Marble Sky by Zathnic

[raw]
made by Zathnic for Ludum Dare 58 (JAM)

Collect all the marbles by putting them into holes. You control a marble and can kick others around by rolling into them. Just don't roll them off the edge, or fall off yourself

Controls: Arrow keys, space

Screen01.png

Screen02.png

Ratings

Overall 554th 3.292⭐ 38🧑‍⚖️
Fun 404th 3.306⭐ 38🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 492th 3.097⭐ 38🧑‍⚖️
Theme 711th 2.919⭐ 39🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 633th 2.973⭐ 39🧑‍⚖️
Audio 328th 3.347⭐ 38🧑‍⚖️
Humor 630th 2.274⭐ 33🧑‍⚖️
Mood 617th 3.143⭐ 37🧑‍⚖️
Given 79🗳️ 56🗨️

Feedback

Threeli
Oct 07th · 01:27 UTC
Hey this is pretty fun! I'm always leery of marble games, esp. in jams because the physics really make or break the enjoyment of the game. I think you pulled it off and honestly I love the visuals. The whole thing has this classic late 90's feel, which I dig. Any chance you'll keep working on it post jam?
ghost-in-the-toast
Oct 09th · 00:40 UTC
Not bad, I stopped at level 3 after I made it to the marbles and pushed one off the edge. Good entry!
Coda Highland
Oct 10th · 01:15 UTC
Looks interesting, but I'm not on Windows. Any chance of a web build?
GuyInGrey
Oct 10th · 03:06 UTC
I love this, very retro flash-game style. I stopped during level 5, I think the game would greatly benefit from analog controls (a controller) for more gradual input. Very nice
🎤 Zathnic
Oct 11th · 01:46 UTC
@coda-highland Godot doesn't support web builds for projects written in C# yet
Kapricorn Media
Oct 12th · 15:23 UTC
I played this much longer than I thought, haha. Great job on the music and sound effects, I think that was my favorite part. It felt nice to speed up the marble with that scratchy rolling sound effect, kinda made me wish the levels were more designed around going fast somehow!
toastercosplay
Oct 12th · 20:56 UTC
great, i love the backgrounds and music, gives it all a nice vibe
BlueDandelion
Oct 13th · 07:25 UTC
![2025-10-13 10 20 27.png](///raw/2cd/05/z/6f57d.png)
Nice and relaxing game, the controls were a bit hard at first but I got used to them eventually. I wish the marble speed up mechanic had more use, since it's only really useful in that one level it is introduced. Great entry overall.
IakovBoy
Oct 13th · 09:32 UTC
This is a fun game, and it's pretty easy to get through. One suggestion: when the ball flies off the playing field, it should reset to its original position.
Le Don
Oct 13th · 10:55 UTC
I really like the vibes in this.
Mr_Field
Oct 14th · 19:55 UTC
Love the look and feel of this, especially the lullaby-like music. It has an alluring, kinda melancholic atmosphere.

Controlling the ball feels great, especially so for keyboard controls, but I think the levels are each a little too long & messy.

Being reset back to the start feels pretty bad after painstakingly pocketing all of the balls, or carefully navigating an (almost) maze, like in level 4, only to hit a ball too fast so it flies over the pocket causing you to deposit yourself instead.

I don't think this would be a problem if the levels were quicker and showcased fewer ideas at a time. I think it'd be nice to have more room for moving around, too.


It's possible that I was playing too slowly/carefully compared to what you intended, but I definitely felt encouraged to do so by the level design.
Diralf
Oct 16th · 14:12 UTC
It reminded me of an 8‑bit game, kind of like billiards, but with non‑standard arenas.
The game quickly grabs your focus and pulls you in. I especially liked how mechanic evolves by introducing the acceleration for example. At the end of level 3, I tried to slam the ball in for pure satisfaction, but I seem to have gone out of bounds, so the level didn’t count. It might be worth adding a small safety margin or a more forgiving progress check so moments like this aren't nullified. Otherwise, it's very well made for the genre, excellent work!
Flatgub
Oct 17th · 06:29 UTC
I really enjoyed this one! I'll second the opinion that when a marble falls off the level it should either respawn or count as a failure condition and restart the level, but other than that I really enjoyed it! Failing a level because I fell into a goal was a cute surprise that made sense when it happened but I wasn't expecting it. Good job!
Blazerker
Oct 18th · 05:25 UTC
Interesting concept for a game - quite tricky to get everything lined up just right.
AlwaysHungry
Oct 18th · 16:53 UTC
Playing your game gives me a feeling of the early 21st century (not a criticism, not a criticism—you’ve perfectly captured the style of that era, and I love it!).
Rol
Oct 18th · 17:23 UTC
Quite fun to play! And I love the graphics. I agree with the comment that if the ball fall, it should reset to its original position before it falls, making the game smoother
daniel
Oct 18th · 22:39 UTC
Audio effects and the how the feeling of momentum transfer really shined for me. Good build up of mechanics and difficulty too. I think a checkpoint or ball respawn mechanic would have been helpful for me though.
triggthediscovery
Oct 19th · 07:35 UTC
I love the ball mechanics, it's a really cool tension since I was constantly slightly overconfident in my ability to control the situation. It was kinda meditative, having to remind myself to slow down and let things play out instead of bashing the ball in there and making things worse. Good game!
Kahztein
Oct 19th · 14:41 UTC
Fun game, the sound effects and movement make you really feel like a marble, there's a good bit of challenge to it. I can imagine speedruns of this would be interesting to watch.
LDJam user 378081
Oct 19th · 21:44 UTC
Soothing music, devilish gameplay. I believe some constraint, either time or number of move, would spice the thing up :)
Myst
Oct 20th · 19:33 UTC
This was a really good game! The movement really captured the controlled unpredictability you tend to get when playing with marbles (the transfer of kinetic energy that happens when you bump into another marble was particularly inspired). It almost reminded me of the ball rolling levels in Mario Galaxy, but the controls for this game are a bit more reasonable. The background art and music were also really fitting, and they made the whole thing feel a bit otherworldly. I loved the charge mechanic, (it’s hard to use yet satisfying to control), but I do wish there was a bit more of an incentive to use it, such as a time limit, disappearing path, breakable object, etc. In its current form it’s just way too easy to ignore this mechanic entirely. I also think that there should have been an indication that you need to reset if you lose one of your marbles. Overall, though, I think the game was really fun, and I had a great time playing it.
T C
Oct 22nd · 13:46 UTC
Have nothing to add that other people haven't already said. Very interesting, asthetic, and tricky! I made it all the way through. Nice work!
Zshandi Krahn
Oct 23rd · 03:36 UTC
Interesting game, and I like the colorful aesthetics. But I found that some of the levels were a bit unnecessarily difficult. I think some could have been separated into different levels to make it a bit less frustrating. Also, would have been nice to be able to just use the mouse rather than the arrow keys. One issue I found happening was that marbles would bounce straight back from walls even when they hit at an angle.

Specifically, for the levels being too long, there was the one really long level that was winding and some parts very skinny (I think it was level 4), which after the long winding section was a totally different section that could have been its own level. This made me feel more like the long winding part was just a chore / punishment for every time I made a mistake on the second part rather than a fun challenge.

There was also the one where you essentially make a bridge but they easily bounce off so it has to be super precise (can't remember if it was 5 or 6), which felt like there should have just been one or two less slots to fill. It just felt too repetitive and was easy to make a mistake and have to start all over.

I know there's never really time for playtesting to find these things though, so overall you did a great job!
Semenchk
Oct 24th · 16:49 UTC
The color combination of course, yes. It resembles something from Sega.