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Untitled Magnet Game V2.0 - Now available to Patrons! (Patreon)

Published:
2022-05-16 12:09:01
Imported:
2026-06

Content

Hello!

I'm currently working on a new episode of Developing, in which I announce that I've finished another playable demo of my work-in progress magnet game.

Following the feedback from the first minimum viable product, I have overhauled the character controller, focused the game on puzzles, built six brand-new puzzles with much better design, added full keyboard and mouse support, added remapping, and more. 

As Patrons, you always get stuff early. So please check out the game on itch.io using the password gmtkdeveloping2022

Please note that the game has no audio (sound design continues to be a future mark problem!), and many parts are placeholder (the UI, the hub level, etc). The game works on PC and Mac, and will work with PS4/5, Xbox, and Switch controllers, as well as mouse and keyboard.

Any and all feedback would be appreciated! Thanks for your continued support while I work on this project - it's been so enjoyable, and a hugely eye-opening experience. 

Mark

Files

Comments

Lucas Wilke

Feels really good to play. Some things I have noticed: - the shortcuts are all shown as questionmark. Assuming this is WIP, then it would be nice if the buttons in the top left corner are clickable. Was stuck and didn't know how to restart - The magnetic doors are really cool, but the "attraction indicator" is wrongly color coded. Minus is red and plus is blue, which should be inverted to clearly communicate what color/sign is attracted - The magnet is cute, but the sign is too small in my opinion. Color works nicely, but I think the shape should have a stronger difference in silhouette to make it easier to understand at a glance. Maybe the entire magnet can just be the plus/minus. Or make them more distinct in another way - when the magnet is dropped there's no strong constract against the environment, making it sometimes a bit harder to find. The background could possibly be desaturated, or the magnet could be bigger or have a particle effect/hover movement - once I finish a mission and get the key, the door is closed and the screen at the top is off. But the "interaction beam" at the top is still on, which is confusing to me. Maybe turn it off, unless there is a good reason to replay the level? Otherwise really great progress, it's fun! :)

Gianna J

Much better than V1 This is fun to play and you want to keep playing. The only issue I noticed was that the keyboard button prompts weren't working; the font in the settings also seemed to be incorrectly scaled up - are you using an SDF?

ZoidbergForPresident

Nice and fun little game! A couple remarks: - I was sure there was already sounds in this, but it doesn't apparently? - I was a bit lost at first when I got the key that suddenly vanishes... took some time to throw the magnet into the pipe, maybe use something else than a pipe? Like a magnetic thing that is connected to the doors? Also apparent locks when you don't have enough key, or an animation where the door budges but don't unlock? Something like that? Cool project, khudos!

Matt Roe

Loved this! Here are my only bits of feedback I could think of: The character feels *so* much nicer than before, but there's something that feels sticky about the polarity change. It feels like there's a short delay, or that I can't just tap the button. It took me a little bit to realise in the first puzzle room that the magnet can travel through the vertical platform. I don't think I absorbed that lesson properly in the tutorial room. Most of the puzzles were really satisfying, except for maybe the 5th puzzle room with the two drill bits under the electromagnet. I think that one felt like it solved itself after you hit the rightmost switch and realise you just have to hit the other one first. I also think the main challenge with that room was it not being clear that the portable magnet would even be attracted to the electromagnet from the top drill bit as the attraction effect is so faint at the bottom there. Perhaps the attraction effect could be a bit more binary? I also forgot to take the magnet with me in the hub room once and the walk of shame back didn't feel very nice. I really, really enjoyed playing through this demo. I look forward to playing the full thing one day. Also the little magnets are cute as hell, love their expressions.

Michael Feldman

I actually quite enjoyed the puzzle in the 5th room! Figuring out to hit the drills in the opposite order was quite the 'aha' moment for me... Maybe I'm just not as used to puzzle games...

Matt Roe

Oh good! Don't mind me then. Thanks for providing feedback on my feedback 😁

Myles Dobson

Loved: - New magnet door mechanic, it's great - The lock and key system - The final level actually had me stumped for a while, really great puzzle and definitely got my aha moment Needs work: - The character feels great, but his jump height makes him feel heavier than he looks, might be because of the scale of the levels. Perhaps a character redesign to make him beefier, or giving him a little more speed and jump height? - The showing + and - on the magnet for accessibility was turned on by default, and it made me think it was tacked on. - As someone else said, the polarity switching feels sluggish. I tried to polarity switch the magnet across the room on the last level, and while that didn't work, I feel like it's a missed opportunity - Also like someone else said, I forgot that you could walk through the gray gates without a magnet. For this reason, I don't think a tutorial is necessary. I think you could easily have simple puzzles at the beginning that teach those concepts, then build up to it (ala Portal) rather than giving the initial rules and then 3 puzzles later expect a player to remember, didn't feel like an 'aha' more like an 'oh, i'm dumb' moment

Edo Amit

Hey and Ahoy! Loved: - The new door mechanic is really neat. - The One Screen Design still works well. - The Character is far more interesting to control. - Obviously, you've landed on a masterpiece with the Menu Design. Needs Improvement: - I feel the levels themselves are good as starter levels, but I fear they haven't made me rethink my approach, aka I feel they lacked the Urika moment. i cant really recommend a lot of ways to improve it, - Im not sure I love the Hub world, maybe it can work better when a story is added eventually but currently, I felt I hadn't progressed from level to level. I think you have a choice here, either go Snakebird where the game is mostly storyless and every level is completely independent or you go the celeste route where everything leads into everything else and the game has a clearer flow from level to level.

Randall Bruder

If "the game works on PC and Mac" can you provide the Mac download too, and not just the PC one?

Zeal Wierslee

Hey, love seeing the progress! Some feedback... (note that I have not played the original version) The Windows build works on Linux, at least for me. I had to use proton 4.11-13. I tried proton 7.0-2 and vanilla wine and neither worked. However, there was no audio of any kind! No sound effects, no music, nada! I'm curious if these issues would go away if you used unity to build a linux version, but I'd be happy with a windows build working in proton too. In the first puzzle room after getting to the hub, I was pretty surprised when it faded out and warps you back to the hub. It'd be cool if there was an animation that telegraphed that. It'd be nice if you could hide the cursor when using a controller and only sdisplay it when it's been moved recently. It's a bit distracting to have it loitering around in precious screen-space. The green switches do not look like rocker switches to me (I think that's what they're intended to be). I.e. I didn't realize that you could toggle them for quite a while, since visually they don't look like a toggle switch. Maybe you could replace these with something that looks more toggle-able? like a 2-way lever? or traditional light-switch? The puzzles designs are awesome, and I can't wait to see more of them. I did really get the feeling of "Aha!" when I solved the 4th, 5th and 6th puzzle rooms.

YBdesigning

Mark, good job! Here is a quick list of my observations: Used Fun: - Pull Doors are awesome! For me, they already are one of the main characters of the game. They are juicy, they are fun! - Everything about a character! He feels fun and alive! - The levels are easy but with interesting ideas, and, yeap, I've felt those precious "aha!" moments. Unused Fun: - Throwing the magnet through the magnet field and correcting the trajectory by using different polarities (like in Angry Birds Star Wars). It could use not only understanding of the level but also execution and/or precision. - End of the levels could be like doors with requirements (bring a key and a magnet). Needs improvement: - Green switches. Their slope shape makes me feel like I or the magnet would slide on it. I feel like it is unneeded attention. - In-game control tips "Restart" and "Polarity Switch" need to be separated. Because the restart is a system action, and the "Polarity Switch" is related directly to the character. (Also in this case aim button might be shown too). (Also-also if they are control tips their sizes can be smaller, but if "Polarity Switch" shows the player magnet's polarity, it should stay this size. - Goal in Tutorial Level was to access the door, but in other levels, it is to access only the key. - The anti-magnet field looks strange for now. Bugs: - When throwing near the door, the aim is behind the door and its sign.

Bryan Gillis

Character and movement: - Movement feels much better now - Jump feels a bit heavy. Need to hold jump the full ascent to reach maximum height, which might be why it feels heavy - It's possible to get stuck if you hold a magnet, walk under a low ceiling (e.g. just to the left of the start of the first stage), then turn around and try to walk the other way while the magnet is dragging behind you. It's realistic, but a bit annoying in a game Puzzles: - First puzzle is a nice introduction - Puzzle 6: It seems odd that the magnet doesn't stick to the big block at the bottom, except when the switch is pressed to turn the magnet above it on - Couldn't figure out puzzle 6 in the ends. I felt like I had a lot of leads, but nothing came together to work Misc: - Nice touch to have icons for all possible keys

Clay R.

Hi Mark, wonderful work! I played on a controller and thought the character felt great to control. Very responsive. If I had to ask for anything, I might prefer a slightly faster movement speed. Spoilers and small feedback for the final puzzle: Having the tip of the magnetic door function as a ceiling/wall to prevent the negative polarity block from rising made sense in hindsight, but felt "accidental" at the time by virtue of it only being that small part sticking out into the path. Perhaps some kind of switch that extends a longer blocking "arm" might be more clear to the player that this is an intentional mechanic. Edit: thinking about this for another minute - you've already taught the player how the drill bits are retractable walls in earlier puzzles. Could be an opportunity to iterate on that idea by now letting the player extend one to solve a puzzle.

Brian Bitner

Excellent work as always! The overall mechanics feel really great. Here are some small things I noticed: - The very first L-shaped wouldn't re-open to the left if I turned immediately after going through it. I'd have to move away and move back to make it work (this is the only non-magnetized door in this demo, so it didn't really matter). - Similarly, at least one wedge switch wouldn't trigger when I walked (not jumped) from the right side to the left side, but it would if I walked from left to right. Again, not a big deal, but just one of those slight inconsistencies. - My only big-ish note is that a few of the puzzles had one or more dead ends, where the only thing to do was restart. I don't think that's inherently a bad thing, but it doesn't feel great when there are multiple/easy ways to get stuck. Usually, these things are fixed by just having steps/ledges/etc. available to get out of a hole or over a gap, so it's an easy fix. Just maybe something to watch out for as you design more puzzles going forward. Thanks for letting us participate in this! It's been a blast!

Rex Saron

Hey Mark, Excellent work as always! The control is well fluid and responsive this time, here's two feedback suggestions: - The obscure stripes in the first level is still not logical, the player can move across the stripe when placed horizontally, and cannot when vertical. It's fine after knowing this rule and acceptible in this demo version, but I think there is a simple solution to this issue: just change the stripe to a lazer beam, but this time from downwards - in the previous version you have introduced the laser from above which the robotcan pass holding a magnet, and in this level's case you can create a laser from below, which let pass only thrown magnet but not roboty (even when hold a magnet). This aesthetic change could be a better presentation to player, avoid confusions :) - And I wanna talk about the last level, just, use a magnet to protect the botton. For sure, it gave me such an aha moment when I first solved it, the feeling is more than great! But I still think that its better to introduce the concept of magnet solid in the tutorial, just like earlier version you can stand on the magnet. Cuz this rule is not presented in other parts of the game, so I think presenting in the tut section can make this last solution more referrable in some way (atst, avoid breaking the aha moment). Anyway, fairly amazing demo, appreciate your nice work aha ;D

Tara Kay

Random thought I had while playing this version, you mentioned at one point that you think the magnet should be a Cappy or FLUDD style character to emphasise the importance of the magnet as a mechanic. So when I saw the magnet character in this version with their distinct smiley face, but being so small on the screen, I had the immediate visual in my head of something reminiscent of the original Doom that has an icon in the bottom of the screen showing Doomguy's current facial expression. So in my head, the magnet character has a HUD overlay at the bottom right or centre of the screen showing their current polarity and colour, and different looping expression animations based on things like, whether they were currently being carried, whether they were current experience a pull. The idea of the magnet being a character is fun but the face even on my big screen was very small. Also in my imagination this HUD element occasionally has dialogue, and can be prompted to give hints if you click on his face, or a hint button on the controller if not using a mouse.