Marble blast go is a true 3d platformer that iterates on the stuff that marble blast gold has built. There are 6 guiding principles.
One of the biggest problems with a lot of the marble blast gold and its derivatives is that many of its mechanics don’t quickly translate to useful tools in the players kit. Fans to tell the player the direct the will push the player unless the player knows where the fan is with map knowledge. Tornado and magnets don’t allow you to see what direction they move the ball around in.
I think we can iterate upon these mechanics with two different ideas. The first iteration implements better tutorials that allow you to understand exactly how the structures push the ball. This is specifically for the tornado and the magnet. Whose effect in the player is largely left to guesses. The second is better visuals that capture how the force fields act on the ball. I imagine using an arrow to point in the direction it’s being pushed.
Note: you might be able to change how you are affected by specific fields. You should be able to chase you pole or eliminate it entirely.
The best part of platormers is the emergent gameplay. The mechanics that derive their effect from two or more intentional effects working together to form a coherent tool to add to the player’s toolkit. Ultimately I think it’s important that we design with emergent gameplay in mind. When I’m saying this I am specifically referring towards the way that spin impacts the ball and how the way the ball spins ultimately affects the ball’s physics even with interactables. I think that it’s imported to design stages to allow for players to skip parts with their game knowledge or to allow the to save their pickups.
This can be seen with the wall jump where the balls rotation adds to the complexity of the movement system and its the chief way that I want to add complexity to the game. Hazards don’t just move the ball around but change different parts of its total momentum/energy. Mines effect the translation movement of the ball were as bumpers effect the rotational as well.
Consistency is here strictly because of @_patricia-taxxon. I do not want this game to fell like a kitchen sink modded Minecraft server with random bitd strewn about in the progression tree. I want this game to build on itself and force the player to ask questions about how mechanics interact with each other. I want to immerse players in a game that feels cohesive and put together in a way that feels unified.
Speed has always been a critical part of platformers and MBGO isn’t an exception. We want the player to want to go fast, to fly even. More specifically, we want the player to be agile, able to quickly change direction without necessarily losing speed. This won’t necessarily mean that the ball itself will be agile but that the environment will be an element of the players movement technique. Powerups hazards even the environment should be utilized to push the player forward. Hazards shouldn’t just get in the players way, they should also be useful to the player.
This is the most important part of the genre. And there are four or so main parts
I want the player to explore levels to find resources and routes. I want the player to manage the pick ups that they get, and I want the player to develop routes and to reward skilled players with shortcuts that are only possible with specific techs.
I think that the one of the ways I’ll do all of this is by borrowing the checkpoint system from marble it up. I’ll use place checkpoints on the slowest routes and this will be explained to the players explicitly and directly through gameplay. The check points are designed to be used as a tool for exploration add testing but they can’t be used for speed running. The player is expected and even encouraged to abandon checkpoints once they get comfortable.
Another is that pick ups should feel special and powerful. Each level will provide enough tools to complete the level as expected but there might be more elsewhere on the stage that allow for some faster skip. I’m contemplating allowing some sort of progression. In the sense that you could allow people to carry saved pickups from previous stages.
Half of marble blast gold is built on platforming but the other is speed. I want you to aim to eventually complete levels as fast as possible. Traditionally, gems have been used as a sort of hazard for getting a specific time, but I think that gems could be a bit more helpful instead. I want to place them in spots that are purposefully off the fastest route. I want to include separate scorew for collecting specific amount of gems in a given level. I’m also considering allowing the gems to modify the players end time in some way like removing a set percentage from the players score at completion or to increase the acceptable amount for any given score complete ie adding 5 seconds to the platinum ranking.
