Marble Blast Ultra Developer Interview
GarageGames is set to release an update for its 3D puzzle game, Marble Blast Ultra. The update is said to include bug fixes and some treats like additional multiplayer maps. Recently, one of GarageGames lead programmers, Pat Wilson, gamely answered questions with regards to the game and the said update.
The lead programmer remains humble about the success of Marble Blast Ultra, he mentions that the whole team knew that it would be a fun game but they weren’t expecting it to be a hit. He adds that “when we made the top 10 most played games on Xbox Live one week I knew it was serious, and we started wishing we had more levels for people to play on the multiplayer side.“
With regards to the bug fixes, Mr. Wilson mentions two “high-profile” changes: Friends Leaderboard bug which was reported very early on and will be fixed. The second is the Crash exploit. Aside from that, the other fixes will include the removing of the advantage of dropping during multiplayer action to protect the gamer’s rating, text shadowing of the scoreboard on the HUD to make it more readable. The update also entails the HUD to be capable of informing voice activity so that abusive players will be pinpointed and kicked to the curb, and when you re-spawn in a multiplayer game, you should be facing the gems.
As for the multiplayer maps, there would be eleven new ones. He mentions how these maps are different from each other — “Spires” is very, very different than all other multiplayer levels. All the gems are at the top of high-friction covered spires and platforms, and all the powerups are on the ground. The strategy is totally different, and it requires players to improve their flying, falling, and marble control skills. “Bowl”, mimics the skiing movement that makes single player levels like “Black Diamond” so much fun. “Blast Club” is another level in the style of “King of the Marble” but with a larger, more varying playing surface, and a different central conflict point. Sounds promising!
The best part about this is that this update will not cost you those precious MS points. It’s totally free – their way of showing that they are listening to their gamers’ whim for downloadable content. He doesn’t want to divulge when this update is going to be released, but he also mentions that they are planning on releasing gamerpics and themes. Also, they are also planning on releasing another game that would hit the Live Arcade channel, but that is still up in the air – for now.
Via thrillskilla
GarageGames is set to release an update for its 3D puzzle game, Marble Blast Ultra. The update is said to include bug fixes and some treats like additional multiplayer maps. Recently, one of GarageGames lead programmers, Pat Wilson, gamely answered questions with regards to the game and the said update.
The lead programmer remains humble about the success of Marble Blast Ultra, he mentions that the whole team knew that it would be a fun game but they weren’t expecting it to be a hit. He adds that “when we made the top 10 most played games on Xbox Live one week I knew it was serious, and we started wishing we had more levels for people to play on the multiplayer side.“
With regards to the bug fixes, Mr. Wilson mentions two “high-profile” changes: Friends Leaderboard bug which was reported very early on and will be fixed. The second is the Crash exploit. Aside from that, the other fixes will include the removing of the advantage of dropping during multiplayer action to protect the gamer’s rating, text shadowing of the scoreboard on the HUD to make it more readable. The update also entails the HUD to be capable of informing voice activity so that abusive players will be pinpointed and kicked to the curb, and when you re-spawn in a multiplayer game, you should be facing the gems.
As for the multiplayer maps, there would be eleven new ones. He mentions how these maps are different from each other — “Spires” is very, very different than all other multiplayer levels. All the gems are at the top of high-friction covered spires and platforms, and all the powerups are on the ground. The strategy is totally different, and it requires players to improve their flying, falling, and marble control skills. “Bowl”, mimics the skiing movement that makes single player levels like “Black Diamond” so much fun. “Blast Club” is another level in the style of “King of the Marble” but with a larger, more varying playing surface, and a different central conflict point. Sounds promising!
The best part about this is that this update will not cost you those precious MS points. It’s totally free – their way of showing that they are listening to their gamers’ whim for downloadable content. He doesn’t want to divulge when this update is going to be released, but he also mentions that they are planning on releasing gamerpics and themes. Also, they are also planning on releasing another game that would hit the Live Arcade channel, but that is still up in the air – for now.
Via thrillskilla
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