Marble Marcher

Marble Marcher is entirely ray-marched (similar to ray-tracing) in real time and is layed on the surface of evolving fractals.

Background

This is a web version  (and Java version) the original from CodeParade (Hacker Poet): https://github.com/HackerPoet/MarbleMarcher

You can find the original downloadable windows version from the original author here: https://codeparade.itch.io/marblemarcher

OR download  "Marble Marcher Community Edition" which can be downloaded here and has many new features: https://michaelmoroz.itch.io/mmce

Goal

The goal is to get your marble to the goal as quickly as possible.  There are 24 unique levels to master.

Controls

• Roll Marble: WASD or Arrows 
•  Camera Control: Left Mouse Button Drag (LMB-Drag) 
•  Camera Zoom: Scroll Wheel
• Restart Level: R key 
• Pause Menu: Right Mouse Button (RMB)
• Full Screen Toggle: F key (Desktop only)
• Logoff Guest: L Key 

Graphics

You can adjust the resolution of the fractal rendering.  From the MAIN MENU select RESOLUTIONS.

Reduce the resolution until you get around 60 fps.  The default is set to 1280 x 720 to match itch.io screen size.

Limitations

• This game is designed for desktops GPUs.  Laptops will struggle.
  
• Hardware acceleration in your browser must to be turned on. 
• Tested on Chromium browsers (on Windows, Linux, Mac).  
• Edge on Windows also tested.

High Scores (Best times) 

Your top score is saved via Game Jolt API.  If you do not have a Game Jolt userid, just log in as guest and pick a username.  You only do this once, so pick a good name.

 Only your best time will be displayed on the high score pages.

Unlocked levels and your best times per level are also saved (persisted) via local browser storage.  This allows to play the game with no internet connection.

Motivation

We really did not need another Marble Marcher version.  However, I did want to know and learn about ray marching, and using fractals for terrain generation (procedural rendering) and easy collision detection.  Porting the code from C++ to Java forced me to understand the Distance Estimator (DE) and Nearest Point (NP) algorithms for example.  

Here is CodeParade's video explaining what I just said above: