Just made a new game, it’s extremely bare bones but is just meant as a proof of concept.
Let me know if you like the idea and if you think I should continue with this game or move on to (hopefully) better ideas instead. Please be brutally honest, I won’t take offence lol. Give it a go and let me know if it’s fun.
Map-related improvements will of course come with time, but regarding everything else do leave a comment below if you think I should change/add something.
tbh the game is not good, the the ball in hard to control and the map sucks
Thanks for the feedback. I’m aware the maps are bad, those are only temporary, but regarding the ball being difficult to control I’ll look into making it better. Could you elaborate on the ball being hard to control? Is it difficult to turn?
Well, I played it on a PC, using a third person view and steering with WASD and found it a pretty fun concept. The level of control seemed about right. The rotating player avatar was distracting and I would probably prefer not to see it (although kind of funny to start with).
I can imagine with more power-ups and a dynamic, interactive course it could become quite engaging. Leagues, score tables and multi-player interaction would add to it. I guess I’m thinking Mario Kart in a ball… Maybe bulk out players with some AI balls?
In terms of responsiveness of controls, I think that would take some more testing, but it did not feel far off.
Thanks for the suggestions. Regarding the spinning avatar, I will add an option to hide your avatar entirely so it is just an empty marble, along with the other basic customisation features whenever I make them (choosing marble color and transparency).
AI balls are definitely a solid idea, I have thought about it already and given your feedback might prioritise this.
As for power-ups, I may add some in the future. Were you thinking along the lines of the classic in-hand boost, trap, attack-person-ahead etc?
I think yes, just some fun things to do to the other marbles, just to add something else for the players to do.
This is mildly entertaining for me. I find the electronic background music and the simple objective and simple map very pleasant. I could see this game steering away being a kids game with colorful maps, distractions, and music to being a calm, relaxing game. Especially since the marble racing is mostly RNG and requires little user input, this would shine as a sit-back-and-relax game.
Thanks for the feedback. I’ll try to keep on that theme lol. Do you think the game would benefit from a variety of abilities that they can use on other players during races, or just a few to keep things simple?
I think players would like more content. I would recommend making a variety of abilities.
Sweet. Thanks again for your feedback 
I have added bots! It was the priority so nothing else has really changed, but if you could let me know if the bots feel ok I would greatly appreciate it.
Hey,
I just played a game and won (yay!). The bots are a great improvement, here are some findings:
The bots seemed to get some super boost at the start, I got left behind and found it hard to catch up with them at first. (Is there some trick to getting an initial launch? If so it was not obvious to me.).
I caught up with them quite a bit at the vertical cylinder maze - this seemed pretty good, this type of obstacle was fun.
I don’t know if it was luck on my part, but I managed to drop almost straight down the sloped vortex hole and left the AI behind at that point and they did not catch up for the rest of the race.
My marble felt a little unresponsive to left and right movement (especially when accelerating), it seemed like it needed an adjustment there. I found it really hard to get to the boosts even when I was relatively close to them. This is highly subjective on my part, it may also be that I felt more engaged as I had something to race against and wanted a better response…
Good job with the AI.
Thanks for the feedback!