Marble Blast and its future
When we first played Marble Blast Gold years ago, it was an instant addiction. It was one of those games you kept coming back to no matter what. More recently, its sequel arrived in the form of Marble Blast Ultra. Aside from the fact that it was released for the Xbox 360, it had huge graphical improvements not to mention it ran natively in high definition. Marble Blast Ultra was and still is hugely popular. It’s still in the top 10 most played XBLA games to this day. Sadly, due to a select few individuals the leaderboards mean absolutely nothing. Due to a glitch which some are taking advantage of, people are now able to obtain top times for levels they do not even need to complete.
It’s now widely known that a Marble Blast Ultra update will be making its way to us shortly. But unfortunately, we aren’t totally satisfied and most likely nor will you be. To put it shortly, we’re getting the new maps except Core (which is being replaced by Concentric) and the achievements but get ready…no major bug fixes. That’s right. We’re still stuck with the glitches and bugs that totally ruin this game. Don’t get us wrong, we are very grateful for what we’re getting but the bugs really, really do need addressing.
Whether or not these bugs and glitches get sorted, we still need a Marble Blast Ultra sequel. Given the huge popularity of Marble Blast Ultra and Online, it’s certain that any sequel will be successful and will easily sell. We’re so looking forward to a sequel that we’ve put together a list of suggestions that you will see further on in this article. Our passion and commitment to Marble Blast and GarageGames is huge, hence this whole website. We hope this is taken into deep consideration as there are thousands and thousands of hardcore fans wishing for a new Marble Blast game.
As you already know, a game eventually loses its appeal and gets boring. This is especially the case if a game does not receive updates to keep it fresh. The time has already gone by where we no longer have interest due to the amount of glitches that need addressing. It’s great to know the new maps are coming, but Marble Blast Online has them too and it doesn’t have the glitches that Ultra has. We still happily play Marble Blast Online due to this reason.
In an attempt to get the last possible bit of juice out of Marble Blast Ultra, we coded a program so that we could view and extract the contents of a file named ‘marble.bza’. The program worked very well but we found out that the Xbox 360 uses a very strong encryption algorithm which means it’s impossible for us to rebuild the file for execution on the Xbox 360. However, that doesn’t mean we didn’t have fun, we got some interesting files from the .bza file.
So what exactly do we want? We want a Marble Blast Sequel to be made which has the same (or better) graphics as the XNA build of MBU. After seeing the XNA build, we couldn’t take our eyes off it. We instantly fell in love with it. We also want a sequel because of the amount of awesome suggestions we have came up with. We think Marble Blast should no longer be an Arcade game, but rather a full retail game, although now that Microsoft is willing to let high-profile games go above the 350MB limit an Arcade release would also be fine. Please take a look below at our suggestions and ideas. The suggestions are just a compilation of ideas; some are must-haves and some are a bit crazy but we still include them so they get your brain juices flowing.
MARBLE BLAST SEQUEL SUGGESTIONS
Racing
A new game type which allows players to race in certain maps. For example, the Single Player Map Black Diamond is perfect for a racing map! Also having checkpoints (for big maps) can help users restore their location if they fall off. Check out a sample race map we made here: http://youtube.com/watch?v=pJe8yXKBgBc&fmt=18
Team Gem Hunt
Marble Blast should allow teams in multiplayer matches. As a maximum of 8 players are allowed to play simultaneously, a 2 team 4 vs 4 match should be possible and of course any configuration that adds up to 8 players or less. This would surely be very popular and extremely fun. Teams could either collect the same gems as each other or collect different coloured gems (e.g. Team 1 collects red, Team 2 collects blue)
Tag
Tagging may be difficult, but it will certainly be a fun game. A simple tag game type where one player is the tagger and has to tag other players in a specified time frame. Each player should start with an equal number of points and the person who must tag should be chosen at random. Points are deducted if you are ‘it’, or if you fall off the map. Points are added to your score if you successfully tag somebody. Powerups should only be available to the tagger. The winner is the person with the most points at the end of the match.
Saving Gameplay Footage (Record Ghost)
Players should be able to record their gameplay in a certain level and then save it if they liked it. The same feature is available in Halo 3 where you can record your whole match. Recording your gameplay would simply be sampling the marble co-ordinates for the duration of your gameplay. Playback would be rendered in real-time as the recorded video is just in fact a file with co-ordinates being read from it.
Marble Arena
Imagine you’re on a map like King of the Marble, and your goal is to knock as many people off within the time limit, the more you knock off, the more points you get, or it could be the last marble standing! This would be one hell of a fun game type.
More surfaces
More types of friction-varying surfaces such as water, sand, tarmac, carpet, bouncy and others. There shouldn’t be any problem implementing these using the Torque/Torque X engine.
Free look
Clicking the right thumbstick (or scroll wheel) should change the camera view so it faces directly upwards. This would definitely be useful when looking around a map.
Different coloured gems
In single player, different coloured gems like in Marble Blast Gold. Or perhaps randomly coloured gems, so each time you play the gems are different colours to last time.
Timed gems in multiplayer
A special coloured gem worth 10 points spawns (rarely) but only stays for 10 seconds or less. If it does not get collected by any player, it disappears.
No modding
Many people see modding controllers as cheating. The maximum speed the marble can roll with a modded controller whilst going perfectly diagonal should be kept the same in the new Marble Blast game. Of course this time the controller should not have to be modded and the speed should be attainable in any direction on an unmodded controller.
Multiplayer Time Limit
In multiplayer, the time limit should be variable from a few minutes to unlimited so that lengths of multiplayer matches can be player determined and not dependant on the map being played. This would be done in “Custom Games”.
AI
Also known as ‘bots’, marbles controlled by the computer but based on real players. The bots should be able to mimic moves done by real players (which can be recorded by volunteers).
Advanced Statistics
After the game has ended, a more detailed report should be shown for players to see. For example, how many gems collected and which colours. For each player, individual statistics should be available to show how many games they have played in ranked, custom or normal game types. Each player should have points indicating the number of wins they have achieved in the form of ‘experience points’.
- Total collected powerups
- How many times you used Blast
- How many times you collided with other marbles
- How many times you jumped
- How many medals you earned and which ones (using the medals suggestion)
- How many Blues, Yellows and Reds you collected
Host Controls
Hosts should be able to make change party settings and kick people without having to end a game.
Credits
No more auto scrolling. You should be able to use the right trigger or left trigger to scroll up and down through the credits at a decent speed. Also, the credits should have “Farhan and Faraaz” in there. (Just kidding, <3).
Camera speed
We’ve been playing MBO for a while now and have come to a conclusion that MBU would be much better with a slightly faster camera movement. The current speed is actually very slow. Instead of making it faster, a slider should be available in Options allowing variable speed so you can have a choice. Having the option would not make it unfair, although some people may complain, but everyone has the choice to do it.
New powerups
New powerups would be great to see. There was some coding about a “Time-Freeze” powerup which wasn’t included in the game. Although this powerup would be a bad idea to place in Multiplayer gem collection, it would be better to see it in the Race game type.
Skyboxes
It may seem a bit extreme for Marble Blast, but seeing rain, lightning or snow would be awesome. You could either have this as the different selectable skyboxes or make it so actually affects game physics. Seeing big, volumetric 3D clouds going past around the map will give it a realistic feeling. Imagine being hit by a mega marble and you get smashed out of the map, straight through the clouds leaving a hole through the impact zone.
(November 12th, 2008) Below is a video posted by Mich (in the comments) showing a whole new skybox:
Player count increased
The Marble Blast sequel should allow up to 16 players playing simultaneously in one game.
CTF
Two flags, two teams. Each team has to retrieve the opposite teams’ flag and protect their own. The flag carrier’s marble turns the colour of the flag and is visible to all players on their tracking system. To drop the flag, the flag carriers must be hit by the opposite team with a certain amount of force, fall off, or be blasted with a certain amount of power and within a certain radius. Gyrocopters and mega marbles are unavailable for the flag carriers and flag carriers also roll at a slightly reduced speed. The flag is always pointing up even when rolling in any direction. Once flag is dropped it has a 10 second return time. Also, if your team member is within a close distance to your own flag, it starts to return quicker (has progress bar) and the more of your team mates the faster it returns.
Oddball
Might sound silly, but we don’t think so. This is obviously inspired by Halo and of course the name ‘Oddball’ can’t be used. Everyone starts off at an equal distance away from the ‘Oddball’ powerup and the first to pick it up is ‘The One’. For every second that you are ‘The One’ you get 1 point. Everyone else must attempt to hit you, which will make them ‘The One’ or knock you off, which will reset the powerup. ‘The One’ should be available in team and individual modes. ‘The One’ should have slightly different characteristics to the other marbles. For example, a faster rolling speed, better control, etc. ‘The One’ should also have a special marble colour that is easy for everyone to spot and everyone else should have an arrow indication where ‘The One’ is.
Marble Design
More selectable textures and skins. You should be able to choose different textures and colours from a variable RGB colour palette. But the choice of skins should be limited as custom skins would be open to abuse.
King of the Hill
There can be a variety of King of the Hill game types, such as Crazy King, where the hill would move location every few seconds. This would be incredibly fun. We’ve seen this being played by a lot of players except they have an imaginary hill and count the time themselves.
Find that Easter egg!
Have an Easter Egg on every level and have an Easter Egg Time Trial mode that can be included on the leaderboards. The faster you collect it, the higher your rating and rank will be.
Spectate
Like Rokkitball, players should be able to spectate games. One on Ones are always fun to watch when there are good players competing. It’s also annoying when you get in the way and ruin the match.
Medals
Medals should popup as small icons in the left hand side of the screen. For example, if you reach a high speed, it will display a cool medal for doing so. If you get really high in the air you get a medal with points depending on the height or speed, for example. Also, hitting other players with and without mega marble will earn you points and all these points should be added in total and displayed in the post-game ‘carnage report’ at the end of a match.
Music
Timothy Steven Clarke’s trance is great, but it really gets repetitive. The majority of players who play very frequently turn the music off and just have just the sound effects only. It would be nice if there were a few more tracks and have them play in a random order. For example, check out this mock-up we put together: http://youtube.com/watch?v=CuU9nKyEukY&fmt=18 - doesn’t it look awesome already?
Achievements
Marble Blast Ultra is known to have some of the easiest achievements. Gamers like real challenges. Here are some ideas for achievements:
- Win 15 consecutive ranked matches
- Collect 200 gems in Sprawl, Gem Hunt mode
- Collect 120 gems in Spires, Gem Hunt mode
- Collect 10,000 total points in multiplayer
- Get a top 400 score rank in any level (Gem Hunt)
- Get a top 400 rank time in any level (Single Player)
- Collect 40 or more gems in Gem Hunt in under a minute
- Keep a Gyrocopter activated for three minutes by collecting them
- Unlocked all marble skins (Get this achievement by completing all single player maps)
Map Designer
You know who he is. The main man. The legend. Alex Swanson’s maps are the most popular (see Sprawl) and we would love to see him as lead designer again. Please.
User Interface
Let’s see a really nice UI, much better than the previous one. We know you guys can do it.
Service Record
Every Marble Blast player has a service record where you can see detailed reports about them. We made a picture to explain exactly what we mean. Below is a simple one we created to give a general idea to people uncertain as to what we’re talking about. Of course, the UI designers can do a better job but this is just an example.
Note: Suggestions will be added whenever we can think of new ones.
We hope you like our suggestions and again, take them into deep consideration. We’ve put a lot of hard work and dedication in to Marble Blast, so it’s great to see your feedback and appreciation of our work. You can also comment using the feature below.
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