update my thoughts once I do.
A lot of these things can and probably will be adjusted or fixed as necessary in future patches. With some general cleaning-up and depending on the quality of the levels, I think this certainly isn't a mod to readily forget (who still plays MBA?).
Also, a double-post to make sure this isn't overlooked:
Anyone on the OEM version of MBG (if the game came preinstalled on your computer), please do not install yet as it will not work. As you know, MBP 1.20 officially added support for the OEM build so this is a step other mods can and should take. I will talk to Ian about possibly getting a separate OEM-only build up for download.
Finally! The wait is over! Well, four three more minutes that is.
Edit: I have beaten all Simple levels and a few Difficult ones (are those the right names for the categories...?) and I only have one objection: the music is a little dull (not always, however, some parts were nice). Everything else is awesome!
Edit 2: Pro levels are... hard. The music... I started to love it!
But really, this mod was fun to test (for me / most of the levels). I had a fun time trying most of the levels. Sadly though, I didn't have the attention span to beat the whole game. Some levels were too hard or too long (as I don't want to sit infront of the same level for an hour). For MBE2 (if I'm still playing), I'll definitely try harder to get most of the levels done. Most of you should enjoy the Beginner and some of Intermediate, I will say.
There will be bug fixes and simple patches, but no updates. We are moving on to MBE2.
@Don.Gato Good find! Noted
@pf S stands for SAPPHIRE time. When you pick up a sapphire, the game ends, and you record a separate time.
Some things are familiar, because they were so good in MBP, people can't pass them up. MBE is a very generic mod, it's true. We will be separating ourselves from the pack with MBE2.
I am also aware the GUI was bad. There were too many people working on it, and it became a cramped mess. We have a revolutionary Menu system ready for MBE2.
FC is Fixed Camera, and those things aren't integral, they are novelty. You can play and get a good time for them, but that's it. It's not supposed to be super important.
The Search only lists unlocked levels.
Best times has been useful (if only once or twice) so we put it in. It's a simple code, and it doesn't really get in the way.
I LOVE the Options tab you put in the pause screen! You don't know how much I've wanted that. It's great for testing out screen resolution or sound tweaking without going ALL the way out and ALL the way back in.
I like how you had it set up like different game modes! Meaning, you'd get seperate times for different modes, instead of just one 'Best Times' board regardless of the mode.
I don't really like the large 'MBE Hud' in-game. It kind of gets in the way just a bit...
I do like how you added third decimal point, as apparently it's important...
Levels... They were good overall. I did adore some of them, though, such as Motocross Mission, and most the 'Difficult' levels; they were neat! I also really liked "Pop Cube", a director's cut level... That was new! However, quite a few level pictures just show platforms, meaning it gives me the idea that it's just jumping platforms. Remember, those I haven't played yet, so I'm not really giving my 'opinion' for them quite yet... Overall, I give the levels 8/10.
I don't like how the difficulty went from 'Simple' to 'Difficult'. Maybe 'Simple', 'Intermediate, 'Pro'. Or even better: 'Simple, Intermediate, Difficult, Pro'.
Again, features were my favorite part of the mod. Overall, I give the mod an 8.5/10; I hope MBE2 is just as good!
Fairly nice mod, I'll start out with the decent points.
- The music is very well done. As with most video games, I tend to enjoy the game sound and find it a key aspect to a successful release. While I found that certain song selections for this particular game were a little over the top, the overall feel of the music seems to slide right into place.
- The scenery fits perfect for the mod. The trees add a hint of realism while maintaining the Marble Blast Gold Cartoonish philosophy. I'm not sure if this was the direction you intended, but it works great.
- The amount of new coding present in the mod is astounding. There are plenty of new features that stand this apart from the rest. My personal favorite is the ability to check the Emerald Time from your pause menu in-game.
- The levels are extremely well thought-out (Some of you may be chuckling at this). Switch over to the 'Pro' tab and check out some of the levels. They may not look too pleasing to the eye (very cluttered), but the concepts and mechanics behind grabbing each emerald requires more thinking than I put forth in some of the MBP levels. Bouncy floors are a little obnoxious at first, but you learn to love them over time.
- The new sound file for the Emeralds is a nice touch. I believe (from what I listened to), the OnGemPickup event, a random sound file out of a list is played. It's much better than the constant repetitive ding, ding, ding, ding, every time you reach a gem. I feel like a building sound file (pitch increase every time you grab an Emerald) would've worked better, but the current system works fantastic.
Okay, and now I must bring forth the criticism. You knew it was coming.
- The UI is fairly original, and the ability to toggle 'how much' UI displayed is a nice idea. However, I feel a more simplistic UI would've gotten the job done. The current in-game UI seems a little overdone, and again the MBE Hud seems a little nonchalant. The Level Select menu feels too cramped. A larger menu would've easily fixed this issue, much like MBP.
- Green. I mean, colors. I mean, green. This mod is very, very green. I understand it's Marble Blast Emerald, but there is a hint of green to every part of the game. Normally this wouldn't be an issue, but when combined with other aspects of the game, the colors do not seem to mix and match fairly well. The Level Select menu buttons seem out of place since they're not, well, green. Certain interior textures feel out of place when they're bordered by the #FFFFFF and #000000 trim.
- Oh my god, the excessive trees. Every time I use a tree to help beat the Emerald Time I feel like Tarzan. Honestly, I'd rename the shortcut on my desktop to Marble Blast Jungle, since I use the trees more often than the interiors themselves. It's easier to gain control of your marble on the sloped 'high' friction leaves than it is to bother jumping on a tightrope covered with mud. They're a very nice touch to the mod, but at points it feels like they're too involved with the level to be called 'scenery', and more like a shortcut you can always look for and always try to use before looking for Time Stoppers.
- You Cheater! How dare you record a video of the game! Every time I use FRAPS or pop open the console to record a demo, the game instantly assumes I'm swapping my camera to get a better view of the level. It's frustrating to try and record your best times when every other finish is disqualified due to a coding error. While this is a nice idea, there are some bugs that need to be worked out for this aspect of the game to work properly.
- The skyboxes were nice at first, until I realized that it was the same skybox that was colored differently or the sun was rotated 180 degrees horizontally. The jpeg format for the skybox images kills the resolution, and as a result appear pixelated (don't worry though, MBP had the same issue.)
- So many choices to choose from. I mean, you -could- play Beginner level 16, or you could play Beginner Level 16 with Tunnel Vision, or without Jumps, or without Camera movement. Yes, it's an interesting concept, but the repetitiveness of the level bores down this idea. It works a lot better in the professional level genre, seeing how you're limited to what options you can disable/enable. Overall, it was a nice idea, but that's all, simply a nice idea.
Overall, I'd like to give two thumbs up for this mod. It started as a small community project without much enthusiasm that slowly grew into this enormous uproar of anticipation.
A couple features irked me when I started playing, but I eventually got over myself and pounded through the game. I've already completed most of it, and achieved 80% of the Emerald Times. It took a lot less time to complete than MBP, suggesting (to me at least) that this mod is an in-between ground.
Looking past all of my criticism and support, I'd like to rate this game an overall 7/10. Very nice presentation, and I look forward to future updates the staff has to offer for this modification.
Doue to my ''crappy'' internet conection i cant download it but aniways ill give review after i get it. Also why am i arent in credits? Did thouse 4 marbles that i made where all reyected?
Oh my gosh! I forgot you Rds. I will certainly add you to the post ASAP! We loved your marbles.
@Aaryl
- As I've said before, we are all disappointed with the GUI for the game. Expect much better next time.
- Trees, yeah, probably too many. You'll see how we plan to improve that in MBE2
- I was not involved with the Cheater addition, thus I never thought of those conflicts. We will resolve that in the next version of the game. Thank you.
- Never actually looked at the skyboxes for a long time. We will add some in the next patch.
- Choices are well, optional. Play if you wish, we aren't forcing you to. (I suppose it is included in the Progress bar...)
Overall, thanks for your feedback. A lot of the critisism of the game is already being taken into consideration for MBE2.
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This is now the third "major" mod to be released in this community after MBP and MBA (mods done by one or two people such as MBRevived and George's mod are what I like to call "minor" mods). You've proven that mods can be completed and released even through the most dire of circumstances, and MBEmerald certainly had a tumultuous road to this point. I am happy to have been given the opportunity to test out the game before release, and I think that the community will enjoy MBEmerald very much. I look forward to seeing people's videos and speedruns. ![[image]](http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/3487/phd081310s.gif "[image]")
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It's great for testing out screen resolution or sound tweaking without going ALL the way out and ALL the way back in.![[avatar]](http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l16/Aayrl/stewie.gif "[avatar]")
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