Hello Mark great content, and from one game dev to another solid concept for this game.
I've found a few bugs, firstly I should mention that, I exclusively run Manjaro KDE linux these days, so the fact that it runs out of the box with wine, it's very neat. As for the bugs I'm speaking of the windows binary of the game on linux though wine.
Bugs:
- The menus buttons don't have text, and the key count isn't displayed either; font is blank or non-existent this is likely a linux issue not having the font so it doesn't render
- When changing the magnet polarity whilest holding it it's sprite does NOT update to reflect being held
- If the game ever loses focus, it needs to be restarted
- Progress isn't saved, this may be simply because it's a demo, and can lose focus on other platforms, interestingly full screen vs windowed saves, but the menu doesn't update to reflect the current status it simply displays the default
- Incorrect controller prompts displayed
My solutions:
- Nothing really you haven't supported the game on linux, although unity does allow for building a linux binary, I'm guessing that there was a different issue with building it, like not having a linux testing environment
- Ok bear in mind it's been quite a while since I've worked with Unity, when you change polarity/being held/not being held, invoke an event, and in the handler for said event, use either bit masking into lookup table or finite state machine to select the correct sprite, or if the state that controls what sprite should be shown is simple enough, an if else block/chain can work just fine
- I'm guessing this is due to running the game though wine on linux
- Implement serialization/loading even for demo releases, load the menu text based on the state of the window, instead of only displaying the default
- Create a setting switches between what controller prompt is displayed when a controller prompt is being displayed
Less technical feedback, the last level is quite antithetical to good puzzle game design, by the end of the level, I wasn't left feeling smart, something applauded by GTMK's own Mark Brown in the video he made "What Makes a Good Puzzle", in the same video, he also goes on to talk about a puzzle in the Talos principle quote: "The puzzle is incredibly simple once you know the - answer and it's effortless to execute the solution, which is always a plus in my book." Yes I am quoting you to you. In direct contrast to effortless execution the act of standing in one very particular spot, ensuring that the magnet has the correct polarity, aiming said magnet then tossing it in to a magnetic field with an exponential attraction affect, and changing the polarity at the exact moment to get it to land onto a toggle switch, then dashing in the complete opposite direction jumping over a gap, attempting to not get squished, to finally get to the collectable halfway across the room. Took me more time to execute than completing every other puzzle in the demo combined, and this is after I figured out the solution, mind you I originally discounted the idea that such a difficult process would be the answer, as I'm well aware on your stance on difficult execution of puzzles, in fact the process reminded me more of Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw's explanation of why keyboard and mouse, is better for Doom 2016; quote: "Relatedly this is definitely a game that benefits from having the mouse and keyboard rather than the controller, because the controller's best suited to wheeling yourself around an arena like a runaway dessert trolley on a chest high wall safari, not so much for simultaneously jumping one way, looking in another, grabbing a ledge, shooting a dude and tying up your shoelaces." For reference I was using a PS4 controller <small-rant-on-controllers> (not that I have a PS4(or any other console), I got the controller separately because I knew it would work on PC) at the time, I thought PC(master race) + mouse & keyboard + controller, this line of reasoning has held up well in my experience. <small-rant-on-controllers/> Now while using the rather unorthodox setup of running "Untitled Magnet Game" on Manjaro linux using wine, with a PS4 controller works well, the button prompts however displayed the xbox button icons, even though in the GTMK video asking me, and you the reader of this post, to try out this game has the PS prompts displayed in it, and the xbox prompts do properly render even with this rather odd setup. The solution I would use would be take the same route that Shadow of War took, sadly not also Shadow of Mordor, and put in the settings which prompts the user would like to be shown, this is also nice because someone might have a different controller than their preferred prompts, I did look in the settings, and try out a couple of things, but you can only get so far with blank white rectangles. For clarity this is more a what could be improved post I do like the concept, and 5/6 of the puzzles, although I found it sad to be apart from the magnet at the end of some of the puzzles, especially in one where I could get back to the magnet, but am unable to because of the scene change. To this end I have an idea allow the robot to recall the magnet, but only about as frequently as the teleport crystals work in SAO abridged, obviously there would need to be an indicator as to when the magnet could be recalled this could either work through teleportation, or perhaps the robot could magnetically pull the magnet to itself, and the limit on the recall ability's use could be location based, charge based, toggle switch based like how in quantum conundrum, you must first slot IDS batteries into their slots in order to be able to toggle betwixt that and other dimensions, or it could function as a combination of multiple of these elements.
I wasn't expecting to write an essay today, hopefully it reads ok, I didn't give it the same treatment as a school paper essay, 2 weeks draft reviews, and prof reading, and all that.
Summary good job Mark, keep up the good work!
For anyone interested my website, it's long overdue for a big update ik.