- Details
- Written by: IsraeliRD
- Category: News
- Hits: 3527
Hello all,
Our entire Marble Blast Community Staff have been meeting monthly to ensure the continuity and development of this wonderful and inspiring community, and without you, the community, none of us would be here today. Even today we're seeing some of the most impressive additions to the game with help from our core developers, HiGuy and Jeff, the extremely talented Dierking, the marvelous Whirligig, and so many others. Finally, we've been receiving a lot of questions from members of the community regarding future content updates and releases of anticipated titles such as Marble Blast Fubar and PlatinumQuest. After much discussion from the Marble Blast Community Staff, we've decided to release this news update to provide a more transient look into the future of the Marble Blast Community.
Let's start off with the more sensitive subject; the longevity of Marble Blast. Due to recent discussions among the current Marble Blast Community Staff, it's clear that a majority of our current leaders and developers will not be continuing to maintain the community beyond the next few years. While we respect, cherish, and enjoy the community we've spent so many years contributing to and supporting, all good things eventually come to an end and as some of our veteran members move on to larger projects and bigger life events, the time for Marble Blast must also end for them. It is our expectation that you, The Community, will continue to support and further expand the lifespan of our beloved Marble Blast, and we will actively search for our respective replacements as we look towards retirement from Marble Blast. You will always have a several week notice before any member of the current Marble Blast Community Staff plans on departing. At this point in time, all of our current staff members are expected to remain for the next 6 months.
With that being said, all further development beyond the next major release of Marble Blast Platinum has halted, and all further development beyond the currently planned features for PlatinumQuest have ceased.
All updates to Marble Blast Platinum will cease beyond the 1st of January, 2016, with some exceptions. Due to time constraints, 1.60 will have a "rolling release", where new features will release over the course of a few months. This was ultimately decided to ensure development maintained strict deadlines and you, The Community, are able to enjoy some of the new features without having to wait for everything to be finished in one update package.
Additionally, the new Shader Engine and PlatinumQuest will see a guaranteed release in 2017. After PlatinumQuest releases, the game will no longer be updated with the exception of Seasonal Events and Custom Levels and critical hotfixes or security patches, which includes general support in both the forums and in-game chat.
Furthermore, Marble Blast Fubar will be open to the public for beta testing before the end of 2015, and with a full release in the first few months of 2016. Marble Blast Fubar will see periodic content updates over the course of 2016 through mid 2017, with all development and support ending by January 2018.
Finally, we are officially confirming a series of Seasonal Events, some of which will release later this year and early next year, that will continue to make a re-appearance during their respective timeframes each year going forward for the online client of Marble Blast. We can't spoil the details now, but you'll hear about the next event Soon™.
To provide you with a more clear development path, we've officially released the Marble Blast Development Timeline document for your viewing pleasure. We will do our best to stick to the deadlines provided in this document within a 60-day window, but please keep in mind Development Timelines (especially those that project several years in the future) are subject to change and the proposed release dates demonstrated by this document are subject to change pending development progress in the future.
So while we are planning for the end, our entire team is motivated to strive for the absolute best work for you, The Community of Marble Blast. It has been and will continue to be a great ride for all of us as we extract what we've learned from the development and participation in this game and apply it to our future endeavors.
We would like to thank this fantastic community for their support, as well as all those who have helped us on development of both Marble Blast Platinum and PlatinumQuest over the past 8 years. It has truly been an honor to work and speak with each and every member of the team and the community, and we hope you will all continue to support and maintain our creations for many years to come.
Best regards,
- The Marble Blast Community Staff
- Details
- Written by: Aayrl
- Category: News
- Hits: 2227
Greetings folks!
First off, let me say we had a phenomenal turnout this year and I hope everyone that was able to attend had a great time! There were a few hiccups here and there and tons of cherisable memories that I am sure we will continue to hear about for many months to come.
If you were unable to attend the event this past Monday, don't worry, we have several more events coming in the next few weeks just for you!
Here are some of our favorite highlights from Monday.
Our first game on Aayrl's "Three Minute Madness" proved quite challenging!
We had enough players to sit on all of the spawns of the community favorite level "King of the Marble".
We shattered the record books once again!
Things started to get a little out of hand when we had a 16-player match of "Ramps Reloaded"
A 20 player "Teams" mode match on "Sprawl", followed by massive latency spikes..
Yes, we eventually managed to crash the server with our 21-player match on "Horizon"...
And we couldn't leave you without our favorite community submission from Threefolder! Later, HiGuy!
Thank you to all of those who made this event possible! We'll see you at the next event, and certainly next Labor Day!
~Aayrl
Marble Blast Community Manager
- Details
- Written by: Aayrl
- Category: News
- Hits: 1995
Hello everyone!
Over the past few years, we've opened up the Marble Blast Support Forum to the entire community in the hopes that our wonderful members would be able to assist one another with the multitude of issues that may arise while playing Marble Blast. The Marble Blast Community Staff have especially been extraordinarily helpful with providing assistance to those whom ask of it. However, we've noticed a large decline in the quality and the overall assistance provided by miscellaneous posts from several members of our community.
At this point in time, we have locked down the Support Forum to require moderator or administrative review and approval of all posts before they are publicly visible. All members still have the ability to write responses in this forum, but they may not be publicly visible until a moderator or administrator reviews them. This was done to ensure the original member requesting assistance only reads helpful and descriptive responses to avoid confusion and frustration with our support system. We would also like to strongly recommend that users use our state-of-the-art Ticketing System for the fastest response time.
We hope these changes improve the overall quality of our Support to the majority of our users and we hope you, the community, understand why we must make these changes. We always strive to provide the absolute best experience possible for all of our members.
Thank you,
~Aayrl
Marble Blast Community Manager
- Details
- Written by: Aayrl
- Category: News
- Hits: 3072
Hello everyone!
I'm pleased to announce with the success of today's website maintenance we're unveiling the first phase of the Marble Blast Website Profile Update! What does this exciting new update mean? Well, I could tell you about it, but I'd rather show you!
New with the Profile Update, Banner Images and Status Updates! All members receive a preset group of banner images that you can use to customize your profile appearance to anyone who views your profile! Excited? Why not update your Profile Status with the new Status Updates messages! Status messages are limited to 200 characters and follow the same Terms of Service restrictions as usernames, so choose your words wisely!
You can earn additional banners simply by playing the game or attending in-game events! With the release of this update, there are over 100 unique banner images to choose from, and many, many more will be added over the next few weeks! Who will be the first to collect them all?
You can modify your profile banner image and status text at any time by clicking on the "Edit Profile" Icon on your Profile page, or by clicking on the Profile -> Edit Profile link from the top navigation menu.
Another great improvement to user profiles is the Achievements section. All in-game achievements will now display their Rating rewards, in addition to any bonus rewards, such as flair icons or unique username titles! Website achievements got a makeover, too, and will show you their respective rewards! Now you can profile-hunt other members to figure out how they got that elusive "Champion" Title!
And if all of that wasn't enough for you, we've also gone ahead and made the Edit Profile experience even more user friendly for you! No more having to interpret HEX codes or Flair Icon names, as we've gone ahead and made the whole process visual! We've added an easy-to-use color picker for users who are lucky enough to have Colored Usernames and a graphical interface for all of your lovely flair icons!
Lastly, I'm also happy to announce we've resolved the Support Request system so that users can now post replies and updates to their Support Tickets! HiGuy and I were able to identify the issue and squash it promptly, allowing all members to once again respond to their Support Requests. We hope this will clear up some of the post volume on the Support Board and encourage members to once again utilize our state-of-the-art ticketing system for the fastest and most convenient responses to all of their Marble Blast related troubles.
There were many, many more updates included with today's patch, so be sure to head on over to the Forums to check out the details!
I can't wait to disclose further details of the next few phases of the Profile Update, but I am being told I have to keep these secret..for now. We hope you enjoy today's update! If you have any questions or feedback, please respond in the comments section below.
Thank you,
~Aayrl
Marble Blast Community Manager
- Details
- Written by: Aayrl
- Category: News
- Hits: 2407
Hello everyone,
It is with great sadness that I must announce the retirement of our fabled Shoutbox feature on the Marble Blast Community Website. The decision did not come lightly, but ultimately the Marble Blast Community Staff have decided the Shoutbox's utility versus practicality is simply not worth the effort nor the resources to maintain. We will officially be removing the Shoutbox module from our Website at 6:00 PM Eastern Time on Monday, August 10th, 2015. The live Webchat system will remain as the official method of conversation between members of the community in real time in addition to the Marble Blast Community Forums.
We will be improving other communication channels to account for the absence of the Shoutbox, including numerous fixes to the Private Messaging and Support Request systems over the next few weeks to ensure users are able to communicate with the Staff in the event of an emergency or a system outage. More details on these improvements will come to fruition later this month.
Thank you again for your understanding. We encourage members to utilize the Webchat system for all of your real-time conversational desires.
Best regards,
~Aayrl
Marble Blast Community Manager