Mark's Month - June 2024 (Patreon)

Hello! Welcome back to Mark's Month - my monthly newsletter on me and my work. This a month all about magnets and teeth. So lemme get into it...

What I Made Last Month

Uh... nothing! Oops, sorry about that. I've been so focused on game development that I didn't get around to making a video.

I did, however, release a demo! For a video game! Woah! Valve held its latest "Next Fest" in June, which is a digital festival for upcoming indie games. Anyone can submit their demo to show up in the festival - so I thought this would be a good time to properly introduce the world to Mind Over Magnet.

In the last newsletter I talked about how I repeatedly failed to get the demo past Valve's testers. Thankfully I managed to get the demo approved just in time for Next Fest to begin.

I then loaded the Next Fest page and scrolled... and scrolled... and scrolled... until I finally found Mind Over Magnet. Yikes - there was a lot of competition! Over 1,800 games were in the Next Fest, with the most populated category being puzzle games. So it was tough for my little game to stand out. But it was there, I promise.

And, in fact, plenty of people found it. The game was played by 9,640 people during Next Fest, and 3,961 of them added the game to their wishlist - a 41% conversion rate, which is pretty good going I'd say.

I also got a tonne of feedback. I haven't gone through the in-depth feedback in detail yet, but the broad strokes were positive. With the main negative things - the demo is very short, and the puzzles are very easy - being things that I think will naturally be solved by the final game. It will certainly be longer, and the puzzles do get harder.

So I think Next Fest was really worth it, despite the intense competition. Because not only did I get downloads, wishlists, and feedback, but it kinda acted like a mini release. A preview of what it will be like to launch the game properly. And I can use everything I learned here to make the actual release go more smoothly.

Speaking of... that day is coming. This month I decided to cut the scope of the game and focus on getting the game shipped. And so with some sharp edits to the plan, and a lot of hard work, I was able to make a version of Mind Over Magnet that you can play from beginning to end. From the intro cutscene to the end credits. All the worlds, puzzles, and cutscenes.

And I have to say: this was a huge motivational boost. The game is now done!

Well - not quite. I still need to do lots of bug-testing, playtesting, polishing, and fixing. And I may wish to add in a few more puzzles down the line. But it feels very different to have a finished thing that I can now hew and polish to "perfection", rather than endlessly working on a hazy, unfinished project with no end in sight.

So while it was a little tough to cut some content (though, every dev I've talked to has assured me that this is part of every project - there's always stuff left on the cutting room floor!) - that feeling is massively outweighed by the excitement of getting the game to a finished state.

What I'm Working On

So that leads me into July - and I'll be doing exactly what I just said. Bug-testing, playtesting, polishing, and fixing.

Though I'll start the month with a new episode of Developing. I want to talk about the experience of entering the Steam Next Fest, and also my whole experience of working with contractors. It's been a very new and interesting experience to hire a composer and an (promotional) artist for the game. So I look forward to talking about finding people, writing contracts, giving feedback on drafts, and paying out big stacks of cash!

I'm also going to be at Develop. Anyone on the Patreon gonna be there? If you see me walking by please do grab me and say hi! I'm just going down for Tuesday and Wednesday and will be mainly hanging out with friends and fellow developers.

I'll also try to get a GMTK Mini or a Weekender out at some point - while I'm super focused on game dev at the moment I must be careful not to forsake my main YouTube audience...

What I've Been Upto

May was a stacked month for games... but I hardly played anything in June. In fact, all the stuff I'm interested in came out at the very end of the month and I haven't got around to checking them out yet - including remakes of Riven and Luigi's Mansion 2.

I actually spent more time this month playing old games. I've been enjoying collecting ancient PC games so decided it was time to actually play some of them, instead of just putting them on a shelf! Above are some recent pick-ups - ironically I found the original Riven just before the remake came out.

So I'm currently playing The Longest Journey - a point and click adventure from 1999. I loved Dreamfall (the sequel to TLJ) but I had never played the original game - so it's been good to right that wrong. It's a very imaginative game that blends a near-future world and a fantasy realm into one wild story.

But to be honest, June was mostly overshadowed by a nasty dental operation. I had a wisdom tooth removed. This is usually not a particularly big operation (and I was so sedated during it that I have literally no memory of it being taken out), but I ended up with a nasty thing called "dry socket" which led to a week of near constant pain afterwards.

It's hard to concentrate on much when your face is throbbing all the time. Luckily it's finally abating and so I can turn my attention to other things...

Thanks for checking in. Speak soon.

Mark