Marble Blast Unity: News Thread (NEW: Halloween Release!!!)

Do you plan on making the physics more "MB" like? Or is this just a ball game that you're using the MB name for?

Trace wrote: Do you plan on making the physics more "MB" like? Or is this just a ball game that you're using the MB name for?

MB had physics that where VERY realistic and incredibly hard to replicate, so I can't really make them more MB like. I thought it would be fun to buy a marble asset package online and make a MB game out of it. This game also has a Gold/Unify time and Power-ups like (or similar to) MB, so it's not just a ball game with the MB name slapped onto it.
thx 4 fedback tho

PacPlayer wrote:

Trace wrote: Do you plan on making the physics more "MB" like? Or is this just a ball game that you're using the MB name for?

MB had physics that where VERY realistic and incredibly hard to replicate, so I can't really make them more MB like. I thought it would be fun to buy a marble asset package online and make a MB game out of it. This game also has a Gold/Unify time and Power-ups like (or similar to) MB, so it's not just a ball game with the MB name slapped onto it.
thx 4 fedback tho

>Realistic

Ask Jeff, hell tell you everything about how ''realistic'' they are.
The main reason it's hard to replicate those physics is that they are in no way shape or form realistic, they where made by person with physics knowledge of a collage student and months of tweaking by single person.
There where many attempts at trying to make something similar on top of existing engines, what we had to do was essentially introduce bugs in engine to make them MB like. (MB has no terminal velocity, wall hits are impossible by default, the acceleration you get on half pipes by holding jump key is a mess, tramp launches don't work, list goes on). Another major issue is of course ''random'' bouncing which you get from a bug in all known physics engines. (I love how lot of marble games just kind of decide to ignore it and move on).

The sole reason this game would be wroth playing is for interaction with other physics objects (boxes, breaking walls etc), water shaders of some sort and shaders in general (bump maps, specular maps etc) which are none existent in this version. What I'm seeing here is bunch of stretched default unity blocks with textures that don't even have specular or bumpmap texture applied, at this point MBG gourand shading looks better.
I would give you a pass if this would at least have levels made in blender in obj/3ds format but instead what this is something that is put together with music ripped, from what I could count 5 different mods (MBG MBP MBU MBPU MBXP(aka netjet versiion)) and that looks and plays worse than MBG.
Trust me I appreciate your effort, I really do but making marble game isn't just about slapping things together in shiny new engine just because it's new. It's about using it's advantages that it offers over MBG's old engine.

Edit: Also don't get me wrong that anything that isn't MB physics isn't acceptable, in fact many people would be happy even with half of the quirks of MBG physics for a new engine, if you will keep trying you will get to something really good, just don't give up. At this point I would say focus more on graphical execution, physics are as good as you gonna get now, graphics need work.

RDs.ìmpireachd wrote: but making marble game isn't just about slapping things together in shiny new engine just because it's new. It's about using it's advantages that it offers over MBG's old engine.

I can totally see that. Honestly, I just wanted to make a marble game, but looking at it now, it actually has less stuff than MBG and the levels do have poor textures. I'll work on it! The texture will be less "stretchy" and other graphics will be improved. Thanks for your feedback!

A New Video was posted in the Basic News section in the top post! It's just a play through of the latest level in MB1. There are other levels that are better than this one in the game, but this one is still unique in my opinion . I didn't speedrun it, I'll leave that to the pros . If you thought the level was good or you think it's really really bad, leave some recommendations in the comments! Also, if you do think it's bad and stuff needs to be changed, please add some recommendations of what I can do to improve it! I'll try my best!

Just as a quick tip you should probably make a copy of the disabled platform semi-transparent with a white material with no collision, so the player can still see where the platforms will spawn when it switches colors.

Also I would recommend removing the reflections from the clouds. Other than that, keep up the good work.

For each object that you replicate over and over to make your level, i'd REALLY recommend learning a program like Blender or 3DS Max and making the models for them there -- you can texture them properly and import them that way. The squashed textures on the side that come with using default Unity cubes are really obvious

Alright, instead of having people contact me for the beta, here's a public version of it. This way everyone can play it!

NO MORE BETA DOWNLOADS!

Now it feels a lot less like something on vinesauce joel channel and more like something that resembles a game.

Regarding positive aspects:

Nice to see that texturing has changed, stretched textures are used a lot less.
Cave escape used to be harder, now roller seems to slowed down.
Loved the foodball level, great way to utilize latest abilities
Pipe chase: Would love to see demo of how to finish that level. I could never get past blue pipe without getting killed even with holding forward. Other than that I loved the idea behind this.
Guidence: also very lit and fresh idea
All of the advanced and extreme levels seemed pretty neat creative and original.
To the top: f*k that no friction platform, that challenge is BS without normal airmovement.
Those square transparent block scenery objects seemed pretty neat.

My biggest and tbh only complain about this game so far is graphics. The toruses for some reason don't have smooth shading and game is still not using any sort of bump or specular mapping. If they would this game would look a lot better. Materials in space was only level where everything sortof didn't looked out of place.
To give you better idea:

This is something you see in some testing scenes when you just finish model and put it into game to see if scale is correct, not something you would see in normaly in beta game. Interesting Learning to roll doesnt have this problem. Not sure if sun is moved up or something else is done.

In nutshell, the game works as is. Love the new levels and ascetics. Would wish for some sortof 3d modeling and normal or specular mapping be used. Also don't forget that we have lot of people here who would be happy to help you learn or understand how to make something regarding anything from texturing to 3D modeling. It doesn't hurt to ask

RDs.Империя wrote: Pipe chase: Would love to see demo of how to finish that level. I could never get past blue pipe without getting killed even with holding forward. Other than that I loved the idea behind this.

Here's a video of how to beat Pipe Chase
Thanks for your Feedback! I'll try to use shaders and mapping in the final game, but I don't know much about them . Hopefully it will be easy to implement like gravity changing.

Personal recommendation: put some form of camera collision on your camera, it's silly to see it warp through the level.

I love the idea of expanding and improving the game as you go. From what I can tell you already have what... 30 levels? Try improving everything else, if you see that game play could be better in certain level or that some graphics could be improved, then improve those or if you learn something new then use the kills you learned to make game better, kinda like FUBAR has been doing for past 5 years. Gradually game should go from being something you can see 42hr game jam to something that is as high quality as MB. Keep it up! Looking forward for more updates!

3 New Bonus Levels are coming on the 30th (See top post)! (I know! Only 2 months after release!) Also, I fixed a few bugs with the Image Effects not working on some levels and added a new "News" button. Sadly, this will require a complete reinstallation of MBUn, but if you keep both on your computer and launch one then the other, the files should transfer. Also, I know how to make curves now but it takes a while. also uhhh sorry if i offended anyone who uses unreal i just saw trace's project and holy crap it looks amazing. also everything made in ue4 looks great but im still sticking to unity