Faking 3D With 2D Lines: How Marble Derby Draws Its Board From the Physics
Marble Derby's physics knows only discs and zero-thickness lines. How we turn those lines into solid-looking slabs without ever drawing a marble inside a wall.
Marble Derby
Six marbles race down a tower of ramps, bowls and pegs. Back one, and its place times its multiplier is your win.
About the game
Six glass marbles line up at the top of a tall tower of ramps, bowls and pegs, and one of them is yours. The board is built fresh for every race, and each marble always starts from its own lane, so no two lanes run quite the same. Pick the colour you like.
On the way down, glowing pickups change your marble’s multiplier the moment it touches them, in the order it touches them: +1 to +10 add to it, ×2 to ×5 multiply it, and ÷2 halves it. Pickups are shared, so every marble can collect every one, and they stop counting once a marble reaches the funnel. The last stretch of the board often decides the result.
At the bottom, every marble drops into a single-file funnel, and the order they settle in is the finishing order. 1st place pays 2× its multiplier, 2nd pays 1×, 3rd pays ½×, and 4th to 6th pay nothing. A close finish for a paying place plays out in slow motion.
Every race is a real physics simulation, decided before it starts and rebuilt from the round’s seed in your browser. You don’t steer your marble. You watch it race.
How to play
- Tap one of the six marbles on the start line. It stays your pick until you change it.
- Choose Daylight, Comet or Starlight, set your bet, and press play.
- Follow your marble down the tower as pickups change its multiplier.
- When it lands in the funnel, your win is your bet × its place × its multiplier.
Bet modes
- Daylight (1×): the classic race, with the everyday mix of pickups.
- Comet (2×): your marble runs heavier and bursts off the start line, so it places more often. Smaller multipliers, steadier wins.
- Starlight (25×): a night board with no ÷2. Every pickup adds or doubles, so your multiplier starts at 1× and climbs all race. Your marble still needs a top-3 finish to be paid.
Every mode has a maximum win of 1,000× the bet amount.
How we built it
One Number, One Race: How Marble Derby Re-Runs Its Physics in Every Browser
Marble Derby pays from a pre-computed book, yet every race is a real physics simulation, re-run from a single seed in the player's browser. Here is how we keep it identical.