My "Marble Labyrinth" game (Playable - WIP - v0.7)

UPDATE: This thread is really old, but I’ve updated the game since then without making an announcement. No new options on controls, etc. Game still runs on Blender 2.41 and earlier only. The new link is http://www.blendenzo.com/Files/MarbleLabyrinth0.8.zip. Old links on this page are dead (I switched webhosts since then). I will be making a more thorough update soon.

ORIGINAL POST:
I know you all sit up at night unable to sleep because you’re wondering “What kind of game projects is blendenzo working on? I mean, I know he made that level for Social’s Freezeline game, but what else has he done?” Well, I’ve got the cure for your insomnia. Presenting Marble Labyrinth v0.7! Here are a couple of screenshots. The downloads are below.

http://img85.imageshack.us/img85/8508/marblelab010aj.jpg

http://img151.imageshack.us/img151/1557/marblelab021xy.jpg

I am making available four downloads:

  • High-res (1024 x 768) fullscreen Windows executable (zip file, 2.8MB)
  • Mid-res (800 x 600) fullscreen Windows executable (zip file, 2.8MB)
  • Low-res (640 x 480) fullscreen Windows executable (zip file, 2.8MB)
  • Blend file for my non-Windows friends and the curious (zip file, 650kb)Controls:
    [up-arrow] and [down-arrow] keys rotate the playing table forward and backward. [z] and [x] keys rotate left and right.

    Important notes:
  • I built this game in 2.41 with Sumo physics. It doesn’t perform well in 2.42 with the new Bullet physics engine.
  • Also, I’ve included a .mod music file. If you want the music to play, you must have Python 2.4 and Pygame 1.71 installed on your computer.Known issues with Marble Labyrinth version 0.7:
  • Potential falling through issues. I am planning to rework the playing table and add secondary collisions. If your computer is fast to run every frame, you shouldn’t have a problem.
  • There’s a funny shading issue near the back left corner (you can kinda see it in the second screenshot above). That should get fixed when I rework the playing table.
  • If you tip the table all the way forward or backward, then all the way to the left or right, the bottom face of the outer box will show through, causing your ball to reset to the “start” position.In making this game I was trying to be accurate to the original wooden toy, which is very challenging, so you may find this game difficult (I’ve only beat it once).

Enjoy! I welcome your feedback and any suggestions on how I can improve the game (criticisms are also welcome as long as they are constructive).

-blendenzo

Hello
Wood!! The version I’ve downloaded it was a wood labyrinth…
Ok, just kidding :slight_smile:
It’s lovely done, but too slow in my comp, so I can’t control
the ball correctly?!
Bye

The board motion feels just a little too slow. Nice looking. I’ll have to see if I can get the mod working, later. I like the keyboard set up. Although mouse might be better, if your going to do it with keys, then the two handed arrangement feels better than trying to do it all with one hand.

Aah, this brings back old memories. good one’s. I remember having one of those when I was 7 or something. It had a plastic over the top but I broke it and the ball fell through and I never managed to find it :’(

Thanks for bringing my memories back alive!

About the game as concept: Normaly the ball looks like copper or something. And I think speeding up the gameplay would indeed be a good idea. I used to let the ball go over those wall by holding the thing on its own verticaly. To bad thats not possible.

about the music? any possibily we can play our own music ? :stuck_out_tongue:

Jacco;

Oh my god, whot it this? I want good game in genre: action or strategy. I not download…

Woah, this is very similar to my game in the Bullet Contest, http://www.continuousphysics.com/mediawiki-1.5.8/index.php?title=Turn_Ball

Well, your level is much better layed out than mine, I must say this is a excellent way of doing it, I used 1 empty to control the rotating.

Well done :), I’m glad I’m not the only one who remembers this game.

Wow.

I really like it, it’s nothing less than palpable childhood nostalgia. The gameplay is a little slow (as others have pointed out), but you, as a BGE game developer, are moving at the speed of light.

I’m assuming that you only started using the BGE about the same time you joined the forums (2 months). If that’s the case, your progress is quite impressive.

If only you put this up for the Bullet contest, but facemania beat you to it. It’s ok though because this is still quite well made, and as he said “your layout is better”.

Keep up the good work.

PS: You might want to think about lowering the executable resolution to something like 800x600 or even the good old 640x480. That might make things run faster, and ussually with BGE executables the difference in resolution is only significantly noticable in things like dynamic text (for the most part).

The .EXE Zip file is corrupted. :mad: says my computer.

Thank you all for your feedback! I’m glad to hear that I’ve brought back pleasant childhood memories for some of you. That’s exactly what prompted me to make it. I remember the marble labyrinth that my grandmother had. I never could beat the thing! As for game play, I forgot to mention that I built this in 2.41 with Sumo physics. The action is much faster under that setting (though still not lightning quick). In 2.42 with bullet, it drags like a dead horse. That might be what you were experiencing, fireside. I will be taking some of your suggestions as soon as I have time (later tonight after my family has gone to sleep).

Social and OTO: I will add 640 x 480 and 800 x 600 downloads. I already have them compiled, just haven’t uploaded. (edit: added them see downloads above)

fireside: I originally thought about mouse control as well, but I liked the keyboard so much (reminded me of the two black knobs that you turn on the real wooden toy) that I put it off until later. Since you’ve requested it, I’ll add it as soon as I can. I’ll have to study a bit more on the mouse sensor first. Also, look for joystick support, a menu, intro scene and more in the near future.

Wow! i love it!

its all great, except for the camera, which can be annoying at times, but everything else is top-notch!!

if you dont like these kind of games, just dont play them, but don’t insult them, it probably took a lot of time and hard work from blendenzo to make this, and he did a great job

Oh, I don’t mind HERETIC. He’s always bashing on everyone’s games. He acts like he’s so big and tough, but I bet he’s a really nice guy behind all the swearing and derogatory remarks. Actually, his comment to me is one of the nicest things I’ve ever seen him say. :smiley:

Alfred: I worked hard on that camera! (Then I realized it was annoying. But I didn’t care to change it.)

I used to keep it upside down.
I tried passing the hole right next to the start spot. never worked out. had to take a detour. to bad there’s a time thing. I think the time should add up and that would be your final score. the lower, the better.

Jacco;

1 word of advice:

NEVER use bitmap images on the internet. They’re uncompressed and huge.

cool game, it would be cool if you make a kind of speed button, if you don’t press it it goes slow, but if you press it while you press up or down, it goes faster
maybe you could do something like that

check my sig! :stuck_out_tongue:

Jacco;

Sorry about the bitmaps. Why do I use them? Because my webhost blocks hotlinking to jpg and gif images. I guess I’ll use imageshack or get a new host…

edit: Okay, I switched to Imageshack for now. The screenshots are now 1/10th the file size.

I like it, my only new comment is that the marble’s reflection texture should have a wood-like or at least brownish bottom half, so it looks less out of place.

Yeah. I planned to change that. I’ll do it right now.

edit: I tried it, but it looked even worse. The wood grain on the marble didn’t change with the surroundings, so it didn’t look like an accurate reflection. I’m thinking of just scrapping the reflection idea and putting in a regular texture. It seems a shame to do that, though, since the real game has a stainless steel marble…

re-edit: I gave it another try with a brownish color like you suggested. I like it better.

Hi i saw your game when you submitted it in the chiptunes thread

i was not able to move the table correctly

3DGURU

Hey, very nice. The only thing I’d change is making the board rotate faster