Ballance (video game)

Ballance
Developer(s)	Cyparade
Publisher(s)	Atari Europe, Ziggurat Interactive
Designer(s)	Klaus Riech
Composer(s)	Mona Mur
Engine	Virtools
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows Steam
Release	EU: April 2, 2004 NA: October 25, 2006
Genre(s)	Puzzle
Mode(s)	Single-player

Ballance is a 3D puzzle video game for Microsoft Windows. It was developed by German studio Cyparade, published by Atari Europe and first released in Europe on 2 April 2004. On 5 January 2024, it was re-released on Steam, this time published by Ziggurat Interactive. The gameplay is similar to Marble Madness: the player controls a ball via mouse and keyboard, moving it along a course while trying not to fall off the screen.

In the game, the player can change the ball's material with special transformers throughout the game's 13 levels (12 levels originally; another downloadable level, level 13 "Speed", is available on the developer's homepage). It can be transformed into a wood, stone, or paper ball.^[1]

The wooden ball is very stable and can be used for several puzzles in the game. The player initially launches into and leaves all levels with a wooden ball.

The stone ball is extremely heavy, and can be accidentally rolled off an edge very easily, but this ball can easily push down boxes and bridges. Furthermore, rolling a stone ball through a bridge made of planks will make the bridge collapse.

The paper ball is very light. Its surface is not smooth, unlike the wooden and stone balls, and so its movement is slightly variable. A paper ball can be blown into the air by ventilators and can roll up steep hills easily.

Two power-ups are available.^[1] If the ball rolls into them they provide either an extra ball or extra points. Checkpoints are scattered evenly across levels so that if a player falls off the course they only have to restart the game from the last checkpoint reached.

There are 12 different levels. As the player navigates the ball along a path each become more difficult than the last. On occasion, the player has to push other balls down holes or onto rails to continue rolling along the path. Each level requires the player to complete physical challenges, which often have more than one puzzle to solve. The side-rail is introduced in level 3. The player's ball needs to roll on its side along two rails which are aligned vertically one above the other. In level 12, the player's ball has to balance on the center of the mono-rail, which composed of only one rail.

An additional level 13 called "Speed" and located in Twilight Zone was available for free on the developer's homepage a few months after the release of the game.

"Ballance" was met with positive reviews from critics upon release. An Adrenaline Vault review by Bob Mandel described the game's graphics as "heavenly", particularly admiring the "exquisite detail".^[1] Mandel thought the sounds were "absolutely outstanding", enjoyed the music and thought the gameplay was exciting and intense.^[1]

In the late 2010s, the game achieved renewed popularity among users of Bilibili. Concurrently, several studios in China published and marketed copies of the program under different names, including Ballance: The Return.

In 2024, the game was re-released on Steam by Ziggurat Interactive. The re-release received praise for allowing users to re-play this old title otherwise lost to time, but also received some criticism for not containing widescreen resolution support, or the thirteenth level DLC.^[2]

• Neverball
• Switchball

• Cyparade
• Ballance Developer Homepage – from web.archive.org
• MobyGames is a commercial database website that catalogs information on video games and the people and companies behind them via crowdsourcing. This includes over 300,000 games for hundreds of platforms.^[1] Founded in 1999, ownership of the site has changed hands several times. It has been owned by Atari SA since 2022.

Edits and submissions to the site (including screenshots, box art, developer information, game summaries, and more) go through a verification process of fact-checking by volunteer "approvers".^[2] This lengthy approval process after submission can range from minutes to days or months.^[3] The most commonly used sources are the video game's website, packaging, and credit screens. There is a published standard for game information and copy-editing.^[4] A ranking system allows users to earn points for contributing accurate information.^[5]

Registered users can rate and review games. Users can create private or public "have" and "want" lists, which can generate a list of games available for trade with other registered users. The site contains an integrated forum. Each listed game can have its own sub-forum.

MobyGames was founded on March 1, 1999, by Jim Leonard and Brian Hirt, and joined by David Berk 18 months later, the three of which had been friends since high school.^[6][7] Leonard had the idea of sharing information about computer games with a larger audience. The database began with information about games for IBM PC compatibles, relying on the founders' personal collections. Eventually, the site was opened up to allow general users to contribute information.^[5] In a 2003 interview, Berk emphasized MobyGames' dedication to taking video games more seriously than broader society and to preserving games for their important cultural influence.^[5]

In mid-2010, MobyGames was purchased by GameFly for an undisclosed amount.^[8] This was announced to the community post factum , and the site's interface was given an unpopular redesign.^[7] A few major contributors left, refusing to do volunteer work for a commercial website.{{Citation needed|date=June 2025} On December 18, 2013, MobyGames was acquired by Jeremiah Freyholtz, owner of Blue Flame Labs (a San Francisco-based game and web development company) and VGBoxArt (a site for fan-made video game box art).^[9] Blue Flame Labs reverted MobyGames' interface to its pre-overhaul look and feel,^[10] and for the next eight years, the site was run by Freyholtz and Independent Games Festival organizer Simon Carless.^[7]

On November 24, 2021, Atari SA announced a potential deal with Blue Flame Labs to purchase MobyGames for $1.5 million.^[11] The purchase was completed on 8 March 2022, with Freyholtz remaining as general manager.^[12][13][14] Over the next year, the financial boost given by Atari led to a rework of the site being built from scratch with a new backend codebase, as well as updates improving the mobile and desktop user interface.^[1] This was accomplished by investing in full-time development of the site instead of its previously part-time development.^[15]

In 2024, MobyGames began offering a paid "Pro" membership option for the site to generate additional revenue.^[16] Previously, the site had generated income exclusively through banner ads and (from March 2014 onward) a small number of patrons via the Patreon website.^[17]

• IGDB – game database used by Twitch for its search and discovery functions

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