MBP :: Version 1.50 – Double Update

Hey there fellow Marble Blasters!

After months of work with no updates about the development of Marble Blast Platinum 1.50, we decided to give you a double update, which will explain in more detail as to what you are to expect in 1.50.

Firstly, we are proud to present the official name of our project: PlatinumQuest, or PQ for short. This new exciting expansion pack for Marble Blast Platinum is a mod on its own with loads of new content. Although we had covered a few things about it, we thought to give you more information about it.
Please note that not all information is final, so what that is given out is not necessarily what you will see in the final version.

• PlatinumQuest is easier than Marble Blast Platinum in general; you’ll find that completing levels is an easier task than it was in Marble Blast Platinum. The maximum difficulty rating that you will encounter is of low-expert levels in Marble Blast Platinum.

• Levels are thoroughly tested to ensure that players of lesser skills and experience will notice a little bit of difficulty, but nothing too challenging.

• All levels have a Par Time. In order to keep levels short yet cover many guidelines that our level designers are required to pass, the maximum Par Time is 2:00:00 minutes. Not all levels will feature the maximum Par Time either.

• PlatinumQuest missions are specific to PlatinumQuest. For example Game Modes cannot be run in Marble Blast Platinum’s custom levels section.

• PlatinumQuest official levels differ from others in that they are more fun and replayable while offering an innovatively unique and creative design; you will keep coming back to them.

• Unlike Marble Blast Gold and Platinum, PlatinumQuest will feature a different and more restricted implementation for skipping levels - more details on this in a future post. You are limited to your own skills.

The second update is the announcement of our very first Level Competition!
These level competitions are your chance to build a level, that if chosen, will feature as part of the official levels of PlatinumQuest.

Our first level competition deals with the Quota Game Mode. Your task is to design a level which answers the following guidelines:

• Par Time has a maximum of 2:00:00 minutes. Your level can feature a much lower Par Time.

• Difficulty can be anywhere from beginner to low-expert (Marble Blast Platinum level difficulty rating)

• Level must be fun and replayable; levels that won’t answer these criteria are most likely to be rejected on the spot.

• Level is original and creative; levels will not be rejected if you can’t come up with new ideas. However, if we find these factors to be too low, we will reject the level.

• Level does not need any scenery. That will be handled by us.

The due date to submit your level is 15th June, 2010. You are to submit the following:

• A mission file (.mis) which contains a Par Time, Author, Description. Optional: start help text.

• Any interiors you used (.dif)

• A map file (.map)

Please submit all of these in a ZIP file that is uploaded to mediafire, rapidshare, localhostr or any other file upload service. The download link along with your real name OR nickname, level and description should be submitted to Matan (click here to submit) via a Personal Message. That means you have to register on MarbleBlast.com in order to send the Personal Message.

You cannot release your level until a winner has been determined and the winner himself/herself cannot release his/her level at all to the general public as it is released in PlatinumQuest. People who did not have their levels selected may opt to release them to public or wait until PlatinumQuest is released in order to have their levels properly functional (after all, this is Quota Mode the level is designed for).
If you release your level before the results are announced (or if you have won and you released the level), you will be disqualified.
Please do not ask anyone else to test your level, we will provide the feedback necessary when you submit your level. Finally, you may submit more than one level to the competition.

However, we realize that as we progress with new updates you might find that you want to add more to your level or even change some parts. Winners may update their levels accordingly while maintaining or raising the quality of the level as they deem fit.
The selected level will be modified by PlatinumQuest staff to have the new textures and content used as appropriate and we will fully cooperate with the winner to ensure that he is happy with the changes. There may be cases where we will modify the actual level itself in order to raise its quality if we believe it will improve the level; again, this will be done with full knowledge of the winner.

The winner’s name and his level name will be posted here on the site on the next update after the competition closes. The next update will be at some point in July.

Stay tuned for more updates,
- The PlatinumQuest Staff

And from now on, the 7 characters of MBP 1.50 can be reduced to the 2 characters of PQ!

We hope we're gonna see some awesome submissions for the level comp, and as a reminder Quota mode only requires you to collect X out of Y gems to finish, not every single gem present in the level

Wow, sounds great. The only fact i didnt like is that levels are low expert. Why not include a harder challenge for expert players?

I really like the sound of Quota

That sounds AWESOME!
Only lame part in it that there isnt any high expert levels

We want the mod to be accessible to everybody. MBP was limited by it's insane Mastering the Marble, Battlecube Finale and other high-expert levels. PQ is all for increasing fun, replayability and originality, as well as lowering factors such as frustration and bland level design.

Sweet. I don't like the name much, but it isn't too bad.

I think the idea is fun and replayable. Most of the high expert levels aren't very replayable. Seriously, are you ever going to want to grind your way through Mastering the Marble again?

Edit: Ninja'd

May 2, 2010, 3:42am, mkbul wrote:The only fact i didnt like is that levels are low expert. Why not include a harder challenge for expert players?

Mkbul and others have misunderstood our point. The levels will not be too difficult in themselves, but they will offer plenty of additional and optional challenges. So, if you're really a great MB player, you can beat a level and then go back and play the hard parts to get more rewards.

Yeah, there will be challenges for hardcore players to achieve. 100% Ultimate Time completion, anyone?

Sounds fantastic!

Yes, we understand a few of you dislike the fact there's less weight on the expert.
Nonetheless, we did not forget the expert players and those who strive to go for the extra mile, so we have additional content exclusive to you guys; good luck beating these fun challenges.

I think PlatinumQuest will be epic pwnage!

Woah nice stuff! Can't wait for the release.

Yay we can use the name PlatinumQuest freely! Bye-bye censor!

I hope we get good participation in the level competition - I'd love to see what ideas the community could come up with.

Is there going to be like a demo for PQ? Just curious..and I might submit something probably if I get better at QuArK.

This sounds awesome, I can't wait till it's out.

cool! The only problem with the competition that its kinda complicated is because
1) You'll change the style and other stuff in our levels that might effect the quality
2) We want to make a long and hard level but we have to make sure you can finish it in the said par time
and
3) It's pressuring!

Yay, seems this is going well
Just a question, how are we supposed to know what PQ Feels like when designing a level?

Everything sounds great.

When you said greater rewards for higher leveled players, that made me think of a store. There should be unlockables and stuff- like new marble skins, unlockable levels, and other fun stuffs. That would make the mod tons more fun.

This will be so awesome!

Thanks everyone for the comments, really appreciated


RCT: we are planning one, but we are not going to confirm that there will be one

RandomMarble38:
1) You send the level as-is, so there's no modification. If we accept, however, we *may* modify the level if we feel that it can go better (in which case we tell you what we modify- if you say no, then its no).
2) You also said you wanted to make a long&hard level, if you read earlier PQ aims for shorter levels (hence restricted par time) that are also fun. Long/Hard levels usually are associated with being less fun or replayable.

Yuri: You've been told of the basics- the feeling is that of fun levels that are replayable with a restriction on the par time to ensure that. I'm sure a number of levels jump out at you for being more fun and replayable than others-- a look at youtube for a trend of levels also helps since these videos show what levels are more fun and therefore keep being played over and over by people throughout each video.

Suggestion: make a normal version of all of the quota levels (or all where it would work at least) in which you need to get all of the gems.

The way I see it quota mode has most potential with a pick your challenges type level, so having versions where you need to do all of the challenges would be fun too.

Oh and I don't entirely get it, will it be a totally separate mod, or an extension of MBP. Will we have to exit MBP to play PQ, or will there be a button that switches us to PQ, like there is now w/ MBG

There will be a button that switches to PQ, but it will be on the main menu (not the play menu).

That will be awesome!

And cool, thanks for telling me IRD.

And it will be LB enabled right?

Just trying to squeeze as much info out of yous as possible

Leaderboards are unconfirmed for PQ.

In plans yes, but we cannot confirm yet whether we will actually have them or not. More info about them we can't give out since they're in just the thought bubble section. Wait for a future update as we get near-release for more info.

I assume the leader board hack is going to be fixed (if there are LB's on PlatinumQuest)? lol.

I like this news, and I think I'll do relatively well on the PQ levels because I'm quite good at short levels.

Yea I'm better at short levels to.

Sounds like PQ will be very exciting! (I hate how sarcastic that sounds )

I plan on making and submitting a level soon.

PQ sounds AMAZING!!!
I might submit a level if I have the time...