First off, let me start by wishing all of you reading this a very happy new year; I want to thank all of you for sticking around with me this far into the development of Lost Marbles. And if we have any new faces reading this, I'm very happy you have chosen to join us, and I hope you will enjoy the game as much as I enjoy developing it!
From Early Access to Full Release
The purpose of this thread is to share my proposed roadmap for the game in 2025. Looking back at my new year post one year ago, I made the ambitious goal of leaving early access during 2024, and clearly that didn't happen. I underestimated how much I had left to do, and how much spare time I was able to spend doing it. With that being said, I do believe that 2025 will in fact be the year that we leave Early Access for the full release!
So... What exactly do we have left in order to transition from EA to full release? Here is a list, and then we can dive into my progress and expectations for each one individually.
- Full "Time Trials" level set
- Full "Gem Arenas" level set
- "Level Rush" overhaul
- Full "Remix" level set
- Customisation overhaul
- In-Game Store
- Game Statistics page
- General game polish improvements
- Additional goals if time permits
Time Trials
The goal with Time Trials is simple; Complete the goal of 60 levels. As of writing this, there are 38 levels available in the main set of Time Trial levels (excluding the bonus levels). This leaves 22 required to complete the list.
This is currently my main focus for the game at the moment, and whilst I do have quite a few levels far into development, it will likely still take up the bulk of remaining development time.
My plan for the difficulty distribution of these levels is as follows:
- Beginner - 8
- Easy - 15
- Intermediate - 15
- Hard - 12
- Extreme - 10
There was also plans for an additional "Brutal" difficulty, but in the interest of actually releasing the full product, this will likely release as a post release update if I do decide to do it.
Gem Arenas
Its been quite some time now since I gave Gem Arenas some love, and I definitely plan to change this. My original goal for this mode was to have around 10-15 levels for the full launch, and at the time of writing this, there are only 4.
This mode is quite significantly less popular than the standard Time Trial levels, and so that it mainly why I have not been focussing on it as much. With that being said though, there are people who do really enjoy the mode, with myself being one of those people, so I will definitely try to regularly release one or two new levels whilst releasing the ~22 Time Trial levels that I have left to make.
I am aiming for approximately 3-4 of each difficulty, with the exception of only a single beginner level.
Level Rush
Similar to Gem Arenas above, Level Rush hasn't had much love for quite some time now, but the reason for this is different. The idea behind Level Rush is to have a playlist for each difficulty, plus an entire game playlist. Naturally this is only going to be possible to do once the Time Trial level list has been 100% finalised. Once this is done though, you can expect exactly that; a playlist for each difficulty, a full game playlist, and a bunch of additional bonus playlists.
Additionally, I like to think I have came a long way as a developer since I first implemented the game mode, and so I do also have plans to completely overhaul the code behind it. Included in this updated code will be the ability for players to choose their own order for each playlist, as opposed to how it is now in having to play in the order I set.
I wont be touching this until all main single player levels are done, however, so don't expect the level rush playlists drop to happen immediately along side the final level drop.
Remix Challenges
I don't really have a number in mind for how many of these I plan to have when the full game releases, aside from ensuring that the unlock 25 levels and earn challenge medal on 25 levels achievements are possible, so I guess you could say that 25 is the expectation. I do however have a few specific ideas for levels in mind that I would like to make.
It will likely be a case that this is a mode that will receive a random level drop here and there, including past the full release date...
Customisation
I think most people know by now that the customisation in this game is a little on the sparse side. Heck, even when I release a special seasonal skin, its usually in the form of a placeholder acting as an IOU when I finally make something worthy of the spot.
This will change however, Once I dedicate the time to finalizing the customisation options for the game. Currently the games levels are my number 1 priority, so it will be a little while before this happens, but it is 100% something that will happen before the final release.
In-Game Store
You may have noticed sometime in the past year that I introduced a new currency to the game, but up to now it has absolutely no uses. My plan is to implement a shop for this currency, allowing you to buy various cosmetic items and remix levels. The currency and shop wont be tied to any real world purchases, it is a purely in-game system.
Game Statistics
The game has been tracking various player statistics now for a number of years, but there has never been a way to actually see these stats... So I think it is almost time for me to tackle that greyed out statistics option in the player profile...
General Game Polish
This one should be fairly self-explanatory at this point, since I have mentioned it in previous update posts. That being said though, I do have a few specific parts of the game I wish to heavily revise.
They are:
- New gameplay UI
- Figuring out how to make levels feel less static and more "alive"
- Addition of audio and particle FX to powerups
- End level widgets need a major overhaul
Closing Thoughts
I think that just about covers everything, and whilst there is still a LOT here to do, I believe it can be done within 2025.
Thank you all for sticking with me and supporting Lost Marbles! <333