An Update! (with an update on updates!)

An Update! (with an update on updates!)
– November 14th –

Hey everybody! This week we want to focus on the patch for Marble It Up! on Nintendo Switch and a take a behind-the-scenes look at the process so far.

The upcoming patch has been ‘upcoming’ for quite some time now, and we want to address not only why this is, but what we’re doing moving forward.

Why is this update taking so long?

In this process, the breakdown is all in the timing. When we submit a build to Nintendo it can often take upwards of a week to hear back on it – even for the small things.

The certification process for pushing updates to the Switch can be… tricky. First, it’s worth noting that the process isn’t a ‘one and done’ thing. In reality, it’s more of a back and forth between our team and Nintendo’s team. That back and forth is an expected part of the process; it’s not a reasonable expectation that any piece of software be 100% perfect – particularly in its first submission.

What’s the deal?

We don’t want to stall progress on the game while waiting to hear back – so we keep improving and working on future content. This leaves us in an interesting position where we have multiple versions of the game: the build we’ve submitted and the build we’re continuing work on. With all the back and forth – our focus splits between fixing the old build, furthering the new build, and testing them both.

So, we make and test a new build then send it off to Nintendo. They test the build and reply with any issues they may find on their end. We then fix, test, and resubmit. All that to say, our latest submission was rejected by Nintendo for saving player progress too often.

Where do we go from here?

We couldn’t be more excited to get updates into your hands, and that makes it even more frustrating when there are repeated delays, long waits, and ultimately – parts of the process that are out of our control. We know it’s frustrating for you, as well. On the bigger scale, we’re working to not only interact better with Nintendo, but to make smoother iterations to the game overall. No process is completely frictionless, but we’re doing what we can on our side of things to improve our workflow with regards to updates, QA, and split versions of the game.

We’ll be re-submitting to Nintendo with both the first update and the first map pack. This combined update will include bug fixes, inverted camera options, updated visuals, new maps, new marbles, the friends leaderboards, and more. Thank you all for sticking with us! As this plan rolls out, we’ll be keeping you informed in the Discord and the Update!

We’ll see you on the leaderbaords!
Marble Fletch
– The Marble It Up! Team –

P.S. It just wouldn’t be a Marble It Update! without something awesome to show off! Enjoy this preview of Ex Machina!

1 Comment

  1. While I can’t say I’m terribly surprised of what’s been going on with the patch update, I’m still rather disappointed to find out after 2 months that a simple oversight like that caused the patch to be rejected. Since I still rely on those missing control options to play comfortably I can’t say I’m terribly satisfied right now.

    Although I do put some blame on myself as well, as I shouldn’t have gotten this game on Switch and would have been better off waiting for the Steam release. I suppose it can’t be helped at this point in time, so do what you need to do.

    Like

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