Too Many Marbles by Thomas Volpato
Make balls fit the small circle.
How to play:
The game consists of 5 rounds. On each round each player will: - 1.Select a ball for the round. - 2.Throw the ball aimming to make it stop on the circle.
At end of each round, the partial score is calculated.
At end of all 5 rounds the final score will be displayed.
The player with most score points win the game.
As strategy the user can try to remove others players balls from the circle area.
Balls have different stats and can be used for strategy.
Controls:
- Left / Right arrow keys:
- Left: move ball to left.
- Right: move ball to right
- A / D keys:
- A: aim to left of the board
- B: aim to right of the board
- W / S keys:
- W: Increase power of throw
- S: Decrease power of throw
- Space bar: Throw ball
Force is displayed by arrow colour and vertical bar. Range from green (weak) to red (strong)
Spheres on the vertical bar represents the ideal strength for that sphere if no obstacle in front the goal.
Software used:
- Unity 3D 2021.3.11f1
- GIMP 2.10.12
- Audacity 3.3.3
- Inkscape 1.0
| Link | https://volpato.itch.io/toomanymarbles |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/54/too-many-marbles |
Ratings
| Overall | 943th | 3.109⭐ | 34🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 994th | 2.828⭐ | 34🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 989th | 2.734⭐ | 34🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 833th | 3.234⭐ | 34🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 954th | 2.641⭐ | 34🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 904th | 1.944⭐ | 29🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 1045th | 2.5⭐ | 31🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 27🗳️ | 46🗨️ |
The only other feedback I can think to give other than the game loop being too slow is that it might help to assign the colours of the players/computers balls to their text as well, so you can keep track of who's marbles to target / which colour is playing next.
I will echo the comments above about speed and audio, but a nice idea. Well done.
Some soft mellow music definitely would've helped pass the time better as well. Parotting @phillips-albright's comment, but I'd also add "The player with the higher score should go first in the following round" so that other players can catch up by knocking the first player's marbles out. Also, a marble pool, could've been cool, where all players are choosing from the same marbles.
This is a really cool entry, I'm curious if you'll keep working on it.
It's rather disconcerting to be welcomed by a wall of text. There could be better way to communicate the controls ("left: move ball to left" is rather redundant, on top of that). In this situation, you either force yourself to read and understand, or you don't bother even if it means missing some info.
And well, the overall description is... dry. Games usually have stories even (especially?) for the most basic gameplay in order to engage the player. Not that every game needs story and lore, and the simplicity of pushing balls is enough, but the way you describe it... it's straightforward, but focus only on the technical side, like a boring instruction manual you don't really read. Heck, the title might be the most quirky aspect.
It's a shame, because the gameplay seems really interesting. I like the idea of selecting a different ball like a choice between random drawn cards.
I got the impression you especially worked on how it works: the physics, the computers. Not much on the graphics (except the 3D balls). It looks to me like a prototype with bare interface, waiting for the final assets. Mention of using a *slider* to choose the number of players (well, it is not that unsettling, but very unusual).
I think other comments have said most of what I had in mind. The game is interesting but quite dry and horribly slow. I feel like the aiming arrow is shorter than it should be and it makes aiming annoying, especially when trying to aim from the sides.
Random ball selection with different weight makes it hard to be consistent with your throws, but it is probably on purpose. I would have preferred the option to choose a "weight family" at the beginning and then have a consistent weight among the random selection.
All that being said, congrats on you jam!