Marble Blast: Gerson's Level Compilation 3 - RELEASED [Version 2.0.1]

It's finally time for me to really express my art into this game, an art of nature. Realizing my musics into this unforgettable nature adventure...
And also, the rule is going to be a little different this time, as this game will be more beginner friendly (I hope); that's all that I can say right now.



(No.. this is not Marble Blast GersonQuest or even Luncheon Kingdom; this is Steam Gardens)

GLC1 and GLC2 were some of the coolest mods I've ever seen! Can't wait to see what you have in store for us this time!

Ooh, really enjoyed GLC 1 and 2, really excited that a third is coming out!
unforgettable nature adventure? more like an unforgettable luncheon

GersonQuest? HAHAHAHA

Anyways, I'm just waiting for it!

Updates:

• Development of the game is still ongoing although college stuff slows the development quite significantly; everything will be sped up once my finals has been completed. Currently, 6 out of 10 levels have been completed (I know it's a very small mod with only 10 levels; however for GLC 3, I will do all of my best efforts for every individual levels (as most of the levels will have like a lot of moving platforms; in fact, that's the main gimmick of GLC 3).
• As a general hint of how my efforts for each levels will be, each main levels are quite lengthy and will have a gold time of at least 1 minute (first level has gold time of around 1 minute, last level has a gold time of around 7 minutes; all respective to normal mode and it can be changed depends on how the testers do for each levels). Credits: Manic bounce
• Because this mod will be quite different than GLC 1 and GLC 2, I've planned some other features that I require someone to help, expect my approach for help and I wish those people that I approach will be willing to help me.
• Okay I'll reveal one rule change here: Lunatic mode is no longer available from the beginning of the game, and it is more like an extra challenge (as I've recieved so many negative comments towards it with exception of Marson). Also, I've commited NOT TO MAKE ANY TIGHTROPES for this game for any difficulty (exception is Extra).

Well, also my honest confession about this mod:
I admit that this mod could really be a ripoff of PQ and fubar; however, I consider MB games as an art and everyone has rights to express their own art. My own art is to create levels (including skybox too) based on the music (I created musics for this mod first before making the mod). I know I could have just make a custom level pack for PQ, but for me, that restricts me from wider expression of art since it's not fully my art which makes me feel that this is not purely my creation, but like my art under PQ (okay idk how do I explain this here). After all, I made this mod for the community to enjoy too and as since the first GLC I didn't take many credits, I'm assuming the community helped me to realize and bring my arts and imagination into reality (so thanks for that too )

Finally, the main mood of GLC 3 is Depression (the main mood of GLC 1 was Sadness and the main mood of GLC 2 was Happiness). Fyi (if anyone care), I'm in quite a depression right now and I hope this mod can support depression in general (not sure what's the relation, but I hope it can).

With that, I'd like to welcome Rosie and Marson as the official GLC 3 testers
I wish your help can make this a good mod for the community.
~Gerson "NaCl586"

First trailer is here!

Moar update:



And after thinking for a while, I decided not to make Lunatic levels for the initial release. Therefore, there will be only three difficulties for the initial release. I might make the Lunatic version for future releases (as there might be some of this). The other reason why I decided not to make lunatic is that there will be a mode that if you do in Lunatic, I guess there will be nobody that is going to do or complete that (well, also if that mode can be realized.. I need coders, especially jeef or others).

I tried to make hard levels fun as well, and I aim to make hard levels as hard as expert levels in MBP.

If you're wondering the progress of the game, I still need to make easy and hard version for 4 more levels. It is not an easy and fast job as the levels are quite lengthy. Besides, I was sick and just recovered recently.

It's still a long way...
I need to finish this

More update again..

I think I can give a proper reason why I decided not to make lunatic for GLC 3 initial release:

Rosie wrote:
It looks like a cool level but damn talk about chaotic.
I don’t think I’ve ever played a harder level in my life. That’s the first level I’ve never been able to speedrun, let alone beat.

Also, I made a new playmissiongui layout (which unforunately is still buggy, this is why I asked in the discord server to ask where I can ask question about this to help me), in which now you don't have to play through all of the levels to unlock level 10 in every difficulty; you just need to complete a level in any difficulty once to unlock the next level. Also, the numbers in the difficulty buttons indicates how difficult the level is (the higher it is, the harder the level), and currently that picture below showed the level with the highest difficulty number in the game (the hard 12) and that is the level that is reffered above. From this PMG design, you can probably guess that there is another game besides touhou that inspires GLC 3.



I think I worked on this too much that now I'm stressed with this.. Idk why for me this mod development very serious and I wanted this to look like what I wished to be..

After 1.5 months of work (during my summer break) and some days while I was not having classes, this mod is finally completed! To be truth, I initially planned to announce the existance of this mod right now, when the mod is actually completed (as a surprise). But I think I can't keep everything as a secret lol.

And also I'm announcing the release date for the initial version:
Tuesday, August 14, 2018 at 10.00 AM GMT + 7 (Bangkok, Hanoi, Jakarta)

The only remaining thing to do is testing, especially gold times and my best times.
Stay tuned for it

(Also, I leaked some of the development progress in my instagram stories.. probably only Ralph saw them )

Features:

• 30+ new levels
• New Layout for everything
• 6+ Original Musics
• Music Room
• Checkpoints, Teleporter, Mega Marble
• Statistics, Marble Selector, and Achievements
• A surprise
• Level Stats and Comments

List of Known Issues:

• Mega marble and mini marble in the powerup inventory will not be saved by triggering a checkpoint.
• The time travel bonus visual effect is a little glitched if you pick up two or more TTs in a very short amount of time (less than a second to be exact). It cannot show two texts at a same time, so the bonus time from more recent TT picked up will be overriding the bonus time from later TT.
• Shadow reflections, especially with levels containing water or cloud layer effects on the bottom.
• At the options menu, windowed resolution will always be set at '1280 600 32' from the list on the first time opening the options menu. The resolution will not be applied unless you click apply or restart the game.

(Note that these known issues are things beyond my control and abilities; this mod lacks of help and most of the time I did this mod by myself. I tried my best to fix or minimize the issues but due to my limitations, these are the least amount of issues that I can still give within the mod)

Thank you for downloading the game! I hope you enjoyed the game as much as I like making them. Also thank you everyone that helps me to make this game completed. Future updates may be added later in the future as a downloadable patch to update the game with new features, levels, or bug fixes.

Changelog/Version History:
Version 2.0.1 (6/2/2020):
- Fixed the no gravity section being permanent after entering the area
- Fixed some minor typo

Version 2.0.0 (5/31/2020):
- Fixed playMissionGUI (a white border near the difficulty setting is now always visible, the game now remembers the last difficulty played and keeps it to be selected until a new difficulty is played but not selected).
- Added Perfect Indicators
- Defaulted the graphics settings to 32-bit OpenGL
- Added option for setting custom resolutions
- Added option for enabling/disabling environment mapping
- Marble Selector now has marble skins compiled from Marble Blast Platinum, Marble Blast Fubar, Marble Blast Elite, and Marble Blast Adventure
- Removed the Tutorial Level
- Added 13 Extra Levels, accesible after beating all 10 Main Levels and certain specific requirements
- Changed most of the achievements to be simpler
- Readjusted the difficulty values for most levels, to adjust with the difficulty of Marble Blast GLC 4's levels
- Changed gold times for nearly all levels
- Changed some parts of levels: Ravine Crossover [Hard], Platformer Philosophy [Hard], The Utopia of Translation [Easy, Normal, and Hard], and Termina [Hard]
- Added two more checkpoints in Termina [Easy, Normal, and Hard]
- Added time travel effect, its opacity can be changed into high, low, or disabled (none)
- Changed most of the in-game sounds
- Removed the overall game completion percentage and erase data feature from the statistics menu
- Added a new music: Now's Always the Adventure (Extra Levels Theme)
- Changed the layout of Music Room
- Fixed mega marble powerup effect not cancelled upon restart, and the usage of the mega marble for the second time not extending the effect time

Version 1.0.1 (8/18/2018):
- Changed some parts of levels: Floater Highlands [Hard], and Termina [Hard]
- Re-enabled console

Version 1.0.0 (8/14/2018):
- Initial release, containing 31 Levels and 7 Musics.

Download Link:
Version 2.0.1: drive.google.com/file/d/1mRO9v-EwzHQVLfsn9n5A1O4HI_dAIp_Y
Patch for 2.0.0 users (download this ONLY if you have the version 2.0.0): drive.google.com/file/d/1hbXnhdBsmYwlXy9ARba_EQyZ7qu5FNgs

If you encounter any bugs or errors that are not listed in the known issues, please send me (NaCl586) a PM in the MarbleBlast.com Forums or just reply in the release thread.
~Gerson "NaCl586"

Played through the first 5 levels and I really enjoyed it so far, good job! Will give some more detailed feedback later.

Overall you did a great job on this mod, I really enjoyed playing it. I like having different versions of the levels in terms of difficulty.

Initiation – Fun level. I think some trapdoors arent alligned properly. If you roll over them you sometimes hit an edge.

Floater Highlands – Cool patterns in the moving platforms. The mines at the end are a nuissance, especially combined with the fans.

Multi Layer Movement – Definitely a great level, one of my favourites.

Friction Force – In my opinion the worst level. I always hated random force and especially the ‘hard difficulty’ is more frustrating than challenging. Certain parts seem too random to me for it to be enjoyable.

Ravine Jumper – Cool level. One of the only levels in which there’s a possibility for some variation in the path you pick.

Ravine Crossover - Love the creative and original challenges.

Platform Clamber – In the hard version, the mega marble part is very annoying/buggy. Stopped playing the level because of that. Which is a shame, because the rest of the level is great.

(Only played the easy version of the next levels)
Platformers' Philosophy – Again, very creative and original challenges!

The Utopia of Translation – Amazing level, really looks cool.

Termina – Cool level. One small thing is that it took me a while to figure out where to go with the super jump. In my opinion that should be made more clear.

In general, I feel there’s too much text in which challenges are explained. Most people don’t bother to read those, so you may want to consider having the challenges speak for themselves. I do like the signs on which you say how many gems there are per challenge.
The only thing missing are levels in which you can pathfind.

Thank you very much regis for giving feedbacks to the mod! This feedback is what I really need since the first GLC so I can improve or fix the bad things.

Regislian wrote:
Initiation – Fun level. I think some trapdoors arent aligned properly. If you roll over them you sometimes hit an edge.

For this one.. I think I have already make sure all trapdoors have the same z-axis value.. probably either I miss some or they just don't align well with the interior. Noted to be fixed for the future update.

Regislian wrote:
Floater Highlands – Cool patterns in the moving platforms. The mines at the end are a nuissance, especially combined with the fans.

Friction Force – In my opinion the worst level. I always hated random force and especially the ‘hard difficulty’ is more frustrating than challenging. Certain parts seem too random to me for it to be enjoyable.

I have to force myself for these two levels as the second level must have an introduction to super speed, ice, fans, and mines all together and the fourth level must have an introduction to no jump floor, low grav, crystal, and random force. Because of that, they limit my freedom in level making (also the difficulty too; its hard to make for this difficulty tbh) as I must have all of those elements in the respective level. Therefore, the quality of the levels are not good. I apologize for this.

Regislian wrote:
Platform Clamber – In the hard version, the mega marble part is very annoying/buggy. Stopped playing the level because of that. Which is a shame, because the rest of the level is great.

I wish I could fix the code; probably I might need to seek help from Higuy or whirligig to fix Jeef's old code I used. Marson already requested Jeef to fix the mega marble since the first GLC though.

Regislian wrote:
Termina – Cool level. One small thing is that it took me a while to figure out where to go with the super jump. In my opinion that should be made more clear

So probably the help text mentioning that you need a super jump to climb up the blue chevrons is not really clear.. I probably need revision to this sentence. Perhaps you could suggest a better one?

Regislian wrote:
In general, I feel there’s too much text in which challenges are explained. Most people don’t bother to read those, so you may want to consider having the challenges speak for themselves. I do like the signs on which you say how many gems there are per challenge.

Learning my mistake from the moving platform section after the first checkpoint in Complexicity Ascent (level 6 from GLC 2 and also my custom level) in which Marson requested me to add some text or sign to make it clear on where to do/go, I did the same thing to GLC 3 to just make sure the player understand what to do. Fyi, I initially wanted to explain what to do in the first challenge of Platformer's Philosophy (level 8 ), but I just feel it is unnecessary.

Regislian wrote:
The only thing missing are levels in which you can pathfind.

I must admit that I'm not good at making pathfinding levels (in fact, I think the only pathfinding level I've made is Beneath the Waterfall), and I intend to make all of my levels linear (straight). Shortcuts or breaking a level by doing it, for me, is a disgrace as I want all parts of the level to be explored by the players. Idk why I tend to make levels that are anti mainstream with the current/usual trends in marble blast level making.

In general, as I got almost no feedback for GLC 1 and 2 (except from Marson for GLC 2, even that was not quite general and just focused on major flaws), I have no idea what mistakes/flaws I could have possibly done from GLC 1 and 2, also my custom levels. This is why I probably keep making the same mistakes from the previous GLC games, implying that I have been doing them since the first GLC without me realizing. But I guess the usage moving platforms here in general completely changes my ideas from my usual/traditional level making into something that forces usage of moving platforms which makes me create new things instead of going with my usual style.

I wish more people give detailed feedbacks like you did though, I need more opinions as I will consider the feedbacks for the future versions of GLC 3.

NaCl586 wrote:

Regislian wrote:
Termina – Cool level. One small thing is that it took me a while to figure out where to go with the super jump. In my opinion that should be made more clear

So probably the help text mentioning that you need a super jump to climb up the blue chevrons is not really clear.. I probably need revision to this sentence. Perhaps you could suggest a better one?

What you could do is have a diagonal arrow point towards where you have to go, where the super jump is.

And, you're welcome!

I just downloaded the game 3 days ago, and play it the day I downloaded it. It was incredibly amazing and had very lovely colors. My only problem is every time when I try to load a different level to play, the game stops, then crashes. Can you please fix that problem? I would appreciate it.

Kevinator wrote:
I just downloaded the game 3 days ago, and play it the day I downloaded it. It was incredibly amazing and had very lovely colors. My only problem is every time when I try to load a different level to play, the game stops, then crashes. Can you please fix that problem? I would appreciate it.

Please read:

NaCl586 wrote:
List of Known Issues:

• With the Direct3D setting, opening the first level for the second time causes the game to crash; this can be fixed by changing to OpenGL.

(Note that these known issues are things beyond my control and abilities; this mod lacks of help and most of the time I did this mod by myself. I tried my best to fix or minimize the issues but due to my limitations, these are the least amount of issues that I can still give within the mod)

This is the very last reminder to everyone else to read all known issues before even submitting issues; submitting similar issues which has been listed on the known issues will be ignored. Thanks.

Future Update for GLC 3:

With the hype for GLC 4, I am announcing that I will also give updates to GLC 3 to make some levels in hard difficulty more humanly speedrunable, enjoyable, and less impossible. In addition, I will also fix some problems related to crashes with D3D, as GLC 3 and GLC 4 now will have OpenGL as default, as well as both to have custom resolution selection now.

The release of the GLC 3 update will be the same as the initial release of GLC 4, so stay tuned for it.

Just announcing that the version 2.0.0 of Marble Blast GLC 3 has been released.

If you want to transfer your times, level completion status (perfect and gold), and achievements from the previous versions of Marble Blast GLC 3, you can directly copy your pref.cs from marble/client from the older versions to the new versions. Note that the transferred progress will have the same state as with the progress of the previous version regardless of the change (especially gold time), and the achievements will be reanalyzed for the revised achievements of the new version.

The download is in the green highlighted post (same post as the initial release announcement post).

Thank you.
~ Gerson "NaCl586"

As a bug was found, there's an update for Marble Blast GLC 3, which can be downloaded here:
Version 2.0.1: drive.google.com/file/d/1mRO9v-EwzHQVLfsn9n5A1O4HI_dAIp_Y
Patch for 2.0.0 users (download this ONLY if you have the version 2.0.0): drive.google.com/file/d/1hbXnhdBsmYwlXy9ARba_EQyZ7qu5FNgs