Why Early Access?

“Marblesared is ready-to-play as-is, but has a few more features planned to be added in future, depending on user feedback,
including:
- BGM soundtrack
- additional levels and/or procedural level generation
- additional obstacles (bad items)
- leader board
- VR mode

What is "Marblesared" ?
It is a new take on the old hand-held "marble-in-a maze" type games commonly available many decades before electronic hand held games existed,
where you had to get a marble from one corner of the maze to the other, or variations on the theme.

The Windows PC version of Marblesared can be played with keyboard (or gamepad) controlling the marble.

How to play ?
- Roll your red marble to the red goal, through mazes, obstacles & bonuses.
- Help a little yellow bean get to the yellow goal.
The yellow bean can auto-navigate, and even has a jetpack for speeding to the yellow goal after your red marble unlocks it.
HOWEVER
Only your marble can help the bean reach that yellow goal.
How? By lowering obstacles, by NOT tripping bad items, by NOT directly running over the bean and Smooshing it,
and ideally, by doing it in as little time as possible if you are competitive and want to brag a bit :-)

The target audience is early teens and older, due to the bean character being "smooshed",
and humour content (very bad puns),
There is no elite skill barrier - anyone capable of using a Windows PC can play - albeit some better than others :-)

Marblesared has been released in Steam as Early Access, and is incomplete but playable.
The game meets definition of Early Access set out here:
https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/store/earlyaccess
Additional Feature discussion can be found here:
http://steamcommunity.com/app/697680/discussions/0/1479857071262250062/”

Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?

“Planned Early Access period is 6 to 12 months”

How is the full version planned to differ from the Early Access version?

“The most popular in-demand features will be included from the following list, plus whichever features are easiest to implement in the meantime:

- BGM soundtrack
- additional levels and/or procedural level generation
- additional obstacles (bad items)
- leader board
- A planned upcoming VR version to let you play by tilting your VR hand controller, holding the game level in VR space as if it were a physical container holding a marble.”

What is the current state of the Early Access version?

“- Animated intro/splash screen with sound effects.
- Help/Instructions (Please read first as introduction on How to Play).
- Tutoriballs (Animated Tutorials) - preview on by default, appearing as a zoomable PIP inset image
synced to 1st appearance of each new bad/bonus item so players learn how to use them
- 33 hand-designed levels for each of 4 skills for Play testing:
- "BabyBall" skill (No Bonuses or Bad Items),
- "Normball" skill (Bonus Items - e.g. Actuator/Triggers with Drop-down walls)
- "Hardball" skill (Bonus/Bad Items - e.g. lava pit, spiky balls, bomb, smartmine)
- "Maballs!" skill (Bonus/Bad Items AND electrified goal for yellow bean requiring player goal entry to disable)
- Bonus items (Green), include: Actuator Pad, Wall, Bean Shield, Extra Time, Bean Powerup, PortalEntry, PortalExit,
- Bad items (Red), include: Actuator Pad, Wall, Compactor, Slicer, Spike Plate, Lava Pit, Weight , Bomb, SmartMine
- Bad/Bonus actuators exist primarily to activate the other bad/bonus items.
- Reset Actuator (Purple) clear Bad Items in Hardball, MaBalls! skill
- Player setup/name/skill/Score reset for New games (New Player games start by default at Level 1 on BabyBall skill)
- Continued games option to start at any level up to highest played for current player
- Score/countdown per level & local saved high score table for each player & top 10 player scores
- Auto Next Level countdown on each level completion.
- Game settings including Debug on/off, Sound on/off, Controller input selection for PC using keyboard / gamepad
- SoundFX setting enable/disable
- Additional "Settings" for improved graphics quality (shaders, reflections, transparency) - use Vertex Material & disable texture for fastest performance”

Will the game be priced differently during and after Early Access?

“The core game price is likely to increase depending on investment into features added.
DLC content such as level packs, additional obstacle packs, soundtrack may be added later but at a nominal cost for each.”

How are you planning on involving the Community in your development process?

“Community feedback via Steam Community or any other method will be extremely valuable as a source of market research on feature-demand, UI look & feel, and whether to invest more time on continued development for Marblesared or alternate projects.

Additional Feature discussion can be found here:
http://steamcommunity.com/app/697680/discussions/0/1479857071262250062/”