With over three years on Steam, 1,250+ games, and well over 100 reviews, there is no doubt in my mind that I have NEVER worked so hard to like a Steam game as I have with Marble Run. Additionally, I have over 75 hours (some offline) in a desperate effort to find that there may be a future for this game, based on a concept that I cherish. Currently, there simply is not.
Had Marble Run been released as Early Access, this review would not be written (now, at least.) Had it been released in a complete state, or had the DEV shown more interest in improvement, I would have waited, then almost certainly praised Marble Run. (And I did buy it for two interested friends.) But nothing that has “burst full grown from the head of Zeus” (so to speak) should ever be so flawed, so incomplete, and so (seemingly) resistant to suggestion. All indications (beyond one change) are that this game may as well be chiseled in granite, as is.
As indication of MR’s shortcomings, it was released with quite possibly the most serious error I have seen in 30+ years of PC gaming: the selection and menu buttons were all transparent to mouse clicks. In other words, if DELETE is active, every mouse click caused anything on the screen behind a button to be deleted with any mouse click on that button (an easy error for beginners), with no knowledge of the deletion due to the view being blocked by that button. In fact, the action to turn off DELETE itself caused, without exception when a construction was on screen, unknown (but permanent) deletions. Clearly, the DEV had never played the game as released, and that is deeply concerning. (Within several days this correction was made, but beyond my own discussion posting there was no attempt to notify players of the extent of the danger inherant with this problem.)
MR lacks an UNDO feature (though it was promised on Day One, and isn’t out of the question, though omitted from the previously mentioned, single topic update.) This is unacceptable for a game that has a compile time on a VR-ready PC of as much as 40 seconds (in my current design. On the complex combined player projects the DEV anticipates (or perhaps almost any project on a slower PC), the compile time could easily be minutes, and be repeated for every run or SAVE.) Any mis-click requires a reload and recompile, and that’s simply unacceptable in a game with small, densely packed components. And even though troubleshooting MR designs is a critical aspect of MR, the run feature has no pause and no rewind. And there is no means to test only certain sections, only the entire design. It can easily take several minutes to get to the place in the design where an error MAY occur, then requires the same process after changes for confirmation. In my current large design it might be over five minutes, multipled by dozens of instances. (With expanded knowledge not indicated within the game, a workaround is possible. But paradoxically, even that shortcut takes time to prepare, times numerous instances. I learned this, and much more, in my time with MR, but no one should be forced to learn a new game or software that way.)
Every game based on player creativity I've yet seen is designed to respond to the needs of the designer/player. Marble Run is the opposite: every design is required to meet the limitations of the game. Measurements fail to sync, and the “variety” of provided parts is so sparse as to turn MR into essentially a puzzle game, to find the one “possibility” that the beginning and end pieces might end up serendipitously connecting.
And how do you learn to operate MR? According to the DEV, I need to watch YouTube videos. (The DEV has promised to provide a video tutorial, but may I remind that this in NOT early access.) He told me this in a comment where he “schooled’ me about physics (in a comment having nothing to do with physics) when I inquired about the possibility of this design flaw being corrected:
https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/870745221669976473/729C923A38A6C071821C32C0006083E8A6068BAA/
“Hey. The game simulates realistic physics. There will never be an absolute ideal. Watch a video in YouTube about how people make a marble machine. And how many balls fly out from them.”
(“Balls fly out….” Don’t I wish! These three marbles are stuck for eternity.)
Ultimately, the gamekiller is a bug the DEV seems hesitant to acknowledge. The means of raising marbles to where they can roll downhill is a choice of several lifting devices. One is an Archimedes screw type. Unfortunately, they frequently eject the marble as soon as the two interact, and ejecting a marble from the device is contrary to everything this game is about. I’ve provided evidence of more than one example as screenshots, AND as a project submission, allowing this failure to be viewed by anyone running the design. (Please see comments for evidence of a 100% failure example with proof.) One can’t but wonder once again if the DEV ever spent enough time on Marble Run to encounter such a common and serious issue. Unfortunately, it seems the DEVs favorite response is silence, plus one other more recent one. After a posting showing other MR designers how this serious issue can be dealt with by way of an exceptionally awkward workaround with varying degrees of success, I found my comments to discussions had been internally curtailed to a minimum (despite the DEV’s Store Page request to “Help us improve the game!”
Anyway, in the event it may be said that I didn’t give Marble Run a fair chance (despite the hours), here is ONE of my projects. It includes in excess of 200 marbles, but I long ago lost count. If you have access to Marble Run (and submission is permitted), I anticipate a name along the lines of “The Big Kahuna” (alternately, a later version may be found as "The Final Kahuna"):
https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/870745474367869252/E12464AFEC7FB0A33AFAA1E67DB2731ADB80DA48/
If you’re like me, and spent hundreds (or thousands) of hours playing with Hot Wheels tracks, or can remember dropping marbles down the vacuum cleaner hose, you may find Marble Run worthwhile. (If Marble Run was as expected, I assure you I’d have left my family by now, moved in, and changed my address.) Admittedly, despite the tremendous amount of frustration making this design “sort of” work, I still am deeply fond of it, and likely won’t abandon it. And if the day ever comes that some of my suggestions are at least considered, bugs are fixed, and necessary pieces added, this unfortunately necessary review will become one with history, and a glowing marvel of complimentary literature will take its place.
Thank you.
