Marble Skies

Hello!

I'm not sure if this is the right place, but, I've just created a heavily inspired version of Marble Blast which is going to release on Steam in a months time!

We plan to create the same experience as the original, but with some added features and a big input from the community, and what they would like to see added in the future. So post your comments, I'd love to hear them!

This is a list of current planned features, for post-launch of the game. This list may change in time, and suggestions are gladly welcome!

Planned

• Marble Skins
  Cosmetic only. These will be unlockable in-game, for free by getting levels up, playing consistently, or by completing daily challenges.
  
• Multiplayer
  We will be looking to add multiplayer as soon as possible. Multiplayer will feature different modes of player vs player games.
  
• Level system
  We would like to give incentive to reward players that complete levels, beat their own times and completing daily challenges.
  
• Daily Challenges
  Daily challenges will consist of things like "Beat Intermediate level 10 in 00:50 seconds", or Rolling your marble a certain distance. Something a little different to do each day you play the game.
  
• Generated endless-mode
  Possibly generated levels that you must stay on for as long as possible to get the longest time, rather than the usual shortest time in standard levels.
  
• Lots more free updated levels
  Once released with the 60 base levels, we plan to release around 2-5 new levels each week for FREE! A long with typical bug fixes, and community suggestions.
  
• Level creator/Workshop
  This would be one of the very last things we are considering. Letting the community create levels would provide an almost endless amount of content for other users to play.

Here's some pictures and the first trailer!

Looks awesome!! The graphics look cool and the physics seem pretty accurate! I just have a few suggestions... most of the levels look very similar. Same color, same skybox, and the only thing making them different is what's in the levels. Maybe some structures such as buildings or trees would add some decoration to the levels. Also, the game is a little too similar to Marble Blast Ultra. Same power-ups (except more clever interpretations of them), same obstacles, and even same art style! Some tubes, cannons, or something else would make this game stand out among the others. Still, looking forward to it!

The mega marble makes a cartoon fart noise.

That. Is. Awesome.

hPerks wrote:
Looks interesting. UI and graphics are pretty nice, and the levels look fairly well-made. My biggest suggestion: make the physics more fast-paced and less floaty. Try to replicate the feel of Marble Blast's physics as closely as possible. This was something that GarageGames, unlike pretty much all other marble game creators, got really really right.

Thanks for the feedback everyone!

We're using Unreal Engine, so starting out I knew it would never be possible to get the exact same quick/responsive controls the original had. It does look a little floaty, but when playing it is actually really quite similar to Marble Blast. I have been tweaking with the physics settings, and it only takes a few minutes to change them if I ever need to. I know it's definitely important that I get it as close as possible, but Unreal Engine also has some nice quirks to it, that make it still fun, even if it's not exactly the same

PacPlayer wrote:
Looks awesome!! The graphics look cool and the physics seem pretty accurate! I just have a few suggestions... most of the levels look very similar. Same color, same skybox, and the only thing making them different is what's in the levels. Maybe some structures such as buildings or trees would add some decoration to the levels. Also, the game is a little too similar to Marble Blast Ultra. Same power-ups (except more clever interpretations of them), same obstacles, and even same art style! Some tubes, cannons, or something else would make this game stand out among the others. Still, looking forward to it!

I've updated the original post with what we're planning in the future. I really want to nail the basics of what Marble Blast had, and then after that, continue to add my own ideas, and community suggestions to the game. I feel that it's very important to get it as similar as possible, because on most/all of the other types of marble games on Steam, have users asking for Marble Blast.

Rosie wrote:
The mega marble makes a cartoon fart noise.

That. Is. Awesome.

Haha, that was a last minute sound I added, as I couldn't find anything else suitable. But I seem to like it too

honestly really excited for this it looks awesome : )

Can't wait to play this game!

i hope i can make custom levels heheh

Little update I made to the textures last night.
 
After careful consideration, and some feedback, I noticed that I needed to update the visuals. The tiles now give a much greater feeling of depth, and I've increased the brightness, to give a vibrant but sharp feel. This slight change has given the game a brand new and fresh feeling!

What do you guys think? The screenshot is in-engine, so it looks a bit brighter in the actual game, but wanted feedback before I changed everything.

Hmm, that is much better, but I think the texture orientations on each face should be consistent. Or, if you can, use normal maps instead of baking the shadows into the diffuse texture.

Yeah, it's how I've been working since the beginning. Basically taught myself how to do it so it's definitely not the right way, so it looks like that. Because nearly 40 of the levels I've created so far are like this, I wont be fixing it until later so it's not the biggest issue right now. But yeah, you're right.

Anyway, just created a new level inspired by Bunny Slope from Marble Blast Ultra. A Reddit user asked me to have a go, and I thought it would be great to do a timelapse of it from start to end.

Textures were comopletely overhauled, and got a new(and better) video featuring some of the intermediate levels.

I'm also looking to get some testers to make a few videos on their play-throughs, and thoughts on the game. So if you're interested and want a copy of the game, and are willing to give some in-depth feedback, then please post below.

The textures now looks considerably better. The only thing I would suggest is doubling the size of the floor and trim textures so they “match” the style of Marble Blast’s textures where each trin tile is about the same size as the marble and each floor tile is four times the size.

I’d love to test for you, by the way. Tell me what I can do to help!

Rosie wrote:
The textures now looks considerably better. The only thing I would suggest is doubling the size of the floor and trim textures so they “match” the style of Marble Blast’s textures where each trin tile is about the same size as the marble and each floor tile is four times the size.

I’d love to test for you, by the way. Tell me what I can do to help!

Yeah at the very beginning I thought about making it exactly the same, but I had issues with trying to match up all the squares precisely, and so I just stuck with what it is now. It's not a difficult change, but I'm sort of used to it now.

I'll PM you with a Beta key, but just keep in mind it will be removed once it has been released. I'm looking for some really detailed feedback. If you're really willing to make some videos about it, then you'll get a full release key on the 12th of December. Nothing fancy, just some short videos of your gameplay/any commentary you have.

u should make ur game obnoxiously shiny like dis

Rosie wrote:
The textures now looks considerably better. The only thing I would suggest is doubling the size of the floor and trim textures so they “match” the style of Marble Blast’s textures where each trin tile is about the same size as the marble and each floor tile is four times the size.

Giving my own opinion, I think that every new game should have its own style of levels. Look at Geoid, it's a ball-rolling game but the style of the levels are completely different from the Marble Blast games. MBG had everything being misaligned, MBP has those brown pillars and really neat and tidy texture placements, and PQ has construction/nature themed levels. But hey, just saying.

Watched the second trailer, and it looks absolutely great. Lighting needs to be tweaked as it has a little yellow tint to it, like when it's sunset (or is that what you're going for?). Timer needs to be bigger so it's easily seen, and that's all I can say just by looking at the videos. I'm really excited of the final product!

We now have Steam integrated leaderboards! And again, still looking for more testers if you are interested.

BirdwallGames wrote:
We now have Steam integrated leaderboards! And again, still looking for more testers if you are interested.

I wouldn't mind giving it a try, if only because I have my own UE4 marble game and it would be interesting to compare how they play.

Wait? You need Steam for this?

Maybe you should get a new computer.

If I had a dollar for every time you said that, I'd already have one...

MuchitelnayaZavist wrote:
Wait? You need Steam for this?

That computer is a potato and probably wouldn't run UE4 well anyway.

Well it's done, it's finally done.



First of all thank everyone that gave me feedback. This place was definitely one of the most important places I got it from. I noticed Rosie is already putting some insane times on the levels

I'm still looking to make this as best as I can, so anymore feedback is always welcome. I hope to see some of you on top of the leaderboards!

Why are you selling a game which has levels copied almost directly from Marble Blast Ultra? Did you even credit the original creators? You said on reddit that everything is "original content":



But this looks suspiciously similar to Battlements:



And this looks quite a bit like Skate Battle Royale:



One of your reviewers seems to agree with me here:

Derpking wrote:
Why are you selling a game which has levels copied almost directly from Marble Blast Ultra? Did you even credit the original creators? You said on reddit that everything is "original content":

Everything is original content. I created everything. People don't claim that Burger King isn't original, even though 90% of items they sell are almost identical to McDonalds.

No assets were store bought, and the creators of Marble Blast do not own the rights to the idea of marble platforming. Games like Marble Madness were created in 1989, 17 years before Marble Blast Ultra came out.

While we have created Marble Skies inspired by Marble Blast; Marble Madness and Super Monkey Ball were also inspirations. We wanted to give the players a sense of familiarity, so we took ideas from lots of different places, including many of our own unique ideas and put them together in a way we think players will enjoy.

The main reason the store page features a lot of similar looking levels to MBU is because the best way for us to gain attention, is to show potential players something they are familiar with. The next batch of levels will be an experimental difficulty, with only unique ideas.

Derpking wrote:
One of your reviewers seems to agree with me here:

That's what I set out to do. I'm glad that people are so accurately able to compare it to MBU, rather then saying something like "this is a bad MBU inspired game" which you will find on a lot of other marble platformers on Steam. So far the game has 100% positive ratings.

Hey!

Congrats on doing what I've wanted to achieve for the last 5 years - make a new marble game and release it! Awesome to see new marble platformers come out to keep the genre alive.

I don't think Derpking was trying to say you stole the assets themselves, but rather you pretty much made the level almost 100% identical. While that might have been your goal to attract players, I feel that you shouldn't label those practically direct copies as original. Yeah sure, it was made in blender instead of constructor or QuArK, but to be honest it's a replication of someone's work for all purposes speaking. Of course I'm not a lawyer by any means, but I think it reflects poorly to simply call it original when those levels were obvious copies of the original levels in the game. I think that's all we're trying to say

Regardless of our criticisms, I still think what you achieved is an accomplishment. Maybe if I ever manage to get a marble game out, then we'll see some competition!

Take care and best of luck with this game and future games,
Jeff

Jeff wrote:
if I ever manage to get a marble game out

The key word is "if."

CylinderKnot wrote:

Jeff wrote:
if I ever manage to get a marble game out

The key word is "if."

Ban 'em Jeff