Untitled Magnet Game

This was a really good little demo! I loved playing it and was very enjoyable to mess around with for a few minutes. Of course, here's a few pieces of critique:

• The player character feels a little too sluggish for me. It feels like I should be able to traverse through .the levels and the hub a little bit faster than the set speed
• The options menu feels like it should have a back button for returning to the main menu for people who predominantly use the mouse for menus
• It feels strange to be immediately kicked out of a level as soon as you get the key. It reminds me of super mario 64 when collecting stars, but I understand the reason for the mechanic when looking at puzzle games like baba is you. Unfortunately, it feels like theres always an extra puzzle thats missing in each level in trying to get the key to an exit rather than just go to the key and you win. This feeling also links to the fact that entering a level feels like it should be an interactable option rather than get sent into the level as soon as the door opens. It's as if the game is forcing you through it rather than letting you take your time and backtrack to a different choice. It might just be me understanding the levels as "rooms" rather than areas of play.
• In level 5 and 6, it's realy easy to find yourself being stuck in an area that you (seemingly) can't leave (i.e. the block pit). I know that you are able to resart the level on a whim, but it feels like im losing progress on a silly mistake. Theres also the fact that one of the level's solutions means dropping through a gap between platforms which I wasn't clear to me due to the gap being so small that I didn't realise you were able to move through in the first place until i accidently fell through and solved the puzzle.
• The majority of puzzles were not very clear in showing how the puzzle worked, perhaps through their visibility as it's hard to see or register dark-on-dark colours.
• When throwing the magnet, it feels like it should bounce off the walls more than it does as I was trying to use angles and tragectory to throw the magnet off a wall, only to have it fall almost exactly where it landed.
• There was a small error when I first entered the hub area where I wasn't able to see the throwing tragectory. It didn't appear the rest of the times I was in the hub however.
• When I was inside of the hub, it felt weird that I wasn't able to know what was inside each of the levels or tell them apart just by being in the hub. Maybe there could be some sinage or some themes for that, mostly so that it doesn't feel like I'm choosing a level at random (even still I ended up selecting them from left to right anyway because it feels like the "right" way)

Some positives too:

• Both level 4 and 6 are really fun puzzles to solve and I thouroughly enjoyed my time problem solving with these! Level 6 especially felt hard but fair, and I felt really good when I reached that "Aha!" moment!
• The animation feels really nice, I love the little pop of the character's jump and if you can get it dangling from a magnet and move it about, it angles to the direction you would be moving and its so cute!
• I love te fact that you are always able to see the restart and changing polaroty buttons when playing as I always struggle with forgetting controls when playing a game. It's a really nice touch.

Although a lot of these are my personal preferences, I really like this game so far and I love what you have been able to create for it! Good work Mark!!

First off, fantastic game! 

• I love the creative mechanics and the way they slowly get introduced and build on one another (angled door to magnetized angled door, magnetized platforms to magnetized platforms that push buttons, etc.)
• Puzzle design was on point in that it was challenging enough to make me want to keep playing but not so challenging it was irritating to figure out the solution
• The character feels fun and flowy to control. I found myself just jumping around and seeing if I could catch the magnet mid-air. (I played with controller so my input here really only applies to that)
• The art. Oh my god the art. So pretty and consistent. Both the character and the magnet have such vibrant personalities just from their designs.

I did notice a few things, however

• Being able to move while aiming would be a nice QoL feature. There were a few times I wasn't quite lined up where I needed to be and it was a touch annoying to have to realign myself.
•  I know this is a very small sample size of levels and (based off your video, at least) it sounds like they were made in quick succession to one another but a few of them did feel very samey. I.E. use magnet to hold open door, go through door without magnet, and then change polarity to drop the magnet onto something else.

Not complaints or bugs or anything, just some stuff I personally think would be cool

• I think this set of mechanics that you currently have could really lend itself to a few levels that are a bit more fast paced and "parkour" oriented. For example: The magnet starts stuck to the ceiling, you have to change polarity, catch it mid-air, then change back, and you keep jumping from one beam to another, making sure to change polarity in between jumps. Stuff like that. Obviously that wouldn't be the whole level as this is a puzzle game but it would be a VERY fun mode of transport in between parts of the same level. This could also benefit from a sprint mode or increased player speed in general.
• I'm not sure what your plans are in regards to level variation in terms of foreground/background design but I personally would love to see these cutesy friends explore different places especially with your wonderful eye for pixel art. It would be a good opportunity to introduce zone-specific mechanics too. But, as always, more does not necessarily equal better with mechanics.

All in all, wonderful game/demo. I'm extremely excited to see where this goes and this demo placed Untitled Magnet Game IMMEDIATELY into my watchlist.

Great game feel, excited to see where this is going. A few comments:

1. The robot can't climb the switch without some runup, so if you try from right next to it, you just sputter out. Probably just a speed tuning thing

2. I don't like how the magnet can push you while you are aiming. This makes throwing the magnet while up against a wall difficult. Maybe the magnet could lose its collider while aiming?

3. I don't like having the pick up the magnet in the hub world. It doesn't really serve a purpose, and it's easy to forget, making it tedious to have to go back and get it.

4. Parallax scrolling in the hub world doesn't make sense, since it looks like an indoors space. It isn't in the final 'Thank You' room, but there is another graphical bug when moving in the right half of that room where lines appear between the tiles

5. Aiming with a mouse is fine, but I was having trouble using my built-in trackpad. It wasn't nearly as smooth

All in all though it's a pretty tight experience. Very fun to move around and interact with all the different components. Great work!

First of all thanks for the demo. As I mentioned in other comments there's still a few issues with the screen and dimensions but you're getting there.  

The puzzles had some good ideas and there is a good uses of the assets you created to weave different scenarios so far.

If I can bring some criticism, I'd say dying in the game felt unexpected. It was for the 3rd door in the hub, being suddenly crushed just felt like a cheat. I didn't expect it, and so I had no reason to try and avoid it.

It's a bit annoying by the way when you die or have to reset the whole room and having to redo steps. I know theses are short but still. Especially since some room ask you to do stuff in a very specific order so it's easy to soft be locked out of the solution with the only option to reset. I feel like it should be easier to get back on a mistake and retrace your steps.

I also feel like there's a problem with distinguishing levels. First, in the hub, if you decide to do a room later, I feel like with a more complete game it would be good to know which room is which. Otherwise you just see a bunch of doors and would nor remember which one leads to what. I think on that note the game would benefit from being more visually distinct. Having visual elements that distinguish levels, make them more themed and stuff would be good. And while I know it's just a short demo, having a basic kind of narration, you know just having an idea of who your character is, where they are, why they are collecting stuff, having like a structure with long and short term objectives would be good. Or make it part of a mystery you would solve as the game progress. It gives the player a motivation to continue and makes them want to see more, something to look forward for, create a sense of progression, etc etc. It would also probably drive you to make creative levels that can tell a bit of story while also being fun to play.

great game with interesting mechanics, really liked how the first few levels of the hub were sorta like a silent tutorial. 

the last puzzle  was a massive spike in difficulty though

two nitpicks: the level ending on picking up a key felt a bit strange -- in most other games they are used to unlock something in the current level so maybe the item that ends each room could be changed, or you need to the walk the key back to an exit door?

having to pick up the magnet at the start of each room is a little annoying, maybe spawn in holding a magnet if its a room where you want to give the player the magnet immediately?

I really liked it, the puzzles were fairly easy but the later ones definitely took some trial and error to figure out the trick. It felt really good to get a few "Aha!" moments where I suddenly noticed a detail I had previously overlooked that made the solution click into place. It was however repetitive to have to keep picking up the magnet at the start of every level and in the hub. I think if you are just going to give the magnet to the character you may as well just spawn the robot in holding it.

Feedback:
In level 2 It wasn't clear that you could drop the magnet though the one way platform onto the button
In level 7 I solved the puzzle by wedging the magnet under the large box without touching the button, if this was the intended solution the controls and physics made doing this quite fiddly requiring a number of restarts and felt like I was brute forcing the game, if this wasn't the intended solution then my bad
 

Really liked the demo! Three things stuck out for me:
1. When I switched off +/- markers in the menu, it only switched them off of the magnet and pipes; they stayed on for the magnetic fields.
2. I eventually got used to picking up the key ending the level, but it was jarring the first time for me, if only because I'm used to picking up keys partway through a level. It's not a big deal, but it was a bit jarring the first time I picked up a key and the level switch happened.
3. Like with most folks, the last level was a bit of a struggle for me. Largely because the first level involved using  a magnetic field to throw the magnet, I unsuccessfully struggled with the first two methods Erakos mentioned before finally figuring out the intended solution. I really like the final solution, but there was a period of time where I was frustrated not knowing if I had run across the intended solution or a wokaround.

Besides that, I thought it was a lot of fun! I really like that you included being able to click the left mouse to throw the magnet - it made picking up and throwing things much easier from me than aiming with the mouse and pressing a keyboard button. I had no difficulty with the mouse/keyboard setup, but I'm used to using WASD for computer games, rather than the arrow keys.

Pretty good, one minor annoyance is that the non polarized switch doors have a "cooldown" which means if I try to go through one and then immediately turn back I get stuck running against them and have to turn back and then push against them again. Noticed that immediately with the first door.

Puzzles felt honestly a bit easy and most of the time there isn't even really a way to do things that don't progress towards solving the puzzle so you could solve it accidentaly.

Last puzzle on the other hand was super frustrating. I kept messing up the throw and the timing and angle to change the polarity is relatively precise considering you have to then run quickly otherwise the block squishes you, I had the solution and kept failing for a while because I didn't succeed to apply it and that was really annoying. Another major annoyance was that the button was too far from the wall so even when the throw was successful the magnet sometimes got stuck behind the button without actually pressing it. The jump is also super tight and I had to reset multiple times because I got my magnet stuck on the other side and failed the jump. Overall a very unfun level for me and I was disappointed that it was the final level too since I expected a last more intricate level once I unlocked the final door. I get this is a demo but getting a thanks for playing when you prepare for a final challenge is a bit of a letdown especially when you come out of a very frustrating level =p

My Feedback as I play, I enjoyed the game but for efficiency I'll focus on what went wrong with me :

- this angled button felt weird to throw a magnet at.

- we can't navigate through the 1st option menu with the controller.

- "Enter Aim Mode" entry seems useless. Only the "Carry/Cancel Aim" entry is used for both.

- Some elements appear in front of the aiming dots, that feels wrong to me.

- In the 1st hub, I can choose a room to enter but they all have the same look and no name so why would I pick one over another ?

- I get that redundancy is bad but I was surprised to get teleported after getting a key. Planning a shortcut back or making the route back as part of the puzzle would feel more right to me.

- Got stuck in the 2nd room for a while because I couldn't imagine that the magnet would fall through the platforme given that we can't even do that by pressing down.

- I have no idea how to finish level 6.

minor thing, but it would be a lot nicer to change the settings if you could click on the words, and not just the checkbox

another little nitpick, the magnet come out of the pipe off center in lift up, and it physically pains me and my OCD

otherwise, amazing puzzles, and fun to play game. I look forward to the official release!

I think like it would feel better if you could move while in magnet throwing mode. It seems clunky to get locked in place every time I throw a magnet. I was playing with mouse and keyboard, with a controller it might seem more natural to be stopped.

What your doing is really, REALLY cool, but "the robot guy" (that should be his official name) was a bit to slow for my liking, the game felt more like a platformer with lots of puzzle elements in it than just a puzzle game and the control scheme should be simplified. Otherwise then GREAT game!

Demo was super fun, I think everyone agrees last puzzle was probably the biggest stumper at least for a bit. Something I thought was unintuitive about the magnet was like charges not repelling, the first thing I thought for the final puzzle's solution was repelling with a like charge, but I was frustrated when that didn't work. 

The throwing mechanic still feels a little weird, not quite sure where to put my finger on it though, sorry. Getting into levels by throwing the magnets just breaks the pace even if it's just for a second. I hope sound design is in the next demo, the quiet felt weird the whole time. 

I can't remember which room it was, but the puzzle with the two drill bits felt weird because it was hard to tell where the magnetic field ended. If it had been more definite, I would have been able to tell my first "assumption" (as you say) wasn't the solution to the puzzle.

Overall a good demo and I'm glad controller mapping works out of the box

It is great, but the fullscreen option should be in the in-game settings as I wanted to add my own music due to the lack of one, and I had to quit the game and lose my progress due to it. Thankfully it was only the first level. Everything else was great.

These puzzles were pretty good. The movement system is just right, and all the general mechanics feel really nice to use. My main critique with the game would be that the levels are too easy, which is fine, but I think the game doesn't have much potential with only one magnet. The problem is, when there's only one magnet, you know exactly where you need to use it right away. In a game like Portal, there are many portal surfaces that make the user really think more than how to solve a puzzle but what the puzzle is in the first place, which I would love to see for a game like this. Otherwise, I really like the final puzzle. I feel like there are people who are going to complain about it, but you are introduced to its length right from the start (which was really clever to make the player go through, by the way), so missing that it exists is sort of the own player's fault. What I liked about this level is that it isn't apparently clear how the player needs to progress. At first, the button on the right looks like the solution, which is really nice design. Overall, the final puzzle was really good, and the other ones could have benefited from some red herrings or something along those lines. I'm especially hoping we see puzzles in the future with multiple magnets. I hope this helps!

My feedback for V2.0 Windows (with XBox-controller)

Aiming

When aiming this dotted line appears. I struggled with how to change where to aim, it felt like the aim changed randomly. When you press X to start aiming, you aim in a direction even when not touching Left Thumbstick, so I thought I could use Left Thumbstick to modify the aim. I thought moving the Left Thumbstick straight up would start rotating the aim to slowly go higher, or moving Left Thumbstick down to rotate the aim lower (and Left/Right to change the distance/force of the throw). But was confused when the aim instantly moved straight up or straight down.

After a while I figured out that you aim in the direction the Left Thumbstick is facing (but because the dotted line falls off it didn't feel that way).

Getting a key

I thought I would have to move out of the level after getting the key (just like how I had to open the door at the end of the movement tutorial). So I was surprised  to be teleported out of the level when getting my second key.

The Hub Level

It's a bit annoying to start at the far right all the time in the Hub Level. I'd rather come back to the Hub through the door of the level I was just in.

Options

Thank you for the option to switch to "Magnets attract to matching colours". I know it's not scientific, but it helped my gaming-brain go "Red affects Red, Blue affects Blue, got it!"

Camera

On big levels I tried to move the camera with Right Thumbstick. It didn't work (and maybe it shouldn't). Just an observation.

Magnet-killing-beam (4th door in Hub)

The Magnet-killing-beam with the red face over it destroys the magnet no matter what polarity I have it in. I thought the red face would only affect the red magnet.

Menu

When pressing A on "Resume Game" in the pause menu, the character jumps.

6th door in Hub

I felt so clever when I figured this one out!

That was really really good! I thought the puzzles represented a good progression from easy to hard. Assuming I completed it correctly, the final puzzle had a really cool finish with having to run beneath the falling block to get to the key.

Regarding that final puzzle, I think it's a little unclear that the switchdoor thing will block the larger block. My intuition was that they would pass through each other. Maybe a puzzle that involves the player walking atop a switchdoor thing would be a good inclusion to demonstrate that its possible?

I had a lot of fun! I found the difficulty of the levels to be well balanced, the game mechanics are quickly understood and the pixel art is superb. The movements are very fluid, you can't help but wander around the level while thinking about the solution. I played with the keyboard (french azerty) and mouse without any problem. I hadn't played the first demo. These are some of my suggestions to make the game even more perfect, I guess some ideas have already been raised and maybe even discarded because they were bad but I quote them anyway: 

- even if it seems difficult with the controller, it is technically possible with the keyboard to move while aiming with the magnet. It's a bit frustrating to move forward and be stopped dead when starting the aim

- the jump is only triggered by pressing the jump key, it might be more convenient to trigger it when the key is pressed to make several jumps in a row quickly. This could make the ladder climb smoother.

- very minor problem in the options: a "back" button or sprite that says which button to press might be useful. 

- in the "Up and Over" level, there seems to be an extra collision block in the corridor below which causes a weird behaviour with the magnet, especially when turning around in the corridor

- in the "Up and Over" level, the dots are transparent when aiming through the top bar, which is a bit misleading

- the entrance in a level is a bit strange, the character doesn't enter the door and can even pass the door during the fade to black.

Overall, it was really great and I wish you all the best for the future!

Love from France

Amazing improvement!
Feedback:

-To me, the keys don't feel like the end of the level. Whenever I acquire a key in a puzzle game I expect to use it in said level, that's just the first thing my brain associates with getting a key. So to immediately get teleported back to the hub feels very sudden. Maybe the key can be a battery instead? Bit more on theme too, I feel.

-Also, it would be cool if levels further ahead would use mobility and speed acquired by using your magnets or platforms. A good help to the player in that case would be to slow the game while trying to throw a magnet whilst moving. You would need to be able to throw your magnets while moving for that of course, and I think this is not possible yet to avoid cheese(cheating)?

All around, great response to past feedback, keep it up!

-Julian

That was super fun, I really love the puzzle design! My only suggestion would be to make the hub a little faster to navigate, as it was a little annoying starting all the way from the left every time.

Also, I had some issues when reassigning controls. I was trying to change the keyboard button to flip polarity to 'E', however when I tried it wouldn't work, even after I remapped any other controls which used E by default. It did however allow me to remap it to other keys which weren't used as default options.

Hello, I played your demo and it was quite fun! Completed it under 10 minutes or so. 

What I enjoyed:

I loved some of these puzzles in their simplicity. Not to say that they didn't require thought, because they did. I know the last puzzle had me going for a second. 

I like being able to restart the level immediately by just pressing control. 

The character design is quite nice and the whole thing is enjoyable to look at!

I am looking forward to the full game!

What could have been better:

I think it was often unclear how far and high you could jump, some jumps I felt like I could make that I couldn't and jumps I thought I couldn't make turned out to be the required path. 

Something that I believe that is unintuitive is that like charges don't repel in the game. Everyone knows how magnets work, so people's first thought would be about repulsion and attraction! 

I don't know if this is intentional or not, but when playing with a mouse going into aiming mode locks you from moving left and right and I think that being able to move and adjust would make this a lot less clunky.

The magnet doesn't seem to have much character. I suggest that the positive polarity have a really happy face and the negative having a sad face, it would just make the magnet feel a lot more alive and fun. 

Possibly add a fun little idle animation while you are stuck on a puzzle and just thinking about it. 

The lack of noise and music left me alone with my thoughts far too long, the creepy silence definitely added a little horror to the game but I don't think that was the intention as I know you haven't made the soundtrack yet. 

Levels can feel a tad samey due to a lack of changing environments. Possibly as the game goes on, the levels progressively get more rundown or feature different sciencey stuff to show you going through a facility or something. To make it even more distinct, different worlds having different music and stuff. 

Finally, I understand puzzle games aren't supposed to be stressful or timed experiences. However, I felt like the game was made more boring purely by the fact that there is nothing going against you at any point (other than your own stupidity of course, I faced that villain many times). Possibly having late game levels with rising lava/side scrolling, enemies, or timed things with a bomb. 

My suggests are likely quite difficult to do and I am definitely not saying i could this, because I definitely couldn't, but I just thought this might be some helpful perspective from a long-time puzzle gamer. Thank you for giving this demo away for free, I enjoyed it very much. 

I don't play puzzle games very often, but this was fun! However, it took me a bit to realize that you aim with the mouse. I had it off-screen, so I was confused why the aiming was locked in random directions.

I found a minor glitch:

Holding the restart button on the hub will cause the restart icon to keep growing.

Also, you can turn around while the game is paused which is problem I recently fixed in my own game lol

On the last level I did this and I'm not certain it was the solution you intended cause it was kinda precise. If this isn't intended then I'm pretty proud of myself XD

three things:
 - should probably prompt keyboard players to use the mouse cursor for aiming, I was expecting to be able to play with keyboard alone

 - I wish it was more obvious where the "bottom" of the magnet fields are, especially on levels like 1-6 where the puzzle is about making sure there isn't too much separation between the magnet and the field

 - would it break any puzzles to give the player a run button? Navigating the hub already felt a little annoying with only seven levels, I imagine it would get worse with like 15-20 per hub. Mabye include one just for the hubs and disable it in puzzles that would be broken by it?

other than that (and the obvious like sounds and stuff) this feels pretty much like a releasable game. I'm really excited to see the full version!

Movement and the controls in general feel really good. The character animation and screen shake are great. I liked the levels, there was a nice increase in difficulty. In most levels there was an "aha" moment.

Some smaller nitpicks:

- the delay before aiming when holding the throw button feels too long

- if you get pushed by the angled doors you can't turn it again directly, instead you have to walk away from it and then turn around

- The blocks connected with the chain looked disconnected due to their independent movement

- At least in the last level there is noticeable aliasing, the walls of the room flicker when moving to the right

While I was playing I wrote down my thoughts in this document:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WWSX52GXg98SMvnj_Ussyyl2JbiXvAxcAB0Zmh7CbsQ/...

The interface constantly is misaligned on the screen. If I go to a level it's the key icon that suddenly stop being fully visible.

Hi Mark!

Great improvement over the previous versions. I had a lot of fun figuring out the later puzzles.

I have come across some visual bugs while playing full screen on a non standard aspect ratio [16:10].

1) The black plane in the loading screen doesn't cover my entire monitor.

2) The magnet color and restart menu icons as well as the key counter are not fully visible and are clipped at the top of my monitor.

3) The system hint to change the magnet polarity never disappeared in my playthrough.

4) [Not a visual bug but a comfort feature] I would like the magnet to already be picked up when entering the hub area. This might just be me but I have found this extra step to pull me out of the flow of the game a little.

Overall a solid improvement. I am excited to see where this game will go in future updates!

Amazing progress on the game! The mechanics feel great to play and have a lot of potential.

some small ideas:
1. when you get the key it doesn't feel like the end of a level, it feels like finding a collectable and then the game suddenly ends. I think that a small reaction from the charecter can go a long way in selling the moment of sucsess. Also, maybe It should collect something more "robotic" then a key.

2. 90 degree door feels so good to activate with the magnet!! got me wondering if there can be a level where you need to get the robot somewhere without the robot involved.

sorry for any spelling mistakes, english is not my first language :)

Ok, first of all, great work! I love the animations and the characters feel alive, I love the magnet faces XD. Here are some notes from my gameplay.

- it takes some time to aim the magnet.

- Maybe you can go down on the pipe/stair things?

- There is this thing (I don't know if call it a bug) in level 3 where you can be between the red big platform and the wall and that won't kill you.

- Maybe add like a circle filler for the retry icon, it's not a big thing but it's not clear if you just need to press it once or keep it pressed.

- I changed controls to use right-click to change magnet polarity and it appears a question mark on the magnet icon.

- It would be great if you appear at the door you've entered after finishing a level.

Really fun game. The last one took me quite a while to figure out how to solve, but the feeling of reward after finally being able to get the key was great!!
I just want to report a minor bug that I noticed, I don't know if it's just me, but the game doesn't allow me to set the Magnet Polarity Swap to the "E" key, any other key it allows me, but not the "E" even though I already set the Aim bottom to a different key.
But it's not a big deal, I totally enjoyed the experience.

Hello! I really enjoyed the game. I recorded my full playthrough of it, hopefully it will help provide some feedback!

A rewind mechanic would be nice. It feels frustrating to have to play all the way through to a point, and then get soft-locked, and have to restart the whole level again.

There's already a silly problem for me: the game is bigger than my screen and I can't resize it.

I tried recording my reaction to stuff in the demo but I forgot to turn on my mic. Oh well, here's a summary of what I think could be improved, 

1. Maybe try telling the player that you CAN change stuff like making matching colors go together. 

2. Number the levels both in the hub and the levels themselves so you can easily tell which one's which. 

3. The parallax in the hub makes no sense, if it's supposed to be a wall, then why do the doors not move with it?

4. The parallax background isn't even consistent! It seems like it's ONLY the hub that has it.

5. Occasionally when there's a ladder of platforms the platforms are just slightly far enough away that it seems like doing the smallest jump works, but it doesn't.

6. There's a "Return to Hub" button on the pause menu in the hub.

7. The only way to return the the hub from a level is to go into the pause menu and click "Return to Hub".

8. The particle effect go behind the doors and stuff in the hub

9. Realizing that the levels have names is not easy

10. In the level "Weight and Pull-me" it does not look like the magnet can be pulled up from the.... drill... platform?

11. You can cheese Blocked by Block with a strategy I show in this video. Don't be fooled, that took multiple attempts. Also that can probably be fixed by raising the button a bit relative to the other ground.

13. This weird glitch in the surprisingly large "Thanks for playing" room.

That's all, hope you can fix/improve these things!