Red Marble Games

Infobox Company
company_name = Red Marble Games
company_
foundation = 2002
location = Tacoma, WA, United States
key_people = Mark Batten
industry = Online/Video Games Developer/Publisher/Distributor
products = Various; see list
homepage = [http://www.redmarblegames.com/ http://www.redmarblegames.com]

Red Marble Games was started in 2002 by Mark Batten with the intent of porting the best indie games from Windows to the Macintosh. The Macintosh platform is infamous for its dearth of commercial video games (see Mac gaming), and the indie realm is no different. Red Marble is primarily concerned with "only" porting indie titles, although it has started to develop its own titles as well. This approach has given Red Marble an unusually wide variety of quality games considering its size. Red Marble is small enough that it accepts open invitations from developers and the internet community at large about quality games that should be on the Mac. Also, unlike other companies who sell Mac digital downloads, Red Marble Games also offers their games on CD for an additional $4.95.

Games

Red Marble Games seeks out pick-up-and-play games suitable for all ages, especially award-winning games that "deserve" to be made available to a larger audience. These are keyboard- or mouse-controlled 2D games that do not require any more hardware power than a simple eMac could provide. As of this writing, Red Marble offers 32 Mac and web games for sale across all 2D genres.

Notable Games

* BreakQuest - A Breakout clone that uses a highly sophisticated physics engine featuring springs, spinning objects, curved surfaces, ball spin, etc.
** "I just have to say this from the get-go: BreakQuest, from Red Marble Games, is quite possibly the best, most addicting Arkanoid-style ball and paddle game I have ever played. Ever.." -- Inside Mac Games
** "BreakQuest may be the best Arkanoid game in existence." -- Game Tunnel (rated BreakQuest one of the top 5 games of the year)
** "BreakQuest is what a shareware game should be: Simple, fast, and fun while bringing something surprising to its genre." -- MacGamer
* Democracy - A simulation of government and politiking
** "Games such as Democracy are an important step forward in the evolution of education" - Kristofer Poland, Instructor of Political Science, Ohio University
** Simulation Game of The Year; Top Ten Games of the Year - Game Tunnel
* Kudos - A life-sim game
** "This game stands out in depth and design. There is so much to discover in the game, and much more even I haven't done yet" - gamevortex.com
** Most Innovative Casual Game 2006 award, Yahoo! Games
* The Witch's Yarn - If indie games are about Something Different, then this interactive story certainly qualifies.
** Nominated for the Innovation In Game Design award at the 2006 Independent Games Festival
** Original developer interviewed by Gamasutra [http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20060206/carless_01.shtml here] .
* FizzBall - Breakout meets Katamari Damacy, with farm animals
** Independent Games Festival Finalist 2007 (out of a field of 141 games)
** Arkanoid Game of the Year (2006) -- Game Tunnel
* Professor Fizzwizzle - A platformer-puzzle game featuring a scientist and his insane robots
** Independent Games Festival Grand Prize Finalist 2006 (out of a field of 118 games)
** Casual Game of the Year (2005) -- Game Tunnel
* Aargon - Colored lasers bend, split, refract, and recombine in an eye-pleasingly sparse puzzle game.
**"...it's a perfect game for those of us who have always been more into the "thinking" side of the gaming world. I'm hooked on Aargon Deluxe; I can't stop playing it." -- Lockergnome
**"Designing a Rube Goldberg machine was a compelling concept for a game when Dynamix introduced The Incredible Machine in 1993. These were mostly physical puzzles. Other recent games like Fallout Tactics are puzzle-oriented but rely mostly on line of sight and probability. Or take Hitman which relies on violence and stealth to solve its puzzles. Aargon is a nice, peaceful, mathematically elegant game. It has the potential to root you to your computer for hours at a time, and is enjoyable to play by oneself or with others." -- X-Treme Gaming Radio

External links

* [http://www.redmarblegames.com Red Marble Games website]
* [http://www.igf.com Independent Games Festival official website]
* [http://www.gamasutra.com Gamasutra]
* [http://www.gametunnel.com Game Tunnel]