Felt much better playing this version (2.0) in regards to control, character movement and progression. Well done!
My main issue was figuring out how to interact with the scenario at some moments, like figuring out at which point I should throw the magnet to interact with a button and change its polarity but accidentally throwing the magnet someplace unreacheable and having to restart the puzzle all over.
Really fun! The character controller is much better and whilst the art may not be final - the magnet and robot have a good amount of expressiveness. The simple act of throwing the magnet to unlock a door for a level is small but makes the game feel more based around the magnet, similar to how in mario odyssey you need the hat to just dispense moons into the ship.
The puzzle elements were great, especially the gate that is moved by the magnet.
I didn't notice any major cons or issues, i think the game plays and looks well and so long as there are fresh mechanics for more puzzles (and sound design) it could go on the market in a moments notice.
The initial tutorial section is well made and I think the idea of needing to throw the magnet into a pipe to unlock a door out the level could be good for other levels, since you would also have to account for retrieving the magnet. However this could complicate things and would require some small tests to see if its positive or negative for the puzzles.
Nice short but (mostly) challenging puzzles! Here's one probably obvious thing I've noticed right away - because I wanted to solve the first level faster:
1) When you replay an already completed level there's no way to exit it aside from using the menu. Maybe add a greyed out key (like the stars in Mario 64) to ensure replayability of levels ;)
2) And the default key bindings for right (D) and switching polarity (F) get in the way when switching and moving to the right at the same time or successively.
One of the things that I got hooked up on was in level-0/totoral I did not know how to get through the final door to the hub for some time. When I saw the pipe all I could think about was Mario and how you would need to go into it even with the other door there, so I kept trying to jump up to it. It would have been nice to have something to say that you need just the magnet to go up it.
Seeing as I'm probably the only person who played this game on a square monitor instead of widescreen like the game was designed for, I'll take it upon myself to tell you that the game is pretty bad in some places when you can't see the leftmost or rightmost parts of a level. Specifically level 2, the same as the fourth screenshot. I couldn't see the switch on the right or the screw on the left. I beat every level in the game before level 2, just cause I couldn't see what I was doing. The loading screen was rendered useless because I could see above and below it, so I could see the levels load in. My suggestion: make it so the view scales down so it is always within the width of the player's monitor (that would mean putting the black bars above and below the frame when it's fit to the monitor. I think you get what I mean.) That's how I solved the issue in my game. Or else give a semi-freecam mode, but I find that a bit overengineered for the problem.
On a positive note: I love everything you've done with this game, it feels so polished that it's fun even when I don't get the aha moment and just brute force things. The art is great, the character feels perfect, and the puzzles felt like puzzles I'd never played before. You have made a very quality game.
Oh and by the way, if you're getting a lot of feedback about the last level it's probably because those people, like me, didn't notice the block would be stopped by the switch. I happened upon it by accident, so making what is and isn't possible more obvious (in cases where most working memory is already taken, like in the last level) is probably the best way to go. Essentially, we stop taking in new minor details when our working memory is already full, so as not to fill it further. So clarity is key.
Great game. Looks good, feels good to play. Nice and smart puzzles.
Two complaints, though. The sloped buttons are difficult to jump on because of that weird angle. I guess they are sloped so that the magnet would slide off once it had pressed the button, but that doesn't mean that the player character has to interact with the button in the same way.
You could make it so that the player character doesn't even collide with the button and they just have to drive over the button hitbox to trigger it. The game would flow much better like that. Of course if the player doesn't want to trigger the button, they can just jump over the hitbox. Easy peasy.
Also, you should be able to aim and throw the magnet while moving. The game would flow way better like that.
It controls really well, and the mechanics are awesome. My main complaint is when you figure out the solution to a puzzle, and accidentally miss a jump you have to re-do the whole thing again. This isn't much of a problem now but when the puzzles get harder and longer it could be very frustrating. Maybe add a baba is you style reverse, just not grid based.
Didn't like the default of 'opposites attract' when mixed with the fields showing the symbol that is attracted to it. For some reason this didn't sit right in my brain
The toggle switches are too touchy. There was quite a few times where I would switch it, go to move, and then accidentally switch it again
Main observations so far: I love the chunkiness of the animations - objects slowly start moving and then rush into place with an inaudible slam - but I do feel a bit frustrated at the start of levels having to wait for the magnet to arrive and pick it up (them up? what are the magnet's pronouns?) manually every time. I kind of wish that the magnet would fall into the robot's hands as the level swipes in so I could just go immediately upon resetting a level or returning to the hub. (Loved that in Celeste, where "start running instantly" was always a correct timing for timed puzzles.)
The feel of resetting a level is good, though - it's not instant but it's quick. Which I appreciate, because I had to do that a lot.
it has been a few hours and I have managed to break the game
but for a demo this is an amazing game controls are great puzzles are fun and accessiblity is great
my only complaint is that it is way too easy to softlock yourself
about the screenshot there is a bug in the game that lets you jump way higher than you are supposed to only using the magnet and please do not remove it completely it is decently hard to do and would be a neat trick in speedruns
love it, I started with the last level to challenge myself and found that some of the middle levels I struggled with a little more. definitely think the hub world that you settled on is a brilliant way of handling the approach to non-linear progression.
the puzzles definitely seem like they revolve around the magnet more than anything else with the platforming complementing it rather than overpowering it.
someone mentioned below that running into the rotating walls slowing you down being a bit of a flow-breaker. it could be cool if the magnetic ones pull you towards them and almost catapult you off. can't wait for the next update!
Hello fellow dev, can see the spark of something promising. Here is my feedback, hope you take it in the spirit it's intended.
Entering and Re-entering Levels:
-Currently the player gets trapped should they re-enter a level after completion. While they can use the menu to exit, something like having a 'ghost key' as the end condition should be present so players may re-attempt should they desire. Additionally, It is my belief that players should never have to touch the in-game menu for anything unless they desire, so having an in-game way to exit to the HUB would be nice - such as the door lol. Intuitively I wanted to press up at a door to enter/exit, and use the pipe to unlock the gate, but the pipe was essentially the door and the door was purely visual.
HUB and HUB Feel:
-The game is a puzzle platformer, but the HUB is a flat hallway. All aspects of the game should provide some sort of gameplay, so the HUB is a great place for simple platforming. Players find enjoyment in just hoping around, so this would be a great place for players to cool off between puzzles with a playground of sorts. Expanding past this idea, the HUB additionally could be a puzzle itself, where players need to figure out how to unlock the gates to the levels. The pipe's could be the locks, and the player needs to figure out how to open the gates to attempt the levels in whichever order they choose.
-Level 7 is dramatically harder than the rest. If you are going to put in unrequired extra hard levels, I'd suggest marking it someway in the HUB (such as making the gate red), so players understand they are taking on a bigger challenge. Doing this helps players know that should they fail, the level was designed harder, rather than their intelligence wasn't on par.
-The finish line gate doesn't really make sense as designed. Visually, you use old timey keys in your tech facility, to open the final gate, but the individual keys are also needed to open each level? Maybe gate each level with something else (or not at all), and change the final gate to open with 'completion' powerlines streaming from the individual levels. Simply changing the key to a powered generator, and changing the Mario sewer pipes to a mail vacuum tube might help with the visual language that is trying to be communicated. Lastly on the topic of HUB art, it has parallax scrolling, so it looks like the gates are floating in place when you walk past them.
Gameplay and Gameplay Feel:
-Getting the clear condition felt abrupt in some levels, as it didn't feel like that should be just the end. I felt since it was a puzzle platformer, that I would have to get the clear condition, then platform back out of the level past the mess I made - proving I fully understood the central gimmick of the puzzle. This would allow more moments for the player to mess up in the homestretch creating those 'lmao I'm so dumb' moments that were unfortunately missing. Funny mistakes are almost required in a game that has a cute art style like this, as well as other ways to inject some levity.
-It wasn't immediately apparent that jump height differed whether or not you were holding the magnet. This made the character feel buggy until I realize it, and even still felt off knowing that detail. I can imagine some players not figuring out the variance in jump height thing, and putting the game down out of sheer bad control feel.
-One level had a metal box with a magnetism symbol on it. As most people associate metal and magnets already in their head, this redundancy actually made figuring out how the metal box worked more confusing, since it could be mistaken for a unique object to your game world with the additions.
-There were a few areas I got stuck in and couldn't platform out of, forcing me to restart the level. Restarts can feel like failures to players, so it's best your levels don't require them in instances. More testing for environment soft locks.
-Lastly, played on an Xbox controller, and the level restart was set to 'LB', but the symbol around 'LB' was round, not matching the shape of the controllers button. While obviously the most minor thing to point out, it's important to point out every minor thing, as game feel can be eroded by stacks of minor things like these that are written off as unimportant. Many AAA games leave very minor things in their games, and I believe this mentality has lead many devs to cut corners in quality in other aspects of their games. Your the teacher youtube guy, so want to help you continue to bonk out bad practices in the industry.
Overall, good work. Obviously there is still a long way to go before this is a complete game. For this to become something I'd pay money for, I'd personally want to see more personality, character, and humour baked into it. Currently, feels on the reserved end, and I'd encourage leaning into the weird once you're happy with the overall mechanics and whatever else you need to add for your videos. I never played the original, but stand alone it's got a solid framework form something good.
Tiny bit of screen jitter was the biggest outright issue I could see.
Moving while aiming makes sense but would make puzzle design potentially harder so maybe a slow down instead of a complete stop.
Something that I think would be nice would be a door entry animation, it was a bit odd watching my character run straight past the door before transitioning.
Key animation is difficult to notice, hidden by geometry/too fast a transition. Obviously an audio chime would be nice as well for some added satisfaction.
The level select has some layering errors i.e. the magnet being thrown underneath the key monitor.
I personally found the character to be a little stiff to play around with, they aren't fun in a vacuum (more of a platformer problem than a puzzler problem)
Mostly critical, but I enjoyed the demo! You're doing great and you're awesome also.
I found a bug : When you are reloading the level with ctrl. while the key is collected, but the level isnt quit yet, you can get softlocked. you spawn into the same level, just with the key missing. quitting to lobby wasnt an issue and the key was properly counted. win10 version
great place overall, enjoyed the puzzles and defiantly got the a ha moment on levels 4-6. One thing with game being both a puzzle and platform/speed game that could lend useful in future. For example say a levels initial impression leads you to believe it can be solved with problem/puzzle aspect when it actually requires more precision or speed. I had a bit of this on the 4 or 5 level. there were times the mix was confusing but if you can make it clear when what your doing isn't the correct way I'd argue it adds a lot to the game both puzzle wise and precision platform. Sometimes great ideas will constantly be in conflict with one another, but when blended correctly mix so well it becomes the stable of the game
Couple other ideas I had for mechanics that I thought of while playing that might be helpful
- A recall option to pull the magnet in whatever direction you are, not necessarily through walls but towards you until it hits a wall. could be something where magnet isn't in range but you can pull it/ reverse polarity a few times to get it to reach you. this you'd pry want to make a separate power up only available on certain levels
- a lateral magnetic field type with weaker pull then when polarity is right would either speed up your move or slow you down, allowing for some interesting puzzle ideas. You could also use this same type of field to be used to slingshot magnet
- not necessarily for these missions, but i could see if your going to speed-run/precision game allowing user to reverse polarity much quicker so they could say bounce from one electrical field to the next and avoid death rays or something
Coming from another programmer of 4 years (not video games, but more PLC and Controls) i think your doing a great job and well on your way towards a great game. Lots of great and helpful improvements over last iteration.
For me, the main issue is getting stuck in a level for a mistake I made and having to reset it via the reset button. Levels that are impossible to get stuck to seem more polished and taught out.
Another thing that kinda bugs me is the color of the magnets although I’m not color blind, my first thought is always to match the colors, like throw a blue magnet on blue stuff and a red magnet on the red stuff, although I know that is not how magnets work. So I thought that maybe changing the color of the magnetic field to the opposite color would be easier to catch what will interact with what.
The good stuff:
I didn’t find any bugs so far
Play movement feels good
Magnet snapping on things feels amazing
I tested all levels and got succeeded in all but the last one, it felt much more difficult than the ones before but im also pretty dumb so that might be on me, i dont like the HUD, it takes away the flow of the game and feels like it stops you too often, maybe multiple puzzles in a row behind every door could help, the idea of throwing away the magnet for every door is interesting but i dont think its very intuitive that throwing a magnet in a pipe would open a door, the background and design quickly gets repetetive which is only worsened by the HUD, reloading the levels feels a bit clunky and slow, maybe assign each object a default state that it returns when you hit reset and just respawn the character (if thats possible in Unity), when you aim you can trigger buttons with the magnet because of how the character moves the magnet up and down while aiming, maybe deactivate the magnets hitbox while aiming, on the last level i got the magnet stuck between the big - crate and the + magnet while it was active and then when i turned the magnet to -, it started weirdly virbrating, not a big issue right now but that could maybe lead to bugs in other puzzles
overall very positiive experience, i hope i could help
Overall, the movement and mechanics here are solid (especially with configurable controls), but I found myself noticing problems with the levels themselves. As a puzzle designer myself, I hope to be able to communicate how I think about progression in puzzle games and why something felt a bit off about the levels.
First of all, quality of life is something that can and should be baked into the levels themselves. That means making it easy to execute not just the solution, but also any experimentation that takes place first. Most of these levels do this well, but I still feel like it's important to remember going forward. Level 3 in particular I wish was a little smaller, and had a "catch" in the ceiling so that the rising block wouldn't squish you.
Also, being able to replay previous levels is more important for puzzle games than other genres, because you might want to process what just happened and learn from it. I would say that, in this demo, backtracking is possible but discouraged. The levels are indistinguishable from the hub, and a completed level will be missing its key entirely. These have easy fixes though, like making the (strangely hidden) level names visible from the hub, and leaving a grayed-out or dotted-line key in finished levels.
Being able to learn brings me to my last point; while the levels have a progression of difficulty, they don't have a clean progression of knowledge. Having unique eurekas is fine, but when none of the ideas are built upon and everything is different, there is no sense of learning how to solve the game's puzzles. This leaves them feeling disconnected, and effectively, having the same difficulty for a new player, who goes in knowing none of the ideas used for solutions. Going further, when you reach a puzzle that requires you to consider the consequences of a fundamental mechanic, such as solid objects being stopped by other solid objects, the player should already be familiar with that mechanic. However, I found myself discovering and applying a mechanic in the same level, to the point where the puzzles could be considered "unfair." Don't get me wrong, figuring out new mechanics is enjoyable, but most levels turned into poking and prodding, trial and error, instead of logical thinking and planning ahead.
On the other hand, I feel that a few of the levels just aren't good teachers. Level 2 can be solved accidentally, risking a player missing the finer points (the magnet dropping from the rotating door, and the magnet being able to fall through platforms). Level 4 is simply unclear; I found two different solutions, and I'm not sure if either of them are intended, nor did they teach me useful techniques or ways of reasoning about the game elements. "Cheese," as unintended solutions are known, are fine when they are much harder to find than the "real" solution (making for some interesting speedruns), but cheese can undermine a puzzle and its lessons when it is a lower mental hurdle than the intended solution.
While I have pointed out a lot of design decisions that you might consider changing, there is still a lot to like, and I would encourage you to keep building on what you've learned about game design. Level 5 was probably my favorite, being a pure puzzle with a non-obvious solution, and the movement feels great, making a great environment for poking around the puzzles (although throwing the magnet might need a touch-up, I didn't realize that the mouse controlled throw direction at all). Still, I encourage you to find a way of thinking about how players approach puzzles, even if it doesn't match my own puzzle design philosophy outlined above, because player knowledge becomes more important as you add more complex levels.
overall great demo! it was fun, and definitely provided a few of those "aha" moments that are so necessary for a puzzle game to work. a few comments, firstly on mechanics, and secondly on the controls themselves.
let's start with a positive: the base player movement felt really nice. moving around and jumping was responsive and snappy. it wasn't hard to put the little robot where I wanted it to be.
now, a negative: the green switches. not the buttons, specifically the switches, were a little annoying. it seemed kind of weird that they would switch as soon as you were near the middle, instead of waiting for you to be on the high side. another issue I had with the switches is that after switching it, you had to go completely off the switch and back on it again to get it to switch a second time, hence the picture below.
this felt rather unintuitive
speaking of unintuitive: magnet aiming. not being able to move while aiming was, in a word- frustrating. it felt like it added some unnecessary clunkiness to the game. if the movement is being locked specifically because of the fact that controllers are supported, I'd suggest binding jumping and holding the magnet to the triggers up top, while allowing for movement with the left joystick as regular, and allowing for aiming on the right joystick by default.
and now that we're on the topic of controllers, I tried out an Xbox 360 controller with the game and aiming was impossible. however, this seems more like a hardware issue than something that can be dealt with in the programming as far as I can tell.
every game has its bugs. the reoccurring one for me was the physics system causing the player/magnet to get stuck in weird ways, like one time I got stuck below a platform because the magnet got wedged up top while I was holding it. I got out easily by dropping the magnet, but a measure being in place to prevent that may be nice. one time the magnet got wedged between a moving platform and a regular one after throwing it, causing the player to be stuck on one side of the moving platform.
overall, I liked it. I don't mean to come off sounding very negative as I understand that programming is difficult work, I simply wanted to point out the things that made the experience less enjoyable for me personally. I've really been enjoying following the progress of this game on YouTube. it's given me motivation to work on some projects of my own.
to anyone who is developing a game: keep up the good work! you got this.
this seems relatively bug free..... other than the screen size issue(which is more lacking a feature than having a bug)(just in case - my monitor is not big enough to have however large the game screen is fit. it is not resizable. I am using a 2016 macbook air. It resizes in fullscreen but doesn't resize in window form)
also The last thank you tunnel was such a troll!!!!!! I watched the video before playing and I was expecting a super hard level instead of a thank you screen. you know the boss monster of puzzles.(ps you can ramp up the difficulty a bit)(don't consider the ramping up part too seriously, I dont game a lot and I spend a lot of time solving algorithmic problems so my view is a lot biased)
Hi, I really like both the game and the devlog and would like to give feedback.
I was wondering if you could add a setting for the player to manually change the controller button promts (as in change "a" for xbox/switch to "X" for playstation) like in Outer Wilds. I have a playstation controller that acts as an xbox controller to work on pc (I read that alot of people have similar controllers) and when there's a game that automatically detects controller type, I get xbox button promps. Not necessary, but a nice quality of life feature to add.
Other than that i really like the game and cant wait for v3.
I don't think this is how you're supposed to do it but you can throw the magnet through the little hole when the big block in the middle is up
As for feedback on the game, the general concept and feel of the game is great, the puzzles have a lot of potential and are generally executed well.
However there are multiple levels where it is easy to get stuck, in the level above alone I've had moments where I've fallen of while the door is as you see in the picture which means a reset, I fell in the hole the box is in, a reset, I've lost my magnet next to the switch and fallen down, another reset.
A possible solution to this is making the player able to call the magnet to them, though this might not work well or require to much redesigning.
Another solution is to simply make it harder to get to areas without the magnet if you're supposed to have it with you, though I'm not sure on how you'd implement that.
The character feels snappy and the puzzles are super good, i especially like the use of the doors and i got that "eureka" feeling on basically every level. I start by doing the expected thing (money brain) and then when it doesnt work i manage to came up with a solution. 10/10 puzzle design.
I also found a super cool bug that im calling a "super jump", basically if you have the magnet near your feet (wheel?) and catch it and throw it really fast (im spamming the mouse click) you can get a lot of height by pressing the space bar. I managed to clip through the otherwise-unreachable platform.
Pretty cool glitch im gonna esperiment a bit with it and see if there is some possible speedrun skip or its just fun. :)
Edit: it appears to give also a small chunk of diagonal velocity so the level 3 can be complitely cheesed
Edit2: level i lost count can also be skipped, it might be possible to do a high jump at the start and complete it FAST but i couldn't do it. I did a super jump trying to carry the magnet up the second platform (which is super hard to also carry the magnet) and the magnet is required for a second super jump to go higher than the iron block and reach the key.
I will try to provvide more information about this bug as time goes on. And im gonna make a full glitched walkthrou.
Just loved it, II can''t believe how fluid it feels in my Macbook Pro running Windows. The great performance allows a great control using my game pad. I look forward for the harder puzzles and the music. I sense that solving puzzles has a lot of intrinsic value which is cool so no need for extrinsic rewards, wouldn't mind if there are some in the future though XD
I would love to see a bit more of variety in the future if the game gets to be very long but as a short aesthetic experience it's absolutely amazing. Can't wait for the full final version and would also love to see how you did such great optimisation and implementation.
It was fun playing this demo, but the last level i solved the whole level without even pressing the green button under the "+" cube
And There was some glitches like :
if you hold down the restart key at the hub level, the restart arrow thing will get bigger and bigger forever.
And in the fourth level "lift up", the thing that kill the magnet, if you jumped at the very side of it while holding the throw key pointing at the left side, it won't kill the magnet and you can throw the magnet to the other side.
And the tutorial, idk if you did it on purpose but the key you take at the tutorial will stay with you the after you finish the tutorial, cuz of that key you don't have to play all level, you olny need to play 5 levels and and you will have 6 keys.
Also if you pressed the "Esc" at the tutorial level, you can skip the tutorial by pressing "return to Hub", you can also "restart" idk who would you restart the level in the tutorial
But it was a great experience, i hoped that the thing that kills the magnet was used more, and also the demo is very short i finish it in like 10-20 mins
The puzzles are good too, I quite like how the 90 degree doors are used with the magnet.
Especially loved the solution in the final level. Felt quite clever when I noticed the final step of the puzzle.
I like the art and the attractor effects
The aiming dotted line goes behind some objects, such as the doors and the key screens in the hub area.
When using a mouse to aim, the aiming line arch ends up feeling a bit too low when dragging the cursor farther away. Not a big deal though.
You can re-enter the levels you've beaten, but the only way out ends up being the menu button. I suggest adding some sort of an outline/silhouette of the key when you re-enter a stage.
In the 3rd hub level, you can crush yourself with the rightmost platform after collecting the key. It will still count as if you've beaten the level, but the death will seemingly occur after you spawn in the hub, causing it to reload.
Good work so far! The graphics are wonderful. However, on 16:10 aspect ratio, specifically 1680:1050 resolution, I can see the button prompts even when they are supposed to be offscreen and the loading swipe doesn't cover the whole screen.
If there was one change I think needs to happen it would be to allow for player movement while aiming, it made trying to line up certain throws a little more cumbersome that it needed to be
Hey Mark! If you happen to read this, it'd be quite the opportunity for me, since it seems you need some audio! My degree as a game programmer is underway, but the best way I've been able to help my teams in college has been creating music and some sound effects. I've had my hands on Ableton Live for nearly three years now. If this is a project you want to work solo, I understand, but if it interests you, please reach out to me at afoulks2002@gmail.com
Enjoyed using the new character controller, The little guy feels more fun to use. The new throwing animation also complements this new fun and faster feeling the game has. On PC, I personally preferred changing the magnet's polarity using the RMB button as it felt weird to control both the character and the magnet using keys very close to each other. After a level is complete, you get spawned to the very beginning of the hub world. I feel that as the game gets bigger, it will be a very long distance to travel in order to get to the next level, it would be better to spawn outside the entrance of the level you just won.
When it comes to the levels, I like the newer rapid approach to solving puzzles as the 1.0 version felt quite sluggish. You would spend most of your time moving to get into position rather than testing multiple strategies. The difficulty was not easy but also not hard, it was right inbetween.
The tutorial section made me think that the level structure would involve collecting a key and then getting your magnet buddy back to the door but in the levels you just get the key and the level ends. I almost feel like it would tie the theme together if you had to exit the level with your magnet, otherwise it feels like letting Yoshi fall in a pit while you jump to the end of the level.
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Felt much better playing this version (2.0) in regards to control, character movement and progression. Well done!
My main issue was figuring out how to interact with the scenario at some moments, like figuring out at which point I should throw the magnet to interact with a button and change its polarity but accidentally throwing the magnet someplace unreacheable and having to restart the puzzle all over.
Really fun! The character controller is much better and whilst the art may not be final - the magnet and robot have a good amount of expressiveness. The simple act of throwing the magnet to unlock a door for a level is small but makes the game feel more based around the magnet, similar to how in mario odyssey you need the hat to just dispense moons into the ship.
The puzzle elements were great, especially the gate that is moved by the magnet.
I didn't notice any major cons or issues, i think the game plays and looks well and so long as there are fresh mechanics for more puzzles (and sound design) it could go on the market in a moments notice.
The initial tutorial section is well made and I think the idea of needing to throw the magnet into a pipe to unlock a door out the level could be good for other levels, since you would also have to account for retrieving the magnet. However this could complicate things and would require some small tests to see if its positive or negative for the puzzles.
Great demo, thank you Mark!
Nice short but (mostly) challenging puzzles! Here's one probably obvious thing I've noticed right away - because I wanted to solve the first level faster:
1) When you replay an already completed level there's no way to exit it aside from using the menu. Maybe add a greyed out key (like the stars in Mario 64) to ensure replayability of levels ;)
2) And the default key bindings for right (D) and switching polarity (F) get in the way when switching and moving to the right at the same time or successively.
Yeah point 1 was unexpected!
Overall a good start.
One of the things that I got hooked up on was in level-0/totoral I did not know how to get through the final door to the hub for some time. When I saw the pipe all I could think about was Mario and how you would need to go into it even with the other door there, so I kept trying to jump up to it. It would have been nice to have something to say that you need just the magnet to go up it.
Seeing as I'm probably the only person who played this game on a square monitor instead of widescreen like the game was designed for, I'll take it upon myself to tell you that the game is pretty bad in some places when you can't see the leftmost or rightmost parts of a level. Specifically level 2, the same as the fourth screenshot. I couldn't see the switch on the right or the screw on the left. I beat every level in the game before level 2, just cause I couldn't see what I was doing. The loading screen was rendered useless because I could see above and below it, so I could see the levels load in. My suggestion: make it so the view scales down so it is always within the width of the player's monitor (that would mean putting the black bars above and below the frame when it's fit to the monitor. I think you get what I mean.) That's how I solved the issue in my game. Or else give a semi-freecam mode, but I find that a bit overengineered for the problem.
On a positive note: I love everything you've done with this game, it feels so polished that it's fun even when I don't get the aha moment and just brute force things. The art is great, the character feels perfect, and the puzzles felt like puzzles I'd never played before. You have made a very quality game.
Oh and by the way, if you're getting a lot of feedback about the last level it's probably because those people, like me, didn't notice the block would be stopped by the switch. I happened upon it by accident, so making what is and isn't possible more obvious (in cases where most working memory is already taken, like in the last level) is probably the best way to go. Essentially, we stop taking in new minor details when our working memory is already full, so as not to fill it further. So clarity is key.
Resizeable window on OSX would be great! I was messing with the fullscreen buttons and got the game stuck in a sort of unplayable resolution.
That last level is a doozy, but overall i enjoyed my time with the game. best of luck!
Great game. Looks good, feels good to play. Nice and smart puzzles.
Two complaints, though. The sloped buttons are difficult to jump on because of that weird angle. I guess they are sloped so that the magnet would slide off once it had pressed the button, but that doesn't mean that the player character has to interact with the button in the same way.
You could make it so that the player character doesn't even collide with the button and they just have to drive over the button hitbox to trigger it. The game would flow much better like that. Of course if the player doesn't want to trigger the button, they can just jump over the hitbox. Easy peasy.
Also, you should be able to aim and throw the magnet while moving. The game would flow way better like that.
Cheers.
It controls really well, and the mechanics are awesome. My main complaint is when you figure out the solution to a puzzle, and accidentally miss a jump you have to re-do the whole thing again. This isn't much of a problem now but when the puzzles get harder and longer it could be very frustrating. Maybe add a baba is you style reverse, just not grid based.
There is one problem I found, that you can go back to previous levels, but you cannot get out without using the menu and that's a little bit weird
But it's a really fun game so far and I liked it
The Good
The Bad
Oooh, nice puzzles!
Main observations so far: I love the chunkiness of the animations - objects slowly start moving and then rush into place with an inaudible slam - but I do feel a bit frustrated at the start of levels having to wait for the magnet to arrive and pick it up (them up? what are the magnet's pronouns?) manually every time. I kind of wish that the magnet would fall into the robot's hands as the level swipes in so I could just go immediately upon resetting a level or returning to the hub. (Loved that in Celeste, where "start running instantly" was always a correct timing for timed puzzles.)
The feel of resetting a level is good, though - it's not instant but it's quick. Which I appreciate, because I had to do that a lot.
it has been a few hours and I have managed to break the game
but for a demo this is an amazing game controls are great puzzles are fun and accessiblity is great
my only complaint is that it is way too easy to softlock yourself
about the screenshot there is a bug in the game that lets you jump way higher than you are supposed to only using the magnet and please do not remove it completely it is decently hard to do and would be a neat trick in speedruns
love it, I started with the last level to challenge myself and found that some of the middle levels I struggled with a little more. definitely think the hub world that you settled on is a brilliant way of handling the approach to non-linear progression.
the puzzles definitely seem like they revolve around the magnet more than anything else with the platforming complementing it rather than overpowering it.
someone mentioned below that running into the rotating walls slowing you down being a bit of a flow-breaker. it could be cool if the magnetic ones pull you towards them and almost catapult you off. can't wait for the next update!
pros:
cons:
and that's it! this is a very fun game, and I can't wait to see what happens to it next.
I loved this demo! Here are a few things I noticed
Hello fellow dev, can see the spark of something promising. Here is my feedback, hope you take it in the spirit it's intended.
Entering and Re-entering Levels:
-Currently the player gets trapped should they re-enter a level after completion. While they can use the menu to exit, something like having a 'ghost key' as the end condition should be present so players may re-attempt should they desire. Additionally, It is my belief that players should never have to touch the in-game menu for anything unless they desire, so having an in-game way to exit to the HUB would be nice - such as the door lol. Intuitively I wanted to press up at a door to enter/exit, and use the pipe to unlock the gate, but the pipe was essentially the door and the door was purely visual.
HUB and HUB Feel:
-The game is a puzzle platformer, but the HUB is a flat hallway. All aspects of the game should provide some sort of gameplay, so the HUB is a great place for simple platforming. Players find enjoyment in just hoping around, so this would be a great place for players to cool off between puzzles with a playground of sorts. Expanding past this idea, the HUB additionally could be a puzzle itself, where players need to figure out how to unlock the gates to the levels. The pipe's could be the locks, and the player needs to figure out how to open the gates to attempt the levels in whichever order they choose.
-Level 7 is dramatically harder than the rest. If you are going to put in unrequired extra hard levels, I'd suggest marking it someway in the HUB (such as making the gate red), so players understand they are taking on a bigger challenge. Doing this helps players know that should they fail, the level was designed harder, rather than their intelligence wasn't on par.
-The finish line gate doesn't really make sense as designed. Visually, you use old timey keys in your tech facility, to open the final gate, but the individual keys are also needed to open each level? Maybe gate each level with something else (or not at all), and change the final gate to open with 'completion' powerlines streaming from the individual levels. Simply changing the key to a powered generator, and changing the Mario sewer pipes to a mail vacuum tube might help with the visual language that is trying to be communicated. Lastly on the topic of HUB art, it has parallax scrolling, so it looks like the gates are floating in place when you walk past them.
Gameplay and Gameplay Feel:
-Getting the clear condition felt abrupt in some levels, as it didn't feel like that should be just the end. I felt since it was a puzzle platformer, that I would have to get the clear condition, then platform back out of the level past the mess I made - proving I fully understood the central gimmick of the puzzle. This would allow more moments for the player to mess up in the homestretch creating those 'lmao I'm so dumb' moments that were unfortunately missing. Funny mistakes are almost required in a game that has a cute art style like this, as well as other ways to inject some levity.
-It wasn't immediately apparent that jump height differed whether or not you were holding the magnet. This made the character feel buggy until I realize it, and even still felt off knowing that detail. I can imagine some players not figuring out the variance in jump height thing, and putting the game down out of sheer bad control feel.
-One level had a metal box with a magnetism symbol on it. As most people associate metal and magnets already in their head, this redundancy actually made figuring out how the metal box worked more confusing, since it could be mistaken for a unique object to your game world with the additions.
-There were a few areas I got stuck in and couldn't platform out of, forcing me to restart the level. Restarts can feel like failures to players, so it's best your levels don't require them in instances. More testing for environment soft locks.
-Lastly, played on an Xbox controller, and the level restart was set to 'LB', but the symbol around 'LB' was round, not matching the shape of the controllers button. While obviously the most minor thing to point out, it's important to point out every minor thing, as game feel can be eroded by stacks of minor things like these that are written off as unimportant. Many AAA games leave very minor things in their games, and I believe this mentality has lead many devs to cut corners in quality in other aspects of their games. Your the teacher youtube guy, so want to help you continue to bonk out bad practices in the industry.
Overall, good work. Obviously there is still a long way to go before this is a complete game. For this to become something I'd pay money for, I'd personally want to see more personality, character, and humour baked into it. Currently, feels on the reserved end, and I'd encourage leaning into the weird once you're happy with the overall mechanics and whatever else you need to add for your videos. I never played the original, but stand alone it's got a solid framework form something good.
hey, Mr mark I broke your game. but it was kinda fun maybe more than solving the actual puzzle, maybe don't fix?
hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
hello it say the video is unlisted but I think we may have found the same bug
Tiny bit of screen jitter was the biggest outright issue I could see.
Moving while aiming makes sense but would make puzzle design potentially harder so maybe a slow down instead of a complete stop.
Something that I think would be nice would be a door entry animation, it was a bit odd watching my character run straight past the door before transitioning.
Key animation is difficult to notice, hidden by geometry/too fast a transition. Obviously an audio chime would be nice as well for some added satisfaction.
The level select has some layering errors i.e. the magnet being thrown underneath the key monitor.
I personally found the character to be a little stiff to play around with, they aren't fun in a vacuum (more of a platformer problem than a puzzler problem)
Mostly critical, but I enjoyed the demo! You're doing great and you're awesome also.
great place overall, enjoyed the puzzles and defiantly got the a ha moment on levels 4-6. One thing with game being both a puzzle and platform/speed game that could lend useful in future. For example say a levels initial impression leads you to believe it can be solved with problem/puzzle aspect when it actually requires more precision or speed. I had a bit of this on the 4 or 5 level. there were times the mix was confusing but if you can make it clear when what your doing isn't the correct way I'd argue it adds a lot to the game both puzzle wise and precision platform. Sometimes great ideas will constantly be in conflict with one another, but when blended correctly mix so well it becomes the stable of the game
Couple other ideas I had for mechanics that I thought of while playing that might be helpful
- A recall option to pull the magnet in whatever direction you are, not necessarily through walls but towards you until it hits a wall. could be something where magnet isn't in range but you can pull it/ reverse polarity a few times to get it to reach you. this you'd pry want to make a separate power up only available on certain levels
- a lateral magnetic field type with weaker pull then when polarity is right would either speed up your move or slow you down, allowing for some interesting puzzle ideas. You could also use this same type of field to be used to slingshot magnet
- not necessarily for these missions, but i could see if your going to speed-run/precision game allowing user to reverse polarity much quicker so they could say bounce from one electrical field to the next and avoid death rays or something
Coming from another programmer of 4 years (not video games, but more PLC and Controls) i think your doing a great job and well on your way towards a great game. Lots of great and helpful improvements over last iteration.
Hi Mark,
For me, the main issue is getting stuck in a level for a mistake I made and having to reset it via the reset button. Levels that are impossible to get stuck to seem more polished and taught out.
Another thing that kinda bugs me is the color of the magnets although I’m not color blind, my first thought is always to match the colors, like throw a blue magnet on blue stuff and a red magnet on the red stuff, although I know that is not how magnets work. So I thought that maybe changing the color of the magnetic field to the opposite color would be easier to catch what will interact with what.
The good stuff: I didn’t find any bugs so far Play movement feels good Magnet snapping on things feels amazing
I tested all levels and got succeeded in all but the last one, it felt much more difficult than the ones before but im also pretty dumb so that might be on me, i dont like the HUD, it takes away the flow of the game and feels like it stops you too often, maybe multiple puzzles in a row behind every door could help, the idea of throwing away the magnet for every door is interesting but i dont think its very intuitive that throwing a magnet in a pipe would open a door, the background and design quickly gets repetetive which is only worsened by the HUD, reloading the levels feels a bit clunky and slow, maybe assign each object a default state that it returns when you hit reset and just respawn the character (if thats possible in Unity), when you aim you can trigger buttons with the magnet because of how the character moves the magnet up and down while aiming, maybe deactivate the magnets hitbox while aiming, on the last level i got the magnet stuck between the big - crate and the + magnet while it was active and then when i turned the magnet to -, it started weirdly virbrating, not a big issue right now but that could maybe lead to bugs in other puzzles
overall very positiive experience, i hope i could help
Overall, the movement and mechanics here are solid (especially with configurable controls), but I found myself noticing problems with the levels themselves. As a puzzle designer myself, I hope to be able to communicate how I think about progression in puzzle games and why something felt a bit off about the levels.
First of all, quality of life is something that can and should be baked into the levels themselves. That means making it easy to execute not just the solution, but also any experimentation that takes place first. Most of these levels do this well, but I still feel like it's important to remember going forward. Level 3 in particular I wish was a little smaller, and had a "catch" in the ceiling so that the rising block wouldn't squish you.
Also, being able to replay previous levels is more important for puzzle games than other genres, because you might want to process what just happened and learn from it. I would say that, in this demo, backtracking is possible but discouraged. The levels are indistinguishable from the hub, and a completed level will be missing its key entirely. These have easy fixes though, like making the (strangely hidden) level names visible from the hub, and leaving a grayed-out or dotted-line key in finished levels.
Being able to learn brings me to my last point; while the levels have a progression of difficulty, they don't have a clean progression of knowledge. Having unique eurekas is fine, but when none of the ideas are built upon and everything is different, there is no sense of learning how to solve the game's puzzles. This leaves them feeling disconnected, and effectively, having the same difficulty for a new player, who goes in knowing none of the ideas used for solutions. Going further, when you reach a puzzle that requires you to consider the consequences of a fundamental mechanic, such as solid objects being stopped by other solid objects, the player should already be familiar with that mechanic. However, I found myself discovering and applying a mechanic in the same level, to the point where the puzzles could be considered "unfair." Don't get me wrong, figuring out new mechanics is enjoyable, but most levels turned into poking and prodding, trial and error, instead of logical thinking and planning ahead.
On the other hand, I feel that a few of the levels just aren't good teachers. Level 2 can be solved accidentally, risking a player missing the finer points (the magnet dropping from the rotating door, and the magnet being able to fall through platforms). Level 4 is simply unclear; I found two different solutions, and I'm not sure if either of them are intended, nor did they teach me useful techniques or ways of reasoning about the game elements. "Cheese," as unintended solutions are known, are fine when they are much harder to find than the "real" solution (making for some interesting speedruns), but cheese can undermine a puzzle and its lessons when it is a lower mental hurdle than the intended solution.
While I have pointed out a lot of design decisions that you might consider changing, there is still a lot to like, and I would encourage you to keep building on what you've learned about game design. Level 5 was probably my favorite, being a pure puzzle with a non-obvious solution, and the movement feels great, making a great environment for poking around the puzzles (although throwing the magnet might need a touch-up, I didn't realize that the mouse controlled throw direction at all). Still, I encourage you to find a way of thinking about how players approach puzzles, even if it doesn't match my own puzzle design philosophy outlined above, because player knowledge becomes more important as you add more complex levels.
If you hold down 'F', it seems to register both down and release as valid. So the polarity changes back.
At least, it does for me.
Hey, can you please add a Linux export as well? I would love to try it out but I can't... Thanks :)
You can also make a windows virtual machine
Yes, we could do that, but on weak/old computers it would lag a lot
Yeah that would be nice
overall great demo! it was fun, and definitely provided a few of those "aha" moments that are so necessary for a puzzle game to work. a few comments, firstly on mechanics, and secondly on the controls themselves.
let's start with a positive: the base player movement felt really nice. moving around and jumping was responsive and snappy. it wasn't hard to put the little robot where I wanted it to be.
now, a negative: the green switches. not the buttons, specifically the switches, were a little annoying. it seemed kind of weird that they would switch as soon as you were near the middle, instead of waiting for you to be on the high side. another issue I had with the switches is that after switching it, you had to go completely off the switch and back on it again to get it to switch a second time, hence the picture below.
speaking of unintuitive: magnet aiming. not being able to move while aiming was, in a word- frustrating. it felt like it added some unnecessary clunkiness to the game. if the movement is being locked specifically because of the fact that controllers are supported, I'd suggest binding jumping and holding the magnet to the triggers up top, while allowing for movement with the left joystick as regular, and allowing for aiming on the right joystick by default.
and now that we're on the topic of controllers, I tried out an Xbox 360 controller with the game and aiming was impossible. however, this seems more like a hardware issue than something that can be dealt with in the programming as far as I can tell.
every game has its bugs. the reoccurring one for me was the physics system causing the player/magnet to get stuck in weird ways, like one time I got stuck below a platform because the magnet got wedged up top while I was holding it. I got out easily by dropping the magnet, but a measure being in place to prevent that may be nice. one time the magnet got wedged between a moving platform and a regular one after throwing it, causing the player to be stuck on one side of the moving platform.
overall, I liked it. I don't mean to come off sounding very negative as I understand that programming is difficult work, I simply wanted to point out the things that made the experience less enjoyable for me personally. I've really been enjoying following the progress of this game on YouTube. it's given me motivation to work on some projects of my own.
to anyone who is developing a game: keep up the good work! you got this.
that's all for me! :D
this seems relatively bug free..... other than the screen size issue(which is more lacking a feature than having a bug)(just in case - my monitor is not big enough to have however large the game screen is fit. it is not resizable. I am using a 2016 macbook air. It resizes in fullscreen but doesn't resize in window form)
also the puzzles can be harder
also The last thank you tunnel was such a troll!!!!!! I watched the video before playing and I was expecting a super hard level instead of a thank you screen. you know the boss monster of puzzles.(ps you can ramp up the difficulty a bit)(don't consider the ramping up part too seriously, I dont game a lot and I spend a lot of time solving algorithmic problems so my view is a lot biased)
Hi, I really like both the game and the devlog and would like to give feedback.
I was wondering if you could add a setting for the player to manually change the controller button promts (as in change "a" for xbox/switch to "X" for playstation) like in Outer Wilds. I have a playstation controller that acts as an xbox controller to work on pc (I read that alot of people have similar controllers) and when there's a game that automatically detects controller type, I get xbox button promps. Not necessary, but a nice quality of life feature to add.
Other than that i really like the game and cant wait for v3.
I don't think this is how you're supposed to do it but you can throw the magnet through the little hole when the big block in the middle is up
As for feedback on the game, the general concept and feel of the game is great, the puzzles have a lot of potential and are generally executed well.
However there are multiple levels where it is easy to get stuck, in the level above alone I've had moments where I've fallen of while the door is as you see in the picture which means a reset, I fell in the hole the box is in, a reset, I've lost my magnet next to the switch and fallen down, another reset.
A possible solution to this is making the player able to call the magnet to them, though this might not work well or require to much redesigning.
Another solution is to simply make it harder to get to areas without the magnet if you're supposed to have it with you, though I'm not sure on how you'd implement that.
I also found a super cool bug that im calling a "super jump", basically if you have the magnet near your feet (wheel?) and catch it and throw it really fast (im spamming the mouse click) you can get a lot of height by pressing the space bar. I managed to clip through the otherwise-unreachable platform.
Pretty cool glitch im gonna esperiment a bit with it and see if there is some possible speedrun skip or its just fun. :)
Edit: it appears to give also a small chunk of diagonal velocity so the level 3 can be complitely cheesed
Edit2: level i lost count can also be skipped, it might be possible to do a high jump at the start and complete it FAST but i couldn't do it. I did a super jump trying to carry the magnet up the second platform (which is super hard to also carry the magnet) and the magnet is required for a second super jump to go higher than the iron block and reach the key.
I will try to provvide more information about this bug as time goes on. And im gonna make a full glitched walkthrou.
Nice! You can do it while moving with the magnet too!
Super Jump is executed by dropping the magnet downwards and instantly jumping (hold the jump).
To do it while moving you just want to quickly do:
(Down-forward + Throw) -> Jump
Here's it in action:
Just loved it, II can''t believe how fluid it feels in my Macbook Pro running Windows. The great performance allows a great control using my game pad. I look forward for the harder puzzles and the music. I sense that solving puzzles has a lot of intrinsic value which is cool so no need for extrinsic rewards, wouldn't mind if there are some in the future though XD
I would love to see a bit more of variety in the future if the game gets to be very long but as a short aesthetic experience it's absolutely amazing. Can't wait for the full final version and would also love to see how you did such great optimisation and implementation.
It was fun playing this demo, but the last level i solved the whole level without even pressing the green button under the "+" cube
And There was some glitches like :
if you hold down the restart key at the hub level, the restart arrow thing will get bigger and bigger forever.
And in the fourth level "lift up", the thing that kill the magnet, if you jumped at the very side of it while holding the throw key pointing at the left side, it won't kill the magnet and you can throw the magnet to the other side.
And the tutorial, idk if you did it on purpose but the key you take at the tutorial will stay with you the after you finish the tutorial, cuz of that key you don't have to play all level, you olny need to play 5 levels and and you will have 6 keys.
Also if you pressed the "Esc" at the tutorial level, you can skip the tutorial by pressing "return to Hub", you can also "restart" idk who would you restart the level in the tutorial
But it was a great experience, i hoped that the thing that kills the magnet was used more, and also the demo is very short i finish it in like 10-20 mins
i would like to walk while aiming
Hi!
Good work so far! The graphics are wonderful. However, on 16:10 aspect ratio, specifically 1680:1050 resolution, I can see the button prompts even when they are supposed to be offscreen and the loading swipe doesn't cover the whole screen.
If there was one change I think needs to happen it would be to allow for player movement while aiming, it made trying to line up certain throws a little more cumbersome that it needed to be
Hey Mark! If you happen to read this, it'd be quite the opportunity for me, since it seems you need some audio! My degree as a game programmer is underway, but the best way I've been able to help my teams in college has been creating music and some sound effects. I've had my hands on Ableton Live for nearly three years now. If this is a project you want to work solo, I understand, but if it interests you, please reach out to me at afoulks2002@gmail.com
Enjoyed using the new character controller, The little guy feels more fun to use. The new throwing animation also complements this new fun and faster feeling the game has. On PC, I personally preferred changing the magnet's polarity using the RMB button as it felt weird to control both the character and the magnet using keys very close to each other. After a level is complete, you get spawned to the very beginning of the hub world. I feel that as the game gets bigger, it will be a very long distance to travel in order to get to the next level, it would be better to spawn outside the entrance of the level you just won.
When it comes to the levels, I like the newer rapid approach to solving puzzles as the 1.0 version felt quite sluggish. You would spend most of your time moving to get into position rather than testing multiple strategies. The difficulty was not easy but also not hard, it was right inbetween.
The tutorial section made me think that the level structure would involve collecting a key and then getting your magnet buddy back to the door but in the levels you just get the key and the level ends. I almost feel like it would tie the theme together if you had to exit the level with your magnet, otherwise it feels like letting Yoshi fall in a pit while you jump to the end of the level.