Confused on Steam Play and Proton? Be sure to check out our guide.
We do often include affiliate links to earn us some pennies. See more here.

If you like puzzle games and marbles today is your lucky day as I came across Flux Caves, which merges them into one game.

It's early-on in development but it has a pretty great idea. It's like piecing together an oversized marble-run, with each level having various tubes and other special blocks missing that you need to slot into place.

You can see some gameplay from an early version in the below trailer:

YouTube Thumbnail
YouTube videos require cookies, you must accept their cookies to view. View cookie preferences.
Accept Cookies & Show   Direct Link

There's a demo available on the itch.io store page, with the full version only currently costing $2. I've no doubt the price will rise as it becomes more polished and it's a pretty good deal right now.

While I love the idea, I do hope there's a lot more to it in the later levels as it was far too easy, everything was obvious since it's just sliding a couple of blocks to complete the pipe system that's there already. Once it's a bit more polished, I will likely pick up a copy and see what all the levels are like outside of the short demo.

Roll on over to itch.io to check it out. If you do try it out, do note the startup time on Linux is a little long.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
10 Likes
About the author -
author picture
I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly came back to check on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly. Find me on Mastodon.
See more from me
The comments on this article are closed.
19 comments
Page: «2/2
  Go to:

RFSharpe Mar 24, 2019
Quoting: fubenalvoso big-big thank you for the article and for the grateful readers too! Thank you guys! :)

Hi fubenalvo,

We certainly appreciate you giving us Linux support and we particularly appreciate a developer getting on the forums. I just bought the game on itch.io and am looking forward to playing it when I get home from work.

When I hear a game referred to as a "marble-run" I can't help remembering the fun I had playing Marble Madness on my Commodore 64 using a joystick. It was a great game and was a commercial success for Atari. I hope your game is also a success fubenalvo!
fubenalvo Mar 25, 2019
Quoting: liamdaweA simple solution would likely just big a big invisible rectangle barrier.
Yeah, that will happen in the next version, but it will be ready mid April I think. I'm collecting all the feedbacks and bug reports until then.
So, if somebody use that shortcut, then be it. Game development is just a hobby for me, so I wont starve then :D

Am, I made a really simple trailer at the weekend. What you think guys?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAPqtYwZTAc
fubenalvo Mar 25, 2019
[quote=RFSharpe]
Quoting: fubenalvoWhen I hear a game referred to as a "marble-run" I can't help remembering the fun I had playing Marble Madness on my Commodore 64 using a joystick. It was a great game and was a commercial success for Atari. I hope your game is also a success fubenalvo!

Omg this game looks like really fun, never heard about it before. Not all the western games went around on floppys in hungary to every town. We had that game, that the neighbout guy had. :D
I'll search a ROM for it and play on my old old amiga. Now I have a reason to turn it on again :)
Eike Mar 25, 2019
View PC info
  • Supporter Plus
Quoting: fubenalvoSo, if somebody use that shortcut, then be it.

I wonder, wouldn't just cutting out the other content in the demo be the easiest?
(Then again, for making a puzzle game you should think of all those crazy things people do to your game... :) )

Quoting: fubenalvoOmg this game looks like really fun, never heard about it before. Not all the western games went around on floppys in hungary to every town. We had that game, that the neighbout guy had. :D

It wasn't all that different here in Germany! :D
14 Mar 27, 2019
View PC info
  • Supporter Plus
Quoting: tuubiNote that if you're in the EU at least, $2 is the price without VAT. Due to the way Itch.io and some other smaller stores deal with the whole EU VAT MOSS process, there doesn't seem to be a way to see the final price until a couple of steps into the checkout process. I'd be so much happier if I could just set my country in the preferences and see prices with tax in Itch.io listings and game pages.

I paid 2.48€ in the end.
Are you used to seeing a final price before you put stuff in your cart? In the U.S., tax gets added to Steam purchases during checkout. Actually, sales tax gets added to a lot of online retailers now. It became law in my State not that long ago if I remember correctly.
Eike Mar 27, 2019
View PC info
  • Supporter Plus
Quoting: 14Are you used to seeing a final price before you put stuff in your cart? In the U.S., tax gets added to Steam purchases during checkout. Actually, sales tax gets added to a lot of online retailers now. It became law in my State not that long ago if I remember correctly.

At least in Germany, it's law that consumers have to be shown full price including VAT from the beginning (online as offline). (And that online retailers have to pay them, too, which seems obvious to me). The tax part of the price is shown explicitly in the end on Steam.
14 Mar 27, 2019
View PC info
  • Supporter Plus
Quoting: Eike
Quoting: 14Are you used to seeing a final price before you put stuff in your cart? In the U.S., tax gets added to Steam purchases during checkout. Actually, sales tax gets added to a lot of online retailers now. It became law in my State not that long ago if I remember correctly.

At least in Germany, it's law that consumers have to be shown full price including VAT from the beginning (online as offline). (And that online retailers have to pay them, too, which seems obvious to me). The tax part of the price is shown explicitly in the end on Steam.
Ah. Yeah, we don't have that. That would be kinda nice, especially for things that get higher up in price like $60, $200, $500, etc.
fubenalvo Jul 9, 2019
I need a little help from you guys! Vulcan API how common for the Linux Gamers? The game finally working again after I changed it from OpenGL to Vulcan.

The problem is, there are gamers, who could play it before with worse graphics, but normal framerate when it was OpenGL based.
Now, with the Vulcan API they got all visuals, but the framerate much-much worse for them.

So now I have to decide, to use Vulcan with a little bit worse performance, or use OpenGL and it wont run for everybody. What you think? If anybofy whant's to help, I can send test builds via email ([email protected])
tuubi Jul 9, 2019
View PC info
  • Supporter
Quoting: fubenalvoVulcan API how common for the Linux Gamers?
Vulkan works fine for us, and we've got some very high-profile games making use of the API, like Dirt 4, Rise of the Tomb Raider, The Talos Principle, Hitman etc. It does require a GPU made in the last few years though. Not that your game would run with anything older anyway.

Quoting: fubenalvoThe problem is, there are gamers, who could play it before with worse graphics, but normal framerate when it was OpenGL based.
Now, with the Vulcan API they got all visuals, but the framerate much-much worse for them.
Your game is definitely smoother with -force-glcore42 than -force-vulkan. I guess that's due to Unity's less-than-perfect Vulkan backend, at least in whatever version of Unity your game happens to run on. Whatever you decide, I'm just happy if you get the Linux version of Flux Caves back up on steam.
While you're here, please consider supporting GamingOnLinux on:

Reward Tiers: Patreon. Plain Donations: PayPal.

This ensures all of our main content remains totally free for everyone! Patreon supporters can also remove all adverts and sponsors! Supporting us helps bring good, fresh content. Without your continued support, we simply could not continue!

You can find even more ways to support us on this dedicated page any time. If you already are, thank you!
The comments on this article are closed.