It's been quite a while since we did a formal release. That's because we thought it was better to just get our head down and crank out new features, new levels and so on. Looking ahead, we could see that our planned launch date was not achievable, so we decided to push the completed games release date to early April 2020.
Our main focus has been on adding 20 more levels for launch, integrating with Steam and improving the tutorial levels. Based on feedback from customers, we decided that 20 levels in the launch release would not cut it. But at the same time, producing sets of levels bigger than this post-launch would be onerous. To us, sets of 20 levels work best. So, we have decided to break the game into chapters, each containing 20 levels, and the game will launch with 40 levels (across two chapters) in the base product! To make this work, we had to introduce level chapter code sooner than later, and so the focus on Steam integration to allow this.
Again, based on customer feedback, we have introduced more levels of shorter duration. Counter to our original thoughts, quite a few customers felt that short levels were their preference. So we have tested this out in many of the first 20 levels, which teach much of the games features in short, focused levels. We'll see what players think of these when contrasted against the longer levels and we will base future level chapters on this feedback.
When playing marbles as a child, one of the key aspects of it was collecting and trading for other marbles with friends. We want to preserve this fun collecting aspect in-game. We will grant free marbles (usable skins), in-game, for various (Steam) achievements, but we also want to allow you to get further (free) skins by using an in-game currency. This will be in the form of coins, given to you when you rescue your marble friends. Non-achievement awarded skins will also be purchasable via the Steam store with real currency and will be tradable on Steam. To showcase these skins, one of the levels is The Emporium, where you can peruse these marbles in-game, before using your in-game coins, or cash to buy.
So, please read on, headline releases are listed below, and then a full list of notable additions and updates follows.
Headline Features
- STEAM ACHIEVEMENTS: Implemented use and awarding of Steam Achievements.
- NEW BADDIE: Automata. This baddie patrols a fixed path, oblivious to the player.
- MARBLE SKINS: Skins awarded for achievements, and can be purchased with in-game coins, or cash.
- TURNTABLES: Automatically rotating path bridges.
- WIRE RAILS: Now hold the player in, to make them more navigable.
- Contact shadows on all marbles
- SPEECH BUBBLES: Large Re-Working of Marble Friend Dialogue system to now display on in-situ Speech Bubbles.
New Levels
- The Emporium, where Chapter Keys and Marble Skins can be purchased in-game.
- Automata - introduces the... Automata.
- Wire It Up - introduces Pinball inspired, Wire Rails.
- The Two Winds - demonstrates suction funnels and fans, combined with pipes.
- Energy!: teaches the use of ENERGY Consumables.
- The Gemporium - showcases the gems & their values.
- Wizard - demonstrates the Pinball features in-game.
- Lotus Eaters - Simple maze, patrolled by Automata.
- Be Impulsive - Demonstrates the pros and cons of the Impulser.
- Cascade - introduces bounce rhythm.
- Hippety Hop - introduces using ramps to jump large distances.
- Twizzler - featuring the new TURNTABLE item.
Complete Notes
LEVEL: New level, Automata, to introduce the... Automata.
BUG: Fixed CLOSE button not working on the Settings menu when In-Game
Used EnergyShield as the Attack method for Automata Baddies.
BADDIE: Added EnergyShield Defence mechanism type for Baddies.
Applied contact shadows to remaining Marble Friends
LOD: Updated Vendor Plinth to use LOD GEO for all suitable elements
BUG: Fixed Discoball Friends, they were all sharing the same shader, rather than their variety.
GEO: Created complete, initial environment for Emporium Level.
LEVEL: The Two Winds - demonstrates suction funnels and fans, combined with pipes.
LEVEL: Terra Infirma - Reworked, using new improved wire rails.
LEVEL: Wire It Up! - introduces Pinball inspired, Wire Rails.
WIRE RAILS: Added improved support for Pinball Rails. The player can now be anchored into rails, to stop them falling out at speed (or not...)
AUDIO - All in-game sound effects FORCED to Mono. Apparently, positional sounds HAVE to be mono. Whoda thought it?
MARBLE SELECTOR: Wired up MarbleSelector to new pref, had to refactor, to make it show selected skin correctly.
PREFS: Added selected skin preference.
CYCLE LIGHT: Added ability to switch on SHADOWS. Fixed mesh hole, causing odd shadows.
LEVEL: Gimme A Brake - Reworked level, removing Gem tutorial element, to focus wholly on brake use.
LEVEL: Its A Drag - Reworked level, turned it into a circuit, it is now more educational to the topic, AND more fun.
LEVEL: Energy - New level added, to teach the use of ENERGY Consumables.
ENERGY CONSUMABLE: Re-worked trigger, for collection, and animation etc. It is now possible to collect WHILST standing on an Energy con, and using a Consumable.
CONTROL & HELP TEXT: Linked display period to the number of chars in the string. Stops text hanging around for a very long time, in-game.
LEVEL: The Gemporium - Added new level to showcase the gems, just their values, explained by friends.
BUG: Fixed calc bug in calc of Marble required to complete the level. Was not taking into account that not all marbles CAN be rescued.
LEVEL: Hippety Hop - Polished and enhanced.
Added new Generic Island, platforms of various sizes, that can be used to create basic levels with just prefabs.
BUG: Fixed issue with Friend speech, not hiding meshes and disabling lights when the Speech Bubble is hidden.
LUMINA: An initial version of Lumina decal animation system, for use initially on Wizard level.
VENDING PEDESTAL: Completed work on initial version, Now vends marble displayed if Coins are available OR opens Steam store to the specific page for Marble Skin.
VENDING PEDESTAL: Added sounds effects.
STEAM INVENTORY: Re-worked consolidation code to consolidate ALL items that have multiple entries in user inventory i.e will auto-create stacks of ANY multiples of a type i.e. marbles, coins etc.
MARBLE SKINS: Added more marble skins to test Pedestals. Added quite a lot of new China (ceramic marble) skins.
LEVEL: Wizard - Created a new tutorial level to demonstrate EACH of the Pinball features in-game. Geo still basic will add animated, Vegas-like lights on the floor.
VENDING PEDESTAL: Further work on vending Pedestal, for use in Emporium.
VENDING PEDESTAL: Pedestal now has new Greek-inspired Pedestal mesh, in Doric style.
VENDING PEDESTAL: Added price display Paddles, to display the price of Marbles in CASH and COIN values.
VENDING PEDESTAL: Added Nameplate, to display Marble Skin name.
VENDING PEDESTAL: Updated Triggering mechanism with round pads, one for Cash one for Coins, pressing A, B, X or Y on either pad triggers buying of that type.
LEVEL: Be Impulsive - Demonstrates the pros and cons of the Impulser.
MEDAL: Reflection Probe in-game was effecting in-game objects. Made it MUCH smaller, so now it ONLY lights the intended medal. Reflection Probe size is now set PER location, as its size needs to vary massively to work in each case.
MEDAL: Updated all uses of Medals, to set their scale explicitly, to ensure correct scale in any given scenario.
MEDAL: Ceremony medals are now disabled in Mesh and ReflProbe when the ceremony is not happening.
STEAM ACHIEVEMENTS: Implemented use and awarding of Steam Achievements.
STEAM ACHIEVEMENTS: Implemented 3 test Achievements on Steam, and implemented basic methods. Tested awarding Achievements, and they work.
STEAM INVENTORY: Further work to support Emporium.
NEW LEVEL: The Emporium, where Chapter Keys and Marble Skins can be purchased in-game.
BUG: Much of the meshes had bugs, and were double thickness geo. Now shader does double-sided, and meshes are single thickness, so fake SSS works.
BUG: Improved Marble Selectors rotation, so it resets Y rotation to zero once it has done a full rotation in either direction.
MARBLE SKINS: Switched skin unlocking to be based on Steam Inventory awards/purchases.
MOUSE: Fixed Cursor, so it is not displayed when ANY Joypad is detected. When one is NOT detected, the cursor is returned to the centre of the screen and displayed.
MARBLE FRIENDS: Added several more Friend Avatars types.
TRANSPARENCY: Discovered wide-ranging fix for depth sorting issue on transparent shaders. Depth sorting needs to be manual, and shader needs to write to DEPTH BUFFER.
INVENTORY: Added graphics for Chapter Keys and Coins.
SPEECH BUBBLES: Large Re-Working of Marble Friend Dialogue system to now display on in-situ Speech Bubbles.
FRIEND SPEECH: Re-Jigged to work with the new Bubble system. No Rescue Text now, as there is nowhere to show it when the marble floats away, it was nonsensical
GOALS DISPLAY: Removed Friend Tally display, and simplified to ONLY show % of Rescued Marble's goal and % of Gem Goal
NEW BADDIE: Automata. This baddie patrols a fixed path, oblivious to the player.
BADDIE: Baddies can now have more than one type of Eye geo.
BADDIE: Baddies can now hear you.
TITLE MENU: Now shows fixed text for the SELECT LEVEL button, and instead the selected level title is appended to the top button i.e. Play: Winding Road
TITLE MENU: Made Menu Wider and Taller, expanded buttons to use more space, and made button text larger to make more legible
TITLE MENU: Added stand-in swirling pattern, and added masks for Button Areas and Frame Edge
TITLE MENU: Added decoration, in the form of edge mounts and 4 cogs, which rotate when the menu is visible.
AUDIO: Paused Title Menu music when the menu is hidden, UN-PAUSE it when it is displayed again.
AUDIO: In-Game gauges carried on animating when the player returned to Title Menu. Now, displaying the title Menu fires LEVEL RELOADED event which cancels all these animations, and any associated AUDIO playing.
LEVEL SELECTOR: Enhanced to now display unlocked Chapters. All players receive keys to Chapters One and Two in the base game.
Implemented Steam Inventory integration, required to allow the sale of Chapter keys, skins etc.
LEVEL: Lotus Eaters - Updated, but requires new AUTOMATA Baddie to complete.
LEVEL: Cascade - Updated, near complete.
LEVEL: Hippety Hop - Updated.
LEVEL: Added new level, TWIZZLER. Using it as a testbed for new TURNTABLE item.
TURNTABLE: Added new TURNTABLE item, a path section that rotates to a fixed list of angles, at a given speed, and fixed pause at each angle.
LEVEL: Madness - Updated mesh, added more items and refreshed marble friends on the level, added set dressing.