The new e-Sport?
April 2, 2022 2:57 PM Subscribe
The Spiffing Brit ran a gigantic marble run (in Marble World, digital not physical) with 400 marbles and did play-by-play, and it is gripping. If you enjoy such things and have 32 minutes to watch round things rolling down ramps, then this is for you! Bonus: the unpaid intern shows his construction process! [13m]
Perfectly balanced game!
posted by lock robster at 5:39 PM on April 2, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by lock robster at 5:39 PM on April 2, 2022 [2 favorites]
Holy shit that was freaking delightful.
posted by asavage at 6:40 PM on April 2, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by asavage at 6:40 PM on April 2, 2022 [1 favorite]
It reminds me of this cg animated marble run (watch it at 2x speed, trust me) with hundreds of marbles bounced around a Rube Goldberg machine, their paths determined by the physics model, yet somehow ending up all sorted by color.
posted by straight at 11:19 PM on April 2, 2022
posted by straight at 11:19 PM on April 2, 2022
yet somehow ending up all sorted by color
The way you do that is that you run the physics model with default colour marbles, colour all the marbles depending on where they end up, and then rewind the simulation.
On the topic of physics-driven marble runs: one of my YouTube subscriptions is a Japanese person named Mikan, who started out making creative (and more importantly, balanced) marble run content, and has since branched out into other physics-driven contests with ridiculous rules. A good marble run race has a good balance between the idea that anyone can win (because it's not like the marble in last place can just physics harder) and that you aren't guaranteed a win if you get in first place. There's a few marble run creators on YouTube, and Mikan is very good at building compelling races that stay exciting until the end without being arbitrary.
This is a good example of the 'classic' style: 24 marbles, in teams, bouncing through elaborate segments (and with careful pacing so that the more chaotic obstacles don't put one team way out in front), but there are twists on it, such as this one that handicaps the team in front by making their team size change depending on their position. More recently, Mikan has been making videos that pit two or four teams against one another, and letting the physics systems interact with constructed mechanics. Depending on how balanced the rules are, they can be variable in quality, but this is a good example of the style: two teams have a core surrounded by blocks, and fire shots at one another; but every block destroyed adds another marble to the middle, and some marbles will double the amount of shots fired by the next marble instead of actually getting fired at the other core.
Anyway this is one of the reasons my YouTube recommendations are such garbage, because this is like catnip for me apparently
posted by Merus at 12:47 AM on April 3, 2022 [7 favorites]
The way you do that is that you run the physics model with default colour marbles, colour all the marbles depending on where they end up, and then rewind the simulation.
On the topic of physics-driven marble runs: one of my YouTube subscriptions is a Japanese person named Mikan, who started out making creative (and more importantly, balanced) marble run content, and has since branched out into other physics-driven contests with ridiculous rules. A good marble run race has a good balance between the idea that anyone can win (because it's not like the marble in last place can just physics harder) and that you aren't guaranteed a win if you get in first place. There's a few marble run creators on YouTube, and Mikan is very good at building compelling races that stay exciting until the end without being arbitrary.
This is a good example of the 'classic' style: 24 marbles, in teams, bouncing through elaborate segments (and with careful pacing so that the more chaotic obstacles don't put one team way out in front), but there are twists on it, such as this one that handicaps the team in front by making their team size change depending on their position. More recently, Mikan has been making videos that pit two or four teams against one another, and letting the physics systems interact with constructed mechanics. Depending on how balanced the rules are, they can be variable in quality, but this is a good example of the style: two teams have a core surrounded by blocks, and fire shots at one another; but every block destroyed adds another marble to the middle, and some marbles will double the amount of shots fired by the next marble instead of actually getting fired at the other core.
Anyway this is one of the reasons my YouTube recommendations are such garbage, because this is like catnip for me apparently
posted by Merus at 12:47 AM on April 3, 2022 [7 favorites]
I got halfway and the camera movement started giving me nausea. To esport this you’d need production camera control or dolly effects.
posted by meinvt at 9:32 AM on April 3, 2022
posted by meinvt at 9:32 AM on April 3, 2022
Sadly, virtual marble runs lack the… substantive? tactile? and auditory components that I love about marble runs. But I'm sure someone will somehow recreate this in the real world in just a matter of time.
posted by Eideteker at 7:25 AM on April 6, 2022
posted by Eideteker at 7:25 AM on April 6, 2022
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