Caromble! Ball in the Galaxy
Many arcade games remain popular despite their fundamental ideas being decades old. Tetris, Bomberman, Boulder Dash, Space Invaders, and many others have all inspired various imitators, while the core ideas of these gameplay mechanics have been repeatedly enriched with experimental innovations.
This is also true for ball games, whose rules were based on pinball and imitation of table tennis (ping-pong). This gave rise to Pong, where two moving platforms bounced a ball flying across the level, representing a game of tennis. Later, a new goal for the ball was created: it could hit blocks located at the top of the playing field, breaking them and earning points for the player. Thus Breakout was born.
An evolution of the ideas from Breakout was Arkanoid. Now, the destroyed blocks could drop bonuses with unusual effects, and players could catch these bonuses with their platform. In addition, the levels could change, the blocks had different strengths and could not break on the first hit. An additional progression was devised for such a game.
Since then, many interesting variants of Arkanoid have emerged.
Even today, developers still return to this genre of arcade games.
Crimson Owl Studios is an independent Dutch game development studio. The team consists of five members: Pascal van Beek, Raymond Beihl, Thomas Duindam, Peter Heil, and Thomas Schmall. All team members work part-time at regular jobs and devote Fridays to game development. Their main project right now is Caromble!, which they have been working on for over 10 years. Initially, they released their work in early access, and only recently, in April 2026, were they finally able to launch the release version 1.0.
Caromble! takes the concept of a typical modern Arkanoid (with 3D graphics) as its foundation but incorporates a number of distinctive ideas. In particular, the game features physics. The game levels, along which our ball rolls, contain three-dimensional structures. We can knock out the initial blocks from under some towers, causing the entire structure to collapse downward, scattering other blocks across the field, thereby creating new obstacles we need to eliminate with our ball's hits.
To introduce new ideas for gameplay, the developers at Crimson Owl Studios devised a story. In the opening cutscene, we learn that long ago, six special devices called Arkatron were created and scattered across the Universe. When gathered together, they form something called "!Caromble!" (yes, it's written that way), which can determine the fate of the Universe. There are Defenders who dedicate their lives to searching for the Arkatron to bring them together and ensure their protection. However, an ancient evil awakens and invades to steal all these artifacts. Now, the Defenders and their platform-shaped rocket ship (with which we will hit the ball) must stop the villains, return the Arkatron, and save the Earth before it's too late.
In story mode, each level boils down to breaking enough blocks to charge a portal and then accurately hitting the ball into the portal to transition to the next part of that level. This action may need to be repeated several times (if there are more portals) and then face a large, evil red monster at the end of the level. Of course, that’s much easier said than done, as the topology in level design will become more complex. There will be spring-loaded elements that can unhelpfully bounce the ball in undesirable directions, obstacles that hinder aim, and operational conveyor belts on which boxes and blocks may lie; levels that periodically drop new obstacles are also commonplace; and various other difficulties arise.
Particular challenges may arise from situations in which additional platforms for bouncing the ball appear in the level, and we will simultaneously control the movement of both the lower and upper platforms (like reflecting in a mirror). It’s unfortunate that losing the ball from any platform costs us lives.
During relatively calm gameplay of breaking blocks, keeping track of the ball isn’t too difficult. But when new boxes suddenly fall onto the field, they can interfere with the ball's movement unexpectedly, sharply changing its trajectory, and the player might not have time to react to such a sudden event. Adding spice are the special effects: there are exploding objects that conveniently allow quick clearing of blocks hit by the explosion's shockwave. However, the camera shakes frantically at that moment, which indeed causes you to lose sight of your ball, and it may slip past the racket.
Here, the abilities of the found Arkatron come into play. For example, one of the first allows us to enable time slowdown, providing us with a hint in the form of a reticle indicating where the ball will bounce. The Arkatron don’t stay on board the racket; they can appear as activators in the location, and we must hit this activator with the ball to apply the special skill.
We can also perform a curved shot on the ball, allowing it to roll in an arc - this is perfect for tough spots where it usually cannot go directly and allows earning more points. Players can also charge the racket for a powerful shot, allowing the ball to break through obstacles and destroy blocks in one hit until it hits something indestructible. However, the charging process requires the racket to remain stationary, which increases the risk of missing the ball. Thus, the powerful shot should be charged while the ball is rolling far away from us.
As is customary in many Arkanoids, in Caromble! different bonuses may fall from destroyed blocks. They can be both harmful and helpful. A temporary reduction in the size of our platform might occur or, conversely, its increase; additional balls might appear; the racket may instantly charge for a powerful shot; extra lives and other effects may occur. Fortunately, amidst the chaos of the game, the quickly recognizable color coding of bonuses helps to understand which may be useful: red - harmful, white - beneficial. Each bonus also has a distinctive pictogram, making it easier to remember the effects as time passes.
Battling the boss is perhaps the most frustrating part of completing a level. Due to limited aiming accuracy, hitting the villain is quite difficult and can take a lot of time. Moreover, on many stages, its shields regenerate, resetting all progress made if too long passes without hitting it. It’s very frustrating to lose the ball, lose lives, and face the need to restart the level to go through the portal stages again. Additionally, bosses may sometimes retaliate, for instance, by attacking with prickly balls: if touched, the racket becomes covered in spikes and slows down significantly, making it easy to lose the ball. This significantly affected my attitude towards the game, as breaking blocks is an engaging activity with many interesting scenarios, but the boss battles become a serious test of my patience, which concludes too quickly.
Overall, the difficulty of Caromble! prompts thoughts about the game's orientation towards fans of the "Git gud" philosophy. Get better, treat the game's challenges as a challenge, and learn to overcome them while improving your skills.
Let’s take the situation with the curved ball again. To produce such a shot, you need to move the racket and catch the ball on the moving racket, causing it to bounce and travel in an arc. However, achieving this precisely is quite challenging, and much more often, I got the curved shot by accident.
In addition to story mode, Caromble! includes more options:
- Skill Levels
- Daily Challenge
Skill Levels offer challenges on a location designed to practice specific gameplay mechanics. For instance, a accuracy challenge allows players to learn how to hit the red monster boss with the rebounded ball. In another challenge, hitting the target in an arc with a curved ball—one that cannot be reached directly—needs to be done accurately. Access to trials opens as medals are earned in the story mode.
All trials keep track of scores, and players can compete with friends or other players for accumulated points.
Daily Challenge involves completing a randomly assembled set of tasks each day. The goal remains the same: to set a record for points.
Fortunately, despite the high difficulty, the developers have provided a way to complete the story game by enabling the "Mercy" mode. When a player runs out of lives after losing a ball, they can choose not to replay the entire level from the start but instead receive 99 lives for free and try to complete the level with such a stock of attempts. However, in this case, medals for fast level completion or achieving a high score can no longer be earned.
While the entry threshold for Caromble! is not that high, getting accustomed to the game is quite challenging. In reality, the arcade turns out to be rather hardcore and encourages the desire to improve one's gameplay skill, offering a set of unusual techniques.
The game leaves a pleasant impression and intrigues with the use of physics in the mechanics of Arkanoid, but such hardcore and challenge might not suit all players.