Space Battle - Marble Race

In space battle, two space ships must fight each other for survival. The laws of physics are obeyed - if a ship is travelling at great speed, it will continue travelling in that direction until it spends enough time thrusting in the opposite direction.
They have the following weapons in their arsenal:
Railgun - Fires an unguided projectile at high speed, devastating at short to medium range.
Missile - Explosive projectile that homes in at the target continuously until it hits, dealing massive damage.
Point Defense Cannon (PDC) - Short range machine gun that primarily is used to shoot down Missiles, however can be used effectively against other ships in close range.
Movement is guided in relation to the enemy ship. The ship has four modes: slight left/right or hard left/right. The ship faces the enemy ship offset by a small or large amount in the chosen direction, and accelerates forward.
Colours:
Red vs Blue
Which colour will win?
Subscribe for more!
#marble_race #marble_battle
Patreon: / lostmarbleruns
Credits:
Space ships by MSGDI - assetstore.unity.com/packages...
Explosion and projectile effects by Swift Games - assetstore.unity.com/packages...
Various icons by Kenney - www.kenney.nl
Skyboxes by Dogmatic - assetstore.unity.com/packages...

[@GenericSpaceNerd]

that missile rush with the boost at the end was just 👌

[@ervinwilneder]

That was awesome!

[@kosakukawajiri5007]

6:44 Everybody loved the final barrage of missiles, but nobody mentions this beautiful pentashot from the rail cannon.

[@jaideepshekhar4621]

I also noticed it! :)

[@alexvives1335]

That was my favorite shot personally.

[@cesare_1302]

truely, it felt like a LoGH moment

[@CrispySkinwalker]

I like the FTL style, very unique to the "marble" genre, I would love to see this concept go further

[@lostmarbles2d]

Thanks! It was obviously heavily influenced by FTL, amazing game.

[@bagofnails6692]

@@lostmarbles2d I like it. lots of fun. FTL is an amazing game.

[@djdywo812]

I don't know FTL, but I agree 100%. This Video is unique, it's new and I'd like to see more.

[@traviscecil3903]

@@lostmarbles2d I think the next obvious place to take this would be fleet battles. Is that possible?

[@lostmarbles2d]

@@traviscecil3903 Yes, that's the plan! Development has been on hold for a bit though. Hoping to get back to it soon. The idea is that there will be two fleets, each consisting of different types of ships: large battleship, medium sized missile cruised, smaller sized defense frigate. Possibly also new weapons.

[@seanholm8957]

The layout might look like FTL but the battle mechanics are directly inspired by combat in the expanse, which is the most realistic take on space combat out there. There are no shields, so missiles are defeated using point defense cannons, but these can be overpowered by railgun shots.

[@aznsolja84]

Knew it. No wonder it seems closely familiar to it.

[@aaronbredon2948]

The Honor Harrington series has an even more realistic take on space battle. There is even a board game battle simulator.

[@epcfal]

*which might have been the most realistic take on space combat if children of a dead earth didn't exist

[@JamesTDG]

Oh man, that was incredible, you DEFINITELY need to turn this into a whole series.

[@lostmarbles2d]

Thanks, definitely more coming! FFA, team battles, boss battles, etc

[@JamesTDG]

@@lostmarbles2d I'm really excited now

[@adrien5568]

The best thing about this is that it's realistic enough for marbles! Honestly, space war will be more like submarine battles with very long shots that can take up from hours to months to reach their target.

[@lostmarbles2d]

Exactly! I heavily draw inspiration from The Expanse (TV series). One day I'd love to make a game where you do realistic space warfare at distances on the order of thousands of kilometers, where even the speed of light starts to impact things.

[@adrien5568]

@@lostmarbles2d Well actually there's one game like this (and it seriously needs improvements) : Children of Dead Earth

[@lostmarbles2d]

@@adrien5568 I was not aware of that game, thanks for mentioning it!

[@gavinhobbs6325]

@@lostmarbles2d Have you ever read the Honor Harrington series? Might be a good resource!

[@republiccommando6104]

@@lostmarbles2d Be careful though. The lore in CoaDE is grimdark on a level similar to 40k, but more realistic.

[@RazgrizKnight]

this has me legit watching both sides intensely. It really did look like two cruisers duking it out in real time not just a bunch of marbles bounding around. REALLY cool idea! Would love to see this expanded on in larger ships.

[@SaraMorgan-ym6ue]

what are those ships pin ball machines?

[@JohnnyCash101]

Im imagining a Star Trek episode where an AI keeps defeating humanity in engagements because its perfectly predicting their attacks so the captain just pulls out a bag of marbles to dictate their attacks

[@Interesting_Failure]

holy moly how long did it take you to get this working Only three thoughts: - Would be cool if strikes on a specific part of the ship could affect that part's functionality - This would be interesting as a playable where you only get to control the "piloting" function and everything else (boost, weaponry) is still handled by the marble crew - 4 player version when :v EDIT: In case it wasn't clear this is really good; great idea, well executed, simple mechanics that nonetheless provide good interplay and an especially great job on making it clear in the visuals what's going on.

[@lostmarbles2d]

Hmm, according to the date I posted the first WIP on Patreon, about 2 weeks? Seems like it was longer! Thoughts: 1. Planned - wanted to keep the first one simple. 2. I have thought of that, what I had in mind is full player control, and see how long you last against infinite swarms with limited ammunition type of thing. Your idea of partial control sounds much better! I can imagine the frustration when dodging missiles only for your marbles to refuse to hit the PDC. 3. Why limit yourself to 4 when we could have 8, or more?

[@Interesting_Failure]

@@lostmarbles2d That makes sense; I kinda suspected it from the damage visuals actually striking a specific side of the ship. Full control would be a different (no less valid!) concept; for me the appeal of making one of these marble games playable is giving the player a small amount of influence and the challenge being how to use that to generate the biggest advantage despite the highly random conditions. Probably because a lot of what appeals to me about these in the first place is the system taking the random inputs and producing the gameplay out of them! It's just not quite the same game unless you, like the CPUs in the video, can get screwed by RNG :v Not to mention it'd introduce a gameplay element of trying to watch for when you/the opponent are firing specific weapons and position accordingly (as opposed to yelling "DAMMIT RED DON'T FLY INTO ALL THOSE MISSILES AGAIN!!!" impotently at the screen). Also I think there'd be a thing of trying to get as close to enemy missiles as you can without hitting them to maximize the chances of the point defense taking them out? Ah, so we're making a battle royale now. Cool, cool. Actually I'm surprised we don't have any 2D shooter games in that genre yet.

[@dharveyftw7349]

@@lostmarbles2d why limit yourself with 8 when you can have galactic warfare with 100k on each side?

[@HEYJO77]

@@lostmarbles2d maybe a 4v4 would be intresting

[@hanchen267]

bro should totally make a game from this just like how MIKAN did with shuttle crush

[@crassirus]

FTL meets The Expanse meets Star Sector... with marbles!

[@SeanMirrsen]

This is very, very cool. And very cool that it works for marbles. Some suggestions for later iterations, if you'd like: - Impacts should create temporary barriers that marbles bounce off of. PDCs make tiny blots that disappear in one bump, missiles make larger blots that disappear in three-ish bumps and get smaller with each, and railguns make medium-sized blots that disappear in two-three bumps and stay constant size. This is imitating 'repairs' done by the 'crew', and would more organically 'disable' certain systems. - Have impacts jolt the ship, changing its orientation slightly and jostling its marble 'crew'. - Possibly try to have the fight work with multiple ships? Would be great to see a classic 'red/blue/green/yellow' war. An extra system at the helm could be responsible for selecting a new target ship, either randomly or by closest distance. Really great to see the 'marble race' genre branch out so much on youtube. :)

[@lostmarbles2d]

Awesome ideas, thank you! I am planning to do versions with multiple ships, both FFA as well as team battles. Adding a target selection might make the ships too busy, what I had in mind is to simply go by closest distance. But your idea to have target selection would be more fun I think.

[@ajdembroski7529]

FTL Meets The Expanse. This should be a real game.

[@Dark_Slayer3000]

Imagine a marble game 1v1 where you could influence one of the marbels, let's say, give it a targeted velocity every 5 seconds. That would make for a spicy player vs AI or PvP marble game. Actually, I've never seen a marble game that's not fully automated before 🤔

[@Extramrdo]

4:54 that brief musical sync, amazing.

[@darthutah6649]

That low key looks like what an actual space battle would be like.

[@lostmarbles2d]

Glad to hear it, that's what I was aiming for :)

[@andrewcore7672]

"in a 2d representation"

[@burrdid]

not from what I've heard, mostly since lasers can hit things for far away so you likely wouldn't see anything. space battle yes, realistic? who knows.

[@darthutah6649]

@@burrdid That's probably true. But maybe those ships are actually pretty far away.

[@burrdid]

@@darthutah6649 they dont look that far, I'm guessing not to scale?

[@billul1]

This random marble video unironically have better space battle mechanics than a lot of scifi games

[@GothLobster]

This was great-super original and fantastic to watch. I see a lot of commenters have already brought up really cool ideas re:the gameplay, so I'll just say what I was thinking the whole time: I *really* wish the camera zoomed out to show a map of all the carefully-plotted trails as these crazy fellas flew around all over the place.

[@lostmarbles2d]

That's a great idea! I had previously thought of a minimap that lets you track all the motion, but it was too busy. Your idea of having it zoom out at the end would work much better, thank you!

[@Drakuba]

looks awesome, wish this was a prototype of modern take on FTL/Shortest trip to Earth type of games

[@basedeltazero714]

That's... actually just a great system that'd be fun to make into a two player game with actual controls.

[@collectiusindefinitus6935]

Something to consider is the point defence cannons are a bit op and are only really balanced in this by the fact it’s random whether they’ll fire or not. If a player was operating it it’s unlikely any missiles will land a hit.

[@sethm7761]

This looks like an incredibly well done game. Kudos. Make it an option so explosions in the ship can take out your marbles effectively reducing your "crew"

[@marcohueber5130]

This really feels like Space Wars, we're only missing the Death Star :D Edit: could it be that one of the good old indestructible Death Stars from the previous videos are going to appear soon? :P

[@Crazyhuskylady]

I like how blue instantly destroy red in the end with just 1 bullet 💙😮

[@randyrandom78]

1:47 the way blue dodged all them missiles: ULTRA INSTINCT!!!!

[@completelybored9228]

I mainly focused on watching Blue, and wow some of those dodges were timed so well I almost thought they were intentional - nice job, Blue!

[@paradox11111111]

That final missile barrage could not have been better timed, beautiful!

[@chargeo1]

This is by far one of the best marble videos I have ever seen

[@lostmarbles2d]

Thank you so much! I put a lot of work into this one

[@darkequation]

"Engage Missile Rush!!" "Missile Rush initiated, playing random quote: 'We're making a torpedo run. The outcome is doubtful, but we will do our duty.'" "Hurrah!"

[@Trades46]

FTL meets Expanse with marbles. Very creative.

[@luska5522]

Yknow what? I like "The Expanse" too man, good shit

[@fishtimelapse4198]

Interesting game!

[@shadowblocks2905]

I like the idea, but I feel like having more or less just a progress bar being shot at doesn't make much fun. It's hard to see what the marbles are doing and a sudden loss of one team is t that nice either. The ships should show the damage, not just explosions and shaking, although that was a nice addition none the less

[@lostmarbles2d]

Thanks for the feedback, I would like to do something like that.

[@thatrandomdude5899]

This would be an awesome game.

[@KiriMantiss]

This was a really neat thing to come up in my suggested feed. I see people comparing it to FTL; however it is more similar to Cosmoteer in the usage of point defense and a lack thereof shields, with being able to move actively throughout the fight. Regardless, this was a good watch. Kudos to the originality!

[@BATTLELABproductions]

Nice concept. Feels like a real dogfight!

[@lostmarbles2d]

Thanks! When are you making another of your space ship videos?

[@blu_shift1001]

Ngl, this isn’t actually very amazing Very cool concept

[@Brzeczyszczykiewicz666]

Love it. The best moment is when blue stops, after taking enemy fire and then face the enemy when unleashed barrage of fire. "Alright that's enough! Give them hell boys!!" Amazing. And these charges at red when firing everything they got :)

[@kuuluna]

How space fight in movie and vs how it's gonna be realistically:

[@BenjiiBee]

Music is on point

[@tripplea_3338]

Blue absolutely flexed

[@Dark_Slayer3000]

Ayo my guy turned FTL into a marble race! xD That has to be one of the coolest marble games I've seen, well done! :)

[@leovin00]

I see someone else really likes FTL and The Expanse

[@Rjciralli]

That last song reminded me of the Star Control franchise, and the fighting style seemed like FTL. Beautiful choices all around

[@addisonmartin3200]

Blue had some fine pd game

[@YoshiBlad3]

Gives me serious “The Expanse” vibes with the railguns, ‘torpedoes’ and close range PDC barrages.

[@River-0G]

Love the choice of music in these videos! specifically the last one 👍

[@lostmarbles2d]

Thanks!

[@adriansorop4199]

@@lostmarbles2d what is the name of that last song ?

[@CrysJaL]

You could easily turn this into an actual game. Have some degree of modifiability to the ships and also different marbles and marble types with speed, bounce and momentup physics. Design of the ship in term of how you arrange controls in combination with the positioning of marbles would make for a very interesting "ship builder" with rng playing an interesting role in battles.

[@TheFrankuck99]

This seems a good way to represent how real space battles would happen. Add to this g-forces crew could withstand, limited fuel and ammo adding to strategy, maybe increase distance (How much I don't know) and on top of all that make it 3D instead of 2D and yeah, I can see this being how things would go.

[@lostmarbles2d]

I've been wanting to make a game like that at some point (not using marbles). The g-forces would come into play as a limitation on what your crew can handle. Things like ordering crew to go into crash couches before hard acceleration. But I feel like trying to make it too realistic would likely end up being boring due to the massive differences between ship accelerations and projectile speeds, so it would probably be more balanced around making it more fun and less realistic, similar to the balance I did for this one. Another aspect I'd add is some form of "stealth" - the primary way to detect ships would be via heat signatures, and because everything on your ship uses energy which must eventually be radiated out, the more active your ship is the brighter you are, and thus easier you are to see. It would be cool to have a strategy of drifting in space with the engines off until you are close enough to your target, or something like that.

[@heroastra8928]

Victory with that glorious final salvo!

[@ta-uk9dx]

you made a new genre

[@darthbugge3987]

This has so much potential to be much much more

[@leonardusrakapradayan2253]

That last barrage of missiles from the blue ship was so satisfying, kinda reminds me of one scene in The Expanse.

[@Jaydee-wd7wr]

It’s literally the Roci vs Pella fight and it’s great.

[@NOGOHIPOO]

That opening missle Salvo was nuts

[@elcawlinferior]

Blue Team Forever!

[@egurt8144]

I came up with almost the same concept of the game. I think I'm not the only one

[@trilecolorracing_TLCR]

Alright! Great space game!

[@DoDo-dy2fs]

This is so good! Part 2 please!

[@KeithOlson]

What you have here is 80% of a *VERY* unique idle game. *PLEASE* take it forward; I'd love to play it!

[@crackheadengineer3716]

Why can i see this as an honor duel between two long-lasting rivals

[@lucasnikunen7571]

this needs to be done in the vibes of the Wrath Of Kahn space battle GOD that would be amazing

[@jobreau1725]

Ok this one was REALLY cool

[@unknown-ug5zd]

Awesome!

[@tianxiu]

3:23 Blue ship did a turn-around boost dodging that railgun is just amusing.

[@tylermitchell185]

I want to see whole fleets of these bad boys going at it

[@Liteflo97]

This one was an absolute joy to watch

[@S2468YT]

This gives great Star Wars space battle vibes!

[@Hawkido]

very cool

[@loklan1]

"Who would be insane enough to take on the Donnager in CQB?"

[@lostmarbles2d]

Do you think the roci could beat it if both were controlled by marbles?

[@eggnoob1036]

I love this type of content

[@toyama3307]

Wow!! this is absolutely amazing. brilliant concept. brilliant execution. banger music. chef-kiss level graphic.

[@randomdude8202]

FTL needed this kind of battle mechanics

[@marcohueber5130]

I forgot to ask... From what I see, PDC do 1 damage/hit, Railgun 8 damage/hit, missiles 32 damage/hit, but what happens if spaceships collide with each other? Mutual destruction?

[@lostmarbles2d]

In the current version, nothing. I think mutual destruction would be the right choice.

[@CentroBBerry]

Yes the classic: one of the team is losing but becomes the winner

[@IC3XR]

AMAZING! Reminds me of The Expanse

[@andrewkinsey8754]

This is really good, I don't think I've seen anyone try to model space combat properly before.

[@Panopticon83]

That missile barrage at the end was a great finisher. And that pentashot from the railgun! awesome.

[@stephenfontanilla]

Blue was more manoeuvrable and mobile, which lead them to victory

[@thedeadwookie25]

I want this on my computer as a background... like those old windows screensavers

[@mrmosaic7996]

Wow. Just wow. Makes me wonder what's next. Realistic armies fighting each other?

[@lostmarbles2d]

I have something like that planned, eventually. Last year I was working on a game where you place armies and configure their behaviour using settings like min/max distance to enemy/ally, I've been thinking of reworking some of that into a marble game. Either that or start off with a more simple marble-controlled RTS.

[@alamos8]

This seems very based upon The Expanse. Cool

[@randomdude8877]

That's really cool actually

[@daredevevil]

Damn, a 5v5 in this would be amazing

[@simoncastle836]

I want to play this as a multiplayer game that is player controlled

[@lostmarbles2d]

I would love to make it if/when I get the time!

[@NomeDeArte]

Imaging when the marbels being control by an AI. The new colosseum.

[@neutralflowerland]

last blue missile attack is definition of last strike

[@JeffStylez69]

That was cool af.

[@memerthedealer]

1:40 blue really Tokyo drifted from getting hit by most of those missiles

[@key7817]

Dude you make awsome stuff. Reminds me of the clay soidler mod for Minecraft, build citys and let them fight kind of the same facination. Or like when people make a civ 5 game with only Ai and let them Fight.

[@31it3rsplyer]

Its like watching two blind pilots randomly pressing buttons while locked on a target Xd

[@aciarduce]

I want this as a screen saver.

[@SVDragon4226]

From marbles you make better "game" from loot of p2p studios with game like this stype and you do goood job ❤

[@GunkleSeven]

when blue won it looked like a ninja slashing through something

[@blu_shift1001]

I would like to see more of this in the future

[@user-mv3cg7hi7g]

what an interesting concept for a game.

[@andrereaves2712]

I'm just now seeing this game, and this is amazing.

[@folhus]

Okay, this is much better than I expected.

[@alternate5354]

Quintuple railgun at 6:47 is pretty kino

[@siyustuff213]

these are getting really creative

[@YourBoss_CORP]

That ending was absolute AMAZING, i was cheering for blue since the start

[@godferbidd6262]

MOOOORE OF THIS! (Please)

[@lostmarbles2d]

More incoming!

[@BobfromSydney]

This kinda feels like two low-tech frigates in StarSector duking it out.