Game Direction
This is a response to a question by Sporlo and a general information post about the 'current' intended direction for this game.
While I want all the marble blast players to feel at home with the gameplay mechanics, and even make it difficult to pinpoint differences between the two physics systems, I also want to take advantage of the fact that I'm not limited in the same way the modding community is (That is not to say that MB mods aren't spectacular, just that there are obvious limitations to what can be achieved when you don't have source access to the game code).
(in response to bouncy floors acting differently than they do in MBP)
Hopefully I will be able to add features to the game that are impossible (or at least difficult enough to be impractical) to implement in MB mods. I was experimenting with a system for the bouncy floor system after only being explained in a few short sentences by Trace as to what it did. I wasn't told any details of how it worked, and simply wrote a function that ended up being interesting and fun to use.
The problem with trying to recreate a game (and the only downside to developing exclusively for a single-game community) is that it is extremely easy to fall into the trap of not innovating for the sake of continuity.
Now, I'm not saying that I want to reinvent the wheel, and hopefully you can see by the direction of my progress to a game that is very similar to marble blast. I deffinitely want to use all the strengths that MB has (fluid and responsive controls, easy to understand objectives) added with what the community would like to see in a MB-esque game/mod (multiplayer, fancy graphics, awesome level design (though that will not be by me...)) as well as the blue sky development side.
No one would have posted on an initial PQ thread to add a cannon or add a new hazard that freezes you in place for X seconds, the dev team simply made it happen and showed it to the community (my details of how it actually went down may be a bit fuzzy...).
That is what I continue to try to do. It is unlikely someone would have suggested to add a Tag game mode, however for obvious reasons hunt was. Hopefully when the game is much more fleshed out there will be enough new features to remove everyone from the mentality of 'this surface doesn't interact with the marble in the same way I expect from MB' because there will be too many new things that don't have a connection in MB.
This is not the case with Physics, as they are the one thing that you are interacting with 100% of play time, and MB has damn fine physics, so that I AM definitely trying to emulate/replicate, but is a hard thing to do, as everyone has a slightly different idea of how the MB physics works, and I can only get some definitive 'numbers' by running the two side by side and trying to do the same thing in each game.
Hopefully I haven't come across as a person who is against MB and the way it works, It's a fantastic game that I have clocked tons of hours on. Most of the people here though have put much more time and effort into it than I have and are much more opposed to little changes. There is a fantastic GDC talk by Sid Mier (civilization guy) about getting feedback on games, so there are things I take from everyone suggestions and implement immediately, and other things that I take with a few grains of salt (that doesn't mean I'm not listening, it's just that I may have a slightly different direction in mind). Obviously I try to be transparent as possible with development, if modders want code or textures I'm glad to hand them out. So I hope everyone feels like their opinion matters, because it absolutely does. And this game would not have come nearly as far as it has so far without your input and help.
While I want all the marble blast players to feel at home with the gameplay mechanics, and even make it difficult to pinpoint differences between the two physics systems, I also want to take advantage of the fact that I'm not limited in the same way the modding community is (That is not to say that MB mods aren't spectacular, just that there are obvious limitations to what can be achieved when you don't have source access to the game code).
(in response to bouncy floors acting differently than they do in MBP)
Hopefully I will be able to add features to the game that are impossible (or at least difficult enough to be impractical) to implement in MB mods. I was experimenting with a system for the bouncy floor system after only being explained in a few short sentences by Trace as to what it did. I wasn't told any details of how it worked, and simply wrote a function that ended up being interesting and fun to use.
The problem with trying to recreate a game (and the only downside to developing exclusively for a single-game community) is that it is extremely easy to fall into the trap of not innovating for the sake of continuity.
Now, I'm not saying that I want to reinvent the wheel, and hopefully you can see by the direction of my progress to a game that is very similar to marble blast. I deffinitely want to use all the strengths that MB has (fluid and responsive controls, easy to understand objectives) added with what the community would like to see in a MB-esque game/mod (multiplayer, fancy graphics, awesome level design (though that will not be by me...)) as well as the blue sky development side.
No one would have posted on an initial PQ thread to add a cannon or add a new hazard that freezes you in place for X seconds, the dev team simply made it happen and showed it to the community (my details of how it actually went down may be a bit fuzzy...).
That is what I continue to try to do. It is unlikely someone would have suggested to add a Tag game mode, however for obvious reasons hunt was. Hopefully when the game is much more fleshed out there will be enough new features to remove everyone from the mentality of 'this surface doesn't interact with the marble in the same way I expect from MB' because there will be too many new things that don't have a connection in MB.
This is not the case with Physics, as they are the one thing that you are interacting with 100% of play time, and MB has damn fine physics, so that I AM definitely trying to emulate/replicate, but is a hard thing to do, as everyone has a slightly different idea of how the MB physics works, and I can only get some definitive 'numbers' by running the two side by side and trying to do the same thing in each game.
Hopefully I haven't come across as a person who is against MB and the way it works, It's a fantastic game that I have clocked tons of hours on. Most of the people here though have put much more time and effort into it than I have and are much more opposed to little changes. There is a fantastic GDC talk by Sid Mier (civilization guy) about getting feedback on games, so there are things I take from everyone suggestions and implement immediately, and other things that I take with a few grains of salt (that doesn't mean I'm not listening, it's just that I may have a slightly different direction in mind). Obviously I try to be transparent as possible with development, if modders want code or textures I'm glad to hand them out. So I hope everyone feels like their opinion matters, because it absolutely does. And this game would not have come nearly as far as it has so far without your input and help.
Check out my website: alvios.com/ !
