Build comfy marble runs in this free indie prototype

I’ve lost countless seconds, minutes, maybe even hours to those TikTok videos showing off ludicrous marble runs. Strangers decorate their houses with mini slopes and sliding paths, they record their marbles rolling down these elaborate courses, and then they’re posted online for strangers like me to mindlessly enjoy. I’ve now spent the last few nights building my own marble runs - not in real life, because I’m too lazy for the cleanup after - in Zen Marbles, a free playable prototype, out now.

Zen Marbles is pretty much what the name suggests: you’re given an empty floor to build wooden tracks on, and then you can sit back and push marbles down those tracks, calmly clicking and clacking as they roll along. Watching gravity work its magic is plain satisfying.

These tracks can be as simple or complicated as you wish. From what I’ve seen so far, you can’t make any loop-de-loops but you can make paths that swerve, drop horizontally with the speed of a rollercoaster, and fall into other paths. Speaking of rollercoasters, you can also possess any marble and experience the thrillride from a first-person view.

Zen Marbles is still in its prototype phase, so it’s currently unfinished. That means some features such as sharing tracks, extra building parts, and customisable paint jobs aren’t here yet. But so far, the game offers all the relaxation and small-scale comfort that comes from those TikToks. Except this time, I’m forced to work out my dusty cerebrum and use something called imagination. What a funny concept.

If comfy rides and simple building are up your alley, you can download Zen Marbles for free on Itch.io.