Marble World News

Hey everyone!

It's the spooky time of the year, and Marble World could use some of that! Marble World now has 17 new halloween themed props. Along with a new special paint that absorbs all light, ideal for when you need complete darkness surrounding your tracks!

The props & paint will remain permanently available in the game from now on, and expect yearly expansions on the theme over the years.




[h2]Track Building 2.0 Progress[/h2]
In the meantime this is a good time to post an update regarding the new track building update. Things are going smooth and it's starting to look like something! Im expecting to be done somewhere around the end of this month.




As always, thanks for the feedback & support!


https://store.steampowered.com/app/1491340/Marble_World/

Hey everyone!

This is a small patch which includes some fixes for recently reported bugs.

Patch 0.1.10B:
- Applied correct icons for the metal / darker metal paint
- 0 is now the minimum for spawners, allowing you to "disable" them. (1 is still the default value when placing them)
- Added a safety check for the hitbox' movement on the spawners, some player reported issue's however I was not able to reproduce these issues. This should hopefully resolve them
- Added appropriate scaling hitboxes for all 3 sphere shapes
- Fixed an issue where the tooltip wouldn't show up after hovering the questionmark on the 2 ordered spawners.
- Added functionality to automatically import csv files with names

The game checks the location where all the worlds are stored for a "names_add.csv" file. (this location is
C:\Users\(Your Name)\AppData\LocalLow\Vector Interactive\Marble World)

If this csv file is found it will extract the first column and skip the first row which contains the names of the columns. All other columns are ignored. After extraction the file will be renamed to "names_add_imported.csv" to make sure the next startup won't import it again.

Thanks for the continuous support! If you encounter bugs or issues let me know :)

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1491340/Marble_World/

Hey everyone!

This patch is aimed at improving racing and giving you quality of life improvements. A lot of suggestions and improvements have been suggested since the last patch last friday and I've added some things myself.

This patch marks the last one for a while, as the next big goal will be improving the way you build tracks along with better controls and clearer instructions for newer players!


Patch notes:
- Tooltip pop-up speed is now independant of time speed
- Tooltip text is now more crisp
- Fixed an issue where placing a corner after the new spawners would create hitbox issues
- Fixed an issue where marbles could go through the start positions of the new spawners (untested as I couldn't replicate it)
- The arches used for the checkpoint and finishline now don't have hitboxes anymore due to issues. The prop variant will remain with a hitbox
- Default paint on the finishline poles are now the same
- Renamed the X button of the leaderboard to "End Race"
- F1 now cycles through building UI and no UI. If the player is hosting a race it will cycle between those 2 and the race UI
- Racing leaderboards now show the skin of the participating marble
- Racing leaderboards now indicate the fastest marble with an icon. Expect more UI improvements on racing in the future.
- Racing leaderboards now show first to third with gold/silver/bronze
- The racing result leaderboard now shows ALL participated marbles.
- Added a disqualify timer for racing. This is an optional timer that DQ's all marbles that didn't finish X seconds (configurable) after the last marble finished.
- Updated the racing requirements to 1 name at least.
- All spawners can now be used for racing, you are no longer locked to the "racing" spawner. The racing ones now have a slider similar to the others which indicate how many marbles to spawn. If there are less names than the amount given it will fill with the usual "Marble X" names as the original does. The only difference between the 2 types of spawners is that the previously called racing ones use the specificly named marbles' skins and effects. (you can read more about this in the previous patch notes)
- The previously called "racing" spawners are now renamed similar to the normal one, as the normal one can also be used for racing. Also the tooltips have been updated
- Added more clarification on the original racing spawner panel that you can click on the names to edit them
- Added skin icons to the marble spawner panels
- Effect emitters are now paintable
- Nails are now paintable and the default paint is now metal, also the collider has been slightly updated
- Updated the 4 metal paints to have a better aesthetic
- Added the office map
- Improved metal marble reflections

Thanks for reading and thanks for your continuous support! I'm grateful to have such a great community :)

p.s. Don't forget to join on Discord for the most up-to-date news! https://discord.gg/jbx92tbMSG
You're free to ask any questions you have, suggestions to mention or report any bugs you may find or just have a chat. I check other social media's or the steam community forums too from time to time, so if that's more your thing that's fine too :)

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1491340/Marble_World/

Hey everyone!

Big day today as the racing update has been released! Now you can setup races with laps in (almost!) any way you want them to be! Along with some general improvements, marble skins, 2 new shapes and confetti trails!

[h2]The Racing Patch[/h2]
Using the new racing specific items you can now set up races for your tracks! All it takes is a racing marble spawner, at least 1 checkpoint and a finishline. In the bottom right corner a racing button is added, in the window that will appear when clicking on it lets you see the requirements in order to start racing and will tell you if you miss anything.

Two new marble spawner's have been added which will help you set up your marbles with their skins / names / effects and which order they should appear in. These spawners also come equipped with special marble holders and one of them with a built in finish with lights for when the race starts. They function similar to the current "normal" spawners, but when clicking on the names in the list it will let you change every marble individually. This list is also re-orderable by dragging the names around. The spawners are the same length as the original wide one in order to let you replace them easily on existing tracks if wanted.

Note: these new spawners only spawn up till their max positions (36 per piece) or till there are no more marble names available.

This list of names is taken from a new file called MarbleData, available at the usual location where all the Worlds are saved. C:\Users\(your name)\AppData\LocalLow\Vector Interactive\Marble World

Originally there was a file here that was not readable by the human eye, or editable! Now this new file will let you arrange the names as its a readable JSON file. This file includes the name, skin and effect. The
order of the marbles in the file represent the order of spawning in. The old file will be converted into the new one on startup.

A race also needs checkpoints, the game uses these as time measurements to see who is further or behind. So if you want quick updates you'll need a few, but if you don't really care for that but just the end result you only need 1 as that is the minimum. A race also needs a finishline, this will show you the amount of time inbetween marbles as they finish or (if its a multi-lap race) per lap.

Once its all set up (this all sounds more work than it actually is!) start the race either by pressing the hotkey (X) or the button in the racing window and let's see who's the fastest!


[h2]The Notes[/h2]
- Added the racing patch and it's required content such as checkpoints, finishlines and starters
- Marble World now checks for capitalization when entering duplicate world names in order to prevent overwriting similar named worlds
- Improved hitboxes of 6 triangles
- Entering new names can now be done by pressing enter, also no need to clear that inputfield manually anymore, hurray!
- The nail got a shorter renderdistance
- Added a ring and an arch as a shape
- Added hotkeys to start the race (X), to follow the marble in currently first position (/), to go up/down in leaderboard whilst following marbles (up/down arrow)
- Added a confetti trail effect for marbles
- Added a confetti effect to place down
- Added 12 new marble skins
- Added 4 new metal paints (work in progress) and a finishline / checkered paint
- Added 2 race tire props (paintable)

[h2]What didn't make it[/h2]
As usual, sometimes things don't make the cut. And in this case it's because making the racing patch logic was more time consuming than expected. It's sometimes difficult to estimate the work amount if your not sure why bugs are there or why logic isn't behaving as expected, this was also the case for racing as it should support hundreds of marbles at the same time. The following feature's are replanned for another patch:
- A improved marble following camera where you can rotate around the marble
- Loading in marble names from a seperate CSV file
- Ability to set up different camera positions and swap between them during a race


Next patch will be involving bug fixes & small improvements that are requested, a small patch to prepare for another big one that will be improving track building!

Thanks for reading and thanks for your continuous support! I'm grateful to have such a great community :)

p.s. Don't forget to join on Discord for the most up-to-date news! https://discord.gg/jbx92tbMSG
You're free to ask any questions you have, suggestions to mention or report any bugs you may find or just have a chat. I check other social media's or the steam community forums too from time to time, so if that's more your thing that's fine too :)

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1491340/Marble_World/

Hey everyone!

It's been 3 months since the last time I talked about Marble World in terms of planning and what is to come, and I'd figure it's time again for another one! Also I'd like to look back and see what has happened in the last 3 months!

[h2]Looking back[/h2]
In the past 3 months there have been some major changes for systems in Marble World and how things work. The game's stability has been increased greatly and the quality of the game has been improved with every patch. From time to time additional player requests have been fulfilled and there's a lot more to come! Here's a short summary of things in chronological order that happened in the past 3 month's that have improved Marble World a lot:

- Added steam workshop support (One of the major things that happened)
- Added a new Garden map including almost 100 decorational items for it
- Added a highly requested flat world
- Added a new building tool to build tracks with
- Added the scaling tool which was undoubtedly the most requested feature

Next to that also some more minor things got added like:
- Delete zones above and below every world
- Mass painting objects and simply hold and drag painting
- Ability to "sprint" with the camera using the Shift key
- Ability to see invisible painted objects
- More useful tools like snap to cursor and align to surface options

[h2]The future[/h2]
Whilst the full release of the game is still months away, it does seem to get closer! Last time I listed features & things I wanted to add to the game, and whilst this list did get smaller due to things being completed, more things got added!

Here's a revised version of that list, with the features in roughly order of when they'll appear:
- The Racing update (I can't give a date yet for this patch, but its soon)
- Major Track building update
- A desert theme
- The Pinball update
- A community picked space theme
- The big logic patch. (Similar to Terraria's wiring system or Minecraft redstone system, this will allow for dynamic tracks using logic gates / marble counters / pistons / effects being triggered etc.)

Now there are also a lot of other things left to do which aren't as big as the items mentioned above, these are things like:
- Improved rotation / move / scale tool. Especially the rotation tool will be easier to use and more clear
- A prefab / grouping system and workshop support
- A favorite system for all your favorite decorations or trackpieces
- Lighting control system & improved visual aesthetic of the game
- A tutorial + useful handbook to look up on how to do things
- Twitch + optional other social media integrations

These items are seen as "secondary" things to add and are usually filler content to the main patch content. (With the exception of the handbook, that has somewhat a high priority)

[h2]Current state[/h2]
Overall I'm very happy with the current state of the game! A lot of things are possible to build and it's pretty stable. After this next patch I do want to focus on some more player requested features & more clear introduction to the game controls for new players as this point has been brought up multiple times in the past days.

One last thing I'd like to mention is that I wasn't happy with how "difficult" it is to build tracks, even with the new system where you can simply drag and release it's not as flexible as it should be. However I found a solution for this! My best guess is that patch 0.1.12 will introduce this new system to Marble World and will make the current track building mechanic obsolete. More info on that whenever the patch arrives. :)

I'd like Marble World to be the best game that I can produce myself. But as a solo developer you can't know everything or have the best solution directly at hand unfortunately. So thanks everyone for pointing out things that aren't working as expected or things that you find difficult to understand or to use! By telling me something isn't clear or even asking how to use X or Y I know that that part of the game should be improved! You all are vital in the Early Access state of the game (and even after!).


Thanks for reading and thanks for your continuous support! I'm grateful to have such a great community :)

p.s. Don't forget to join on Discord for the most up-to-date news! https://discord.gg/jbx92tbMSG
You're free to ask any questions you have, suggestions to mention or report any bugs you may find or just have a chat. I check other social media's or the steam community forums too from time to time, so if that's more your thing that's fine too :)

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1491340/Marble_World/