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!!