Marble Blast Xbox nears completion!

It has been an exciting 2 months since Pat arrived and work on Marble Blast for Xbox. Things were a bit rocky early on, with unclear and constantly updated UI requirements coming in. Every page of the UI must have had 3 or 4 redesigns. It is a bit different trying to fit everything into the title safe area of 640x480, with 18 point font as the absolute minimum size, 24 point prefered. It is all finally nailed down, though: menus, scoreboards, pause and help screens... I even ended up making a shiney Xbox controller in illustrator because we couldn't find any "official" art to use on the controller layout page.



Perhaps more exciting than the new interface (for me, at least) are the new levels. There were several levels that we decided to remove, either because of strange performance issues or (more commonly) design that made them nearly impossible to play on a gamepad. I've made 5 new levels for the Xbox version of marble blast to make up for this. Most of them are of a fairly intermediate nature, as we certainly have a lot of challenging levels. Here are some images of them. Check out the fantastic Xbox shaders, courtesy Brian Ramage.

First up is "The Road Less Travelled" - a upward winding path, similar to upward spiral and whirl in design and difficulty.


Next is "Ascend" a short level with a variety of intermediate challenges, plus a timing puzzle that should result in interesting gold times.


"Black Diamond" is another ski level. Ironically it is easier than "ski slopes." Perhaps we'll have to do something about that naming scheme.


"Divergence" is a fairly straitforward diverging maze. Finishing should be no problem... but can you find the perfect route?


Finally, "Cube Root" is what I consider a lesser version of "Three Fold Maze." You have to traverse the 3 sides (and interior spaces) of a large cube using gravity switchers - collect one gem, then find your way to the finish. A few powerups are included for those who want a more extreme route.


I am really looking forward to seeing this title launch. Thus far it is looking fantastic, and it has been a lot of fun to work on it. I am heading off to Montana and Wyoming to visit family and generally get away from Eugene for a bit. When I return it will be time to start preparing for IGC - which is also incredibly exciting. There are more major announcements this year than I can keep track of. I hope to see a lot of you there!

In other news, more and more cool people are coming to the capital of indie development, Eugene OR. Matt Fairfax is now working next door at Bravetree, right next door to GG. Timothy Aste will be interning at GarageGames soon, as well, adding his awesome art skills to TSE and the various other demos. It is unfortunate that I'll be gone for these guys first weeks in Eugene. Was looking forward to introducing them to some of the local beer. But I suppose that there'll be plenty of that at IGC!

I leave you with this Monkey Knife Fighter. It is dedicated to Pat, for his relentless obsession with said monkeys and knives.