Der Fisch New YouTube teaser? Why not! This showcases some new level components (what 3d platformer is complete without spikey crushers/spinners?) and work-in-progress experiments with aesthetics. YouTube: video
7/20 update Been working through my burn list, to tackle some planned cosmetic and usability improvements. Big thanks to my friend Louis for a clever idea to help avoid the updated vignette effect from muddying the playfield graphics! Beta has been refreshed with the following changes: 1) default camera is now at 45 degrees, for a more Marble-Madnessy look. A bunch of subtle edits had to be done to refactor existing stages to work with this new perspective. I'd moved away from this in the past because diagonal swipes are trickier to execute accurately on an iPhone or (especially) Siri remote than horizontal/vertical swipes. But I think the visual benefit justifies it, and we have an idea cooked up that should resolve any unintended increase in difficulty. 2) major changes to shader to give more control over coloring. There are now three orthogonal lights, giving complete control over top, left, and right colors based on surface normal (along with ambient/specular light). 3) updates to the vignette effect 4) changes to the shadow map handling, to soften them and better deal with shadows at a distance 5) a few new levels/level sections 6) cosmetic/accessibility improvements to the boss fights (6) Merits a bit more explanation. I had observed my lovely wife approach the first boss fight. She panicked and through a combination of luck/persistence managed to bounce out of the level to the exit which lies behind a gate. Clever, I suppose, but not at all what I'd intended! Changes to help address this include: - boss no longer is instantly dangerous after being rammed and becoming enraged; there's a short timer that kicks in before his spinning buzz-saw can hurt the player, making ramming the boss a bit safer - when a boss is enraged, they now glow red, making it more obvious when it's safe vs. dangerous to ram them - new sound effects associated with boss activity/interactions - when boss is rammed, the whole screen now flashes white, making it more obvious you're hurt it - moved the exit funnel really far from the boss, to make it impossible to escape prematurely - after boss dies (either by being slain or knocked out of the ring), the gate explodes and a bridge animated offscreen towards the exit, allowing player to advance Looking to add a fresh batch of testers. If any TA folk are up for it, please shoot me a PM and/or post here.
Refreshed beta with a couple changes, big and small. 1. The flick mechanic is adjusted to do "quantization" - this makes it easier to roll precisely in the eight cardinal directions. I find it makes the recent reintroduction of 45 degree orientation a bit easier to deal with, as well as skinny platforms. But please let me know what you guys think here or in PM. My hope is for it to be barely noticeable except that some levels feel a bit easier. There's a compromise I've tested locally where the also-supported drag mechanic remains unchanged, and only hard flicks are affected, but I think it's better to test with the feature fully applied first. 2. Preliminary support for showing where player is when obscured by a wall. 3. Workaround for a collision detection glitch that can occur in the last two boss fights. 4. Misc incremental level tweaks. 5. Cosmetic patch for vignette layer 6. Patch for missing game center button Current focus is on optimizations. Flicky Marble runs at rock-solid 60fps on iPhone6 or newer but some of the shader effects are a bit much for older devices (i.e. 5th gen iPod). I will likely end up adding settings to let users enable/disable whatever eye candy they feel is not worth the hit on fps there.
Flicky Flatness Refreshed beta with various changes: - added a "graphics options" submenu, offering ability to toggle specular lighting, vignette effect, and bump maps. The flat look without bump maps gives more of a traditional minimalist look and is growing on me. I ended up adding some notches/bevels to spinners, movers, and teeter platforms to better distinguish these level parts by function and ensure that it's obvious that a flat-shaded spinning cylinder is actually spinning. Screenshot below show the updated default presentation. - tweaks to various levels to better balance camera angles, coin placement and difficulty (including FIN, BALANCE, and DOMINATE) - the "star" menu no longer simply launches Game Center dashboard. It now maps to a browser for all current worlds/levels, letting you see star coins and statistics at a glance. This can also be used to skip ahead to arbitrary levels, including locked ones. - some in-progress cosmetic improvements for splash screen and interstitial.
Focused this past week iterating on the UI and exploring level-specific palettes. I'm not sure whether it would be better to go with a flat look vs. retaining the checkerboard gridlines from Marble Madness. In the end, I'll likely include settings so people can select the style that appeals most to them.
Flicky Marble beta has been refreshed with a handful of changes including: - fish-in-ball vs. opaque ball treatment is now selectable at runtime - misc level tweaks, especially for 5-4 - custom shading and bounce animation added for trampolines - refinements of world-specific palettes - major optimizations in various areas for lower end devices (i.e. 5th gen iPod) - work-in-progress: changed cast-at-angle shadows to drop shadows; this isnt quite as pretty, but makes shadows much more useful as cues for object relationships Currently exploring use of lightmaps for global illumination to take everything up a notch.
global illumination UV unwrapping/ambient occlusion was painful to get working end to end, but I think it's worth it. And as a nice side effect, the use of light maps gives a welcome speed boost on older devices!
Flicky Marble is a ball-rolling 3d platformer built around speed runs. It's heavily inspired from an online think piece, "The Quest for Good Platformer Mechanics: Fat Men on Ice Skates" which delved into on NES Super Mario Brothers design decisions. One of the ways SMB revolutionized platform game design was its approach to difficulty and replay. Rather than having a hero that trots at fixed speed through levels full of tricky timing-based challenges - as was common in game design at the time - the player is instead given full control over the hero's speed. The novice can choose to play new areas cautiously, slowly bumbling through levels without much risk of dying. The more seasoned player can glide through previously beaten areas, allowing familiar sections to be passed through more rapidly while ramping up the challenge - hazards and obstacles become more dangerous when approached at higher speeds. The expert player can zoom through levels at an even more reckless pace, pulling off feats of skill and daring. Flicky Marble involves a ball and not a rotund plumber, but the same principles apply. The player can be guided with either cautious drags or quick flicks. Generous automatic checkpoints and infinite lives allow the player to quickly recover if they make a mistake. We'd love to sign up a batch of beta testers to help get this game to the finish line! Just refreshed the beta with a number of changes including: - new introductory level - new (work-in-progress) finale level, with some crazy new challenges. - much stronger 'braking' for the marble, a feature a friend has long requested Still toiling away to refine/nail the look - here's a fresh screen cap from the World-2 level picker depicting new background layer and portal treatment. I've left in a 'retro' mode in settings, that gives a checkerboard motif sans light maps, and likewise backdrop can optionally be replaced with a flat color. If interested to help with testing - please reply here and I'll hook you up lickety split.
Finally, some overdue work on HUD and end-of-level transitions. Goal is to make unlocking a new level more of a dramatic event.
Marble. I'd love to beta test. I played Marble Madness in my younger days and have been thinking the a smart phone would be perfect.
the chequered graphics a bit tough on my eye, overall very good game play from videos. when is it out ?
It's been a long journey settling on a final default rendering style for levels. The current blend of ambient occlusion and checkered graphics has gotten a good response from most people, but I will include options for alternate treatments. Not ready to commit to a release date, but probably early in 2018. Things being worked on include: - more cosmetic/functional differentiation between levels. If you look at a platformer like Mario (for Wii), every level tends to introduce at least 1-2 completely new monsters/concepts which is pretty impressive given how many levels there are. At the end of the day I want every level in Flicky Marble to stand on its own, be memorable, with nothing feeling recycled. - adding a "super skills" movie viewer (unlockable with star coins) - polishing the HUD/UI & incorporating story/cut scenes
Refreshed beta with a handful of changes including: Accessibility: Player now has an extra "hit point" allowing it to survive an initial hit from dangerous enemies. Cosmetic: all levels now using the easier-on-the-eyes pattern from world-1, with only backdrops changing between worlds. Various level tweaks, including new levels in "Mountain", and World-6, and Circus-1. New "acid puddle" enemy.
Been off the grid for a while, but it's great to be back, and even better to be able to share some good news! Flicky Marble finally has a release date - Tuesday, June 26th 2018. Flicky Marble will be simultaneously available for iOS, AppleTV, and OSX - all approved and queued up with Apple for the releasing. Recent changes include: - UI beautification, additional music & sound effects - Math adjustments for anaglyph 3d mode, to standardize left/right eye colors (I'd been folding my cardboard red/cyan glasses backwards) and lock focus to player ball - with environment popping in/out of the screen for a more vivid 3d effect. - New world/level-specific color themes, with ability to override on a per-level basis - Localization to Spanish, German, French - level tweaks & additional visual effects + tells for bosses/turrets - Super Skills movie unlocks - you can now spend star coins on tutorial-esque videos to check out perfect runs of each level - final monetization model; game will be free to play, with a limited set of lives replenished at the start of each level. If you run out, IAP (and on platforms that support it) rewarded ads provide option to continue playing with a fresh bank of lives - or just restart at the beginning for free. All ports also include a one-time "Upgrade" IAP that lets you play the game the way it was intended - with infinite lives for smash-dasy speed runs. Without further adieu, here's a new mashup video showing snippets of gameplay from ~14 of the levels. YouTube: video
At long last, Flicky Marble is released! To celebrate, I put together a new "Hands On" video featuring three of my favorite young testers. Among other things, it showcases a new "Royal Rumble" bonus challenge, and demonstrates the 'theme picker' which lets you reassign color schemes for any given level.
