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Untitled Magnet Game Demo - V1.2 Released! (Patreon)

Published:
2022-01-29 11:24:28
Imported:
2022-01

Content

Hello!

First things first - thank you to everyone who has taken the time to play the demo for Untitled Magnet Game. I really appreciate all the feedback, videos, and comments - positive and negative! 

If you haven't seen it yet, you can get access with your Patreon account, here.

Now, I didn't plan to update this MVP. Most of the levels and code will be scrapped going forward, so it's not exactly worth patching up. However, I was sad to see a number of bugs, errors, and annoyances that made it possible to finish many of the levels in... unintended ways.

And I think that's fine! Skips and speedrun tech are cool. As long as... the unintended way is far harder/weirder/obscure-er than the main solution, so it doesn't distract people from the real puzzle.

That's not what's happening here for about 90% of the skips! And that's making the playtest footage I'm getting a little... less useful. People are skipping the actual puzzles, and having a bad time because the "solutions" they find are messy, fiddly, and uninteresting.

So to ensure more useful feedback going forward, I've issued an update that addresses some of the most egregious problems that people have found.

I've also improved the keyboard controls. Keyboard is still not well supported - that's a future problem! - but it is now at least semi-comfortable to play through the game. The controls are as follows:

  • Move with WASD or arrows.
  • Jump with space.
  • K to pick-up/put-down/throw the magnet. 
  • Hold shift to enter aim mode.
  • Aim with WASD. You can also use Q and E for additional directions.

If you've already played through version 1.0 it's entirely up to you if you'd like to play through again. But if you're new, this is the build to play!

Thanks, speak soon

Mark


Comments

Anonymous

I get all of it but for god's sake - why K?!

Anonymous
>>76704523

I'm guessing that with WASD your left hand is resting one key over from the 'home' key of 'F' - so by using 'K' you're creating a mirrored situation where your right-hand is resting one key over from the home key of 'J' - and you can use your right-pinky to shift if you wanna? Just spitballing, though!

Anonymous

This build was much better! Making the screws move at different speeds gave me the "ah-ha" moment I needed to make it through that level.

ZoidbergForPresident

Whoops: https://ibb.co/Tkn1cLt By the way if you find an easy way to make a rebind screen, that'd be great. :P

Anonymous

I guess this level is prone to exploits : https://youtu.be/wz5YhCoSi-c?t=44

Anonymous

Great reactivity, thanks Mark! I'm glad I didn't play the previous version yet (although I almost did), seems like a good timing 👍

Anonymous

Had my 4yo play through the first few puzzles to get his impressions: https://youtu.be/E42Ar7eqHzk

Anonymous

Thank you!!! This is brilliant!

Anonymous

i'd make everything a lot faster. if you take any vlambeer game (or, say, elechead) the movement is fast, immediate and snappy. here i feel like i'm fighting the controls. like i'm pushing against too much weight.

Anonymous

Graphics and audio are great! Player movement could stand to be a bit faster I think - I also find it a bit annoying how much the player's horizontal velocity is cut when you land. I'm stuck on an early level as I can't figure out how to throw the magnet - I can hold shift and adjust the dotted-line trajectory just fine, but then when I press K to throw it, the magnet just drops straight down rather than being thrown along the trajectory. This happens regardless of whether I press K while still holding Shift or after releasing it. End of level could stand to have a smoother transition - it feels pretty abrupt how the screen just immediately goes black.

Anonymous

Great stuff here, Mark. Just finished it with my gf and we had a great time. Other have said it, but just to reinforce: The controls felt kinda sluggish, the robot feels like container to move around. I think the game itself needs more sense of speed. A lot of times I was just waiting to stuff to happen rather than actually experimenting to crack the puzzle. But overall, congratz! You have some truly amazing here.

Anonymous

Just finished the new version with keyboard and it was funnier than before. Still a lot room for improvement, but the foundations for a creative and compelling story are there. Nice job!! I answered the google form from the last post to give you my feedback. Thanks for sharing the process <3

Anonymous

Hey Mark ! I've been playing on a Mac keyboard and am unfortunately stuck on this level ! https://ibb.co/1LM8Spg The controls of the aim mode don't allow me to aim with precision, I am left with only three directions to aim at : vertically, diagonally (the angle is pretty low, or anyway too low to aim at the button and the weighT gain when you're carrying the magnet makes it even lower) and straight ahead. I've been enjoying the levels I played up to this one, I think you added some game feel elements that work great, from sound effects to lighting and the character is extremely likeable ; I have to agree with previous playtesters that the overall game feels too slow and the robot too 'heavy' on the ground vs. too floaty when jumping - I think it has to do with the slowness of the acceleration from complete immobilty to full speed on the ground, contrasting with the fall after the jump that's really slow - I think speeding up, bouncing and rolling around feels appropriate since the character has a wheel, but the industrial theme has you expecting some more weight when you drop back down from jumping. Just a couple more of quick thoughts : - The green button sprite that you press could use straighter/ more angle-shaped edges ; I thought when you approach it you kind of want to "roll" on it instead of jump on it, it that makes sense ? - Again this is just a design thing, but I thought the green light blocks that turn on as you pass to indicate buttons looked like blocks you can jump on instead of elements of background, which can be misguiding. - I also spotted the robot's wheel gets cut on some of the one-way platforms, for some reason (this is really minor, sorry for nitpicking). Overall this is great, impressive work on the game and I can't wait to play new iterations, hopefully past that level I couldn't get through ! Have a great weekend !

Anonymous

While playing I noticed that one recurring theme was ruining the fun-momentum of the puzzle solving - Waiting for stuff. Waiting while a moving block gets to where you want it to be is just not that fun, and a few levels require such waiting, sometimes with an added failure condition that might make you wait some more. A few solutions are possible: 1. Make the player busy - instead of waiting for the block to arrive make the player engage with something simultaneously, maybe put the button away from where you would meet the moving block with platforming in between. 2. Minimize the wait - make the box faster, the length shorter, etc. 3. Give the player control over the waiting time, maybe manually moving the block with the analog stick, or even make the block faster while pulling the magnet or something. All and all I had fun playing, good job :)

Anonymous

I really like the robotic / machinery vibe and the music and sound effects are on point. The puzzles were ok. You need to move around the robot a lot and movement does not feel great. My biggest complaint about it is how awkward the robot feels. I like to jump around but the robot comes to a screeching halt whenever you land on the ground. It feels like you're landing in molasses. Anyways, thanks for sharing the MVP and good luck with future iterations / projects!

Anonymous

It feels pretty polished considering the time you put in. I really like the art style. A few things: 1) I kept wanting to drop back down through the platforms that you can jump up through. 2) I discovered that it's possible to take the magnet through gaps you're not supposed to by repeatedly dropping and grabbing the magnet. The robot makes a little bit of progress each time and eventually pulls the magnet low enough that you can carry it 3) The environmental sounds, (like the fan) seemed like they were either played at maximum volume, or would cut out instantly when out of range, rather than fading in and out.

Anonymous

Hey Mark, really enjoying the game so far! Just wanted to check, in regards to providing a video, what are your thoughts on me streaming this build to a live audience? I'd like to record my playthrough either way, I just wanted to see if streaming is okay or not. I'm looking forward to finishing it!

Anonymous

Hey Mark! I played through your game, so I thought that I should offer some feedback: 1) Movement - don't get me wrong, I absolutely love momentum based movement, but in a puzzle game I feel like it doesn't quite serve the same purpose it would in platforming games. The way it accelerates you slowly and stops you when you land can make the game feel a wee bit stiff at times. 2) Solutions to Puzzles - as you mentioned, a lot of times I wasn't really sure if I was doing something the right way. On one of the puzzles, I crushed the magnet with the closing mechanical door to get it to respawn on top of the electrical magnet, but wasn't sure if that was the intended way to complete the puzzle. I think that adding some sort of psychological reward for completing a puzzle like a little ding or lightbulb that would appear above the players head could reaffirm the player and make them feel more confident in their method for completing the level To end on a positive note, I felt like the puzzle elements worked together really nicely, and felt super polished! The clicking of the pulleys, the energizing animation on the electric magnet, and the feedback from the button all helped this game to feel super polished and well made. Can't wait to see more from you!

Francis Irving

Enjoyed my playthrough, makes me appreciate how much finishing a draft version of the game like this makes things clear! Keyboard controls were fine, worked well for me (although I agree with criticisms above that the character doesn't move in a light/fun enough way). My main concern is about the puzzles - they weren't fun for me. I managed to do them all, but I didn't usually feel clever when I worked one out. They were mainly relying on minor tricks in the abilities - which is nice and important in a puzzle game, but there need to be enough puzzles atomically composed of things the player already knows. The set of objects didn't seem to quite have the critical mass for that - it felt a bit more in an arcadey direction - more like it is the basic set of pieces for something like Spelunkey rather than a straight up puzzle game. One thing that would help would be consistency - buttons could be randomly wired to anything in a non-transparent way. I think vital to a puzzle is that all the state is visible - the green wires on the screen should *always* wire things up in a way that is completely predictable from seeing the screen, and that didn't happen.

Cameron Lapp

Good Eureka moments on the puzzles, did get myself into a lock state on one the first timed laser lock, I threw my magnet under the inverted U to try to get it to land ON the timer lock but it skidded across. It felt like the pause screen should have the equivalent of the magnet/robot destruct resets rather than restarting the whole section. I think I cheesed one of the laser puzzles by just throwing the magnet straight up and grabbing the zipline to carry me through as the magnet dropped back down (blocking it for a split second). Also not sure if leaving the magnet on the island next to the zipline was the intended solution for the 2 vertical moving lasers.

Anonymous

Hey Mark! I just got soft locked on the screen with the pulley system (the one that you have to throw the magnet twice to reach the pulley weight) that comes right after the one that you have to throw the magnet to a button to open a door. I picked up the magnet in this screen and then decided to head back where I came from. As soon as I fell, the magnet got stuck to the blue panel on the wall and, since it wasn't destroyed, no now magnet re-appeared and I had no way of getting the magnet from the wall. I had to reset the level to continue.

Mj 323

hmm. hopefully my longer entry was not lost. i ran into a very bad windows/chrome bug that forced me to reboot (related to the shift/sticky key setting because the patreon text box interprets the enter key as "post the edit"), anyway more detailed comments from me will require actual note-taking ; )

Anonymous

Congrats on your first full dive into game development Mark! I've played through the MVP and overall I was pretty happy with it! Overall your level design was strong, and I can see the makings of a skilled level designer. One or two of the puzzles had me scratching my head after a little while, and it got a little frustrating. Not a huge deal, but it threw some of the pacing off when previous puzzles were more intuitive in comparison. I played it twice all the way through for what it is worth! Once to get a feel for it, and an overall impression. The second time to give better feedback. For my first playthrough, my initial rating is a 6/10 which is honestly not bad. It was fun and overall I enjoyed the time I spent with it. It was when I got stuck that quickly started to lower my overall enjoyment with it. My second playthrough though I rate it 7/10 because I could see the game and the puzzle design for what it was. 1. I would love to see the mouse right click be used for aiming instead of Shift, and left click for throwing be used in place of the K key. I know you already mentioned though that you plan to work on the PC controls. 2. For the giant fan sfx, probably want to lower the volume overall on it, as it's a bit loud when I first heard it. Better yet if there was a smooth increase in the volume based on distance to the fan. Not really an issue though for an MVP. 3. The light emanating from the magnetic platforms. Just realized on my second playthrough that it relates to the range of its magnetism. This completely went over my head, so I think a few transparent lines around the edges of the the circle that are pulsating might better help sell that as the platforms magnetic range. Edit: Better yet, take those moving blue lines in your giant magnet tractor beams and use those instead. Keep the visuals consistent and it'll help drive the magnetic range home on the moving platforms. 4. The quickly ascending ropes to get to the end of the level has some potential. Would love to see it used in solving some puzzles. 5. Your 8th level I think? (Could use a level number readout somewhere, or a level name so that I know I am giving the right feedback) The one where the drill head pushes the magnet off a ledge. That has some major puzzle potential too. I would love to see a puzzle where I throw the magnet over a gap, and then use the drill head to push the magnet off a ledge to activate a button, or block a laser on the other side. Further potential for the drill head is to have the player throw a magnet on top of it, and as the drill retracts back into the wall, it carries the magnet along with it. When the drill retracts fully into the wall it drops the magnet. 6. I don't think the game benefits from movement acceleration and inertia. It's definitely a fun aspect of game making when first learning to code, but during some of the time sensitive platforming puzzles where I needed to get to to a position quickly, the acceleration and speed up felt like it was hindering me. I think immediately being at full speed would make the game feel a bit more responsive and help the platforming bits. 8. Variable jump height, I like it. Should probably use that in puzzles in fun ways if you have it. Otherwise it feels like a remnant of prototype code. 9. I spent about 15 minutes on the last level on my first playthrough, and when I did discover the solution to it, I was a bit upset by the solution. Sure there was a slight moment of "Aha, I figured it out!" but nothing really prepared me for thinking about destroying the magnet like that. I think a simple looking level would have worked better here, or to have a tutorial be placed earlier in the game that used that. That way you can teach players that destroying the magnet is a viable option. Since that final level looked a bit complex, I was was running through all sorts of potential solutions based on what I had already learned, just to then realize what the actual answer was. I didn't feel smart for having figured it out, I just thought "Wow that was a total curveball". On my second playthrough, the final level took me about 30 seconds to beat, which didn't feel great when the previous levels actually required a bit more complex thinking to solve. This made the solution feel more like a gimmick, rather than a fun puzzle to solve. I want to emphasize point #4 and #5 and the puzzle potential that I saw; because it means that I wanted keep playing your game! It was good, I had fun, your MVP was a success there, Congratulations! Regarding feedback, definitely take everything I say (and everyone else's feedback) with a grain of salt. Every player thinks differently about every aspect of your game. From the art, the controls, the level design and mechanics. What I had fun with and enjoyed may not be the same opinion as anyone else. A great piece of advice I had read by Tynan Sylvester, is that when considering feedback try not to solve for the immediate problem presented by the player. Instead try to imagine the players situation and take a few steps back. Consider what led up to that moment and if there was a way you could have better equipped the player to handle the scenario. Sometimes that means providing a quick button reminder or a short obstacle to remind them of a mechanic; maybe balancing a few numbers could help. I wouldn't ever say to just outright ignore feedback, but players will typically try to give you the quickest solution to their problem which isn't always the right answer. Another point on feedback. Players will almost always tell you what they didn't like, and rarely tell you what they did enjoy. A happy player generally feels less of a reason to comment, than a frustrated one. This can sometimes feel demoralizing as a game developer when you're going through a ton of feedback which overall seems negative. So I'll emphasize this again, I had fun! It was a great MVP, good job! Overall 10/10 effort Mark. I absolutely love your channel and everything that you do. I've been following and learning from GMTK for years, and I see industry professionals everywhere share your videos on Discord and Slack as soon as a new one becomes available. I totally felt the frustration in your video that you emphasized when building your game, and the feeling of wanting to give up on it, but you still saw it to completion! This will forever be a shining accomplishment in your memory as you look back. There isn't a single prototype that I've made that I don't look back on fondly in some way. Keep it up, you'll only get better, and that's really what separates amateurs from the professionals.

Anonymous

Hi Mark. Not sure if there's a way to upload a picture on here (I'm relatively new to Patreon), but I found a bug in the Cheeky level where I threw the magnet and it got stuck against the solid column to the right hand side of the level that the pull down lever comes out of. It would then move up and down whenever I pulled the lever as if it was a part of the same object. I did manage to free it after a couple of attempts by climbing the 3 steps next to it, jumping over the top of the column and grabbing hold of the magnet then pressing X/square to jump away from the column with the magnet still in my hands.

Anonymous

Liking the vibe so far too! A few others have mentioned the movement, but I've got to second that. Feels a bit clunky and with how movement-oriented the level are I want the movement to feel smooth and nice. If things moved a bit faster that would be nice. Currently everything feels a bit floaty and slow. Puzzles are pretty good, though some were difficult to visually conceptualize what was going on and I kind of passed just by doing whatever felt like the most obvious set of actions without actually understanding what was happening "under the hood". In some ways the puzzles reminded me of Limbo, but I think for the mechanics I want it to feel more like the 2d portal game that came out forever ago. Might be a fun one to revisit for inspiration!

Anonymous

Hey, this is very polished as a lot of people already said. :D I like the simple and functional style. And I agree with a lot of the points I read here already about the movement momentum/speed. One thing I didn't already see mention but struck me was, that there seems to be an inconsistency with the one way floor, you can jump through. There is an early puzzle for learning to throw the magnet with works fine. But you learn there, that you can't take the magnet with you through those platforms. And then just a few levels later with the big magnet "tractor beam" you just zip right through. I know where this is coming from design vise, but it tells two different rules, that may change how the player plans his strategies. I am eager to see the next prototype :D

Jamie Price

I enjoyed the game! SPOILERS AHEAD It took me much longer to figure out the last puzzle than any of the rest, and I'm not sure if what I did was the intended solution. I destroyed the magnet on the spikes at the right time that the replacement would land on top of the plug. Also with that last puzzle, if you get a replacement magnet that lands on the floor (on the left) while you're on the right, there's no way to retrieve it or finish the level, so the only option is to restart. Same with if you send the magnet across to the right while you're on the left - the magnet falls on the pause button and you're stuck. Btw I was using a keyboard and it was ok. I was briefly worried that I couldn't throw high enough or at the right angle, but all the throwing turned out fine after some experimenting. The only issue is that the onscreen button hints were for controller only and I had to switch away to check what keys to press. I liked all the other puzzles!

Anonymous

Hi. It took me about half an hour to finish the demo and I enjoyed it. Since you want feedback, I will try to think about some things. The game looks cute. I like the the little robot, and the animations and style really work for me. The last screen was a nice teaser. The puzzles are not bad, but they miss an eureka moment, as someone else pointed out. They should feel more like solving a riddle, and not just work. What I mean is that in most of them the solution is obvious, or the path to it, and the only thing that I need to do is be careful and follow the steps. In only a couple of them I had to stop and think. But I am usually good with this kind of games. My favourite puzzle was the one which the one with the slow tractor beam, and the solution involved getting the magnet to fall into it. That one was really good. My second favourite is the one with the two tracto beams and the two buttons, each one of them in a different height. That one took me a while to get through. I think the game will be better if an animation in the cables would show if the button is on or off. There are two levels when I am not sure if I followed the right solution. One if right at the beginning, the first time that a yellow button appears. I did not use that yellow button at all. The second one is when I had to destroy the magnet so it respawns on top of the battery. I think that is the right solution, but it is a weird mechanic. And finally, and it is something that I am not sure how can be fixed, I didn't like to wait for the gliders to go and come back when I failed the first attempt to jump into them. And finally for real, two small nitpicks. The first time I tried to restart a level, I just clicked the button and didn't notice that I had to wait. It took me just a couple seconds to realise, but maybe get the black bar to at least fill up to the 10%. And while throwing the magnet, I don't see the point of using the L stick while throwing. It should be used only to aim, but once the curve is where I want it it should be possible to leave the stick in neutral and just throw. Or, at least, make the curve disappear. But great game. Would play again.

Johan Agstam

So right now it is not very fun for me. I think it has potential though, but I could not bring myself to play it very long as my headspace isn't very much geared towards games right now. The main issues for me was that the characters movement felt very slow and sluggish and even though there's button to enter aim mode with the magnet it would sometimes do this when I was just moving around as well which was annoying especially considering that a controller was made to be the preferred input method. I think if the character's movement were to become more fluid you have the potential to make something interesting here.

Anonymous

I actually subscribed just to play this, I sadly can't stick around too much at the moment. The game feels really polished overall. It has some fun levels and some nice ahá moments too. But while playing I felt like there was a little too much waiting involved sometimes. I also didn't enjoy how much the character slows down after you land. Also if you hold down the throwing button but press no direction it doesn't show anything and for me it felt like the button wasn't working. But maybe that was just me. As a finishing little note. "wires" showing the powerlines and stuff could have a little more contrast or maybe also some indication of when they are being active. It would add faster readability of what's going on making it less of a hassle to read the puzzle. In any case thank you for sharing your process. I learned a lot about game making through your channel.

Anonymous

Finally remembered to play this. Like many others, enjoyed the game with a few common nitpicks: 1) Movement could use work. I don't mind not having the same control in the air as I do on the ground, but if my momentum is picking up in the air just to crash to zero on the ground it feels wrong even if clean movement isn't entirely the point of the game. 2) Final level was a good puzzle in theory, but in practice I agree that it felt like the first level to need destroying a magnet. Putting one of those solutions earlier in the game when there are fewer mechanics to keep track of might be nice. Thinking on it, I suppose I can see that you set that up tangentially in the level before with the magnetic field, but I spent most of my time trying to jump in a way to get the magnet on top before I finally got it. 3) The time commitment to making a wrong decision is pretty punishing. I'm not sure there's a way around that in your current puzzles, as the timing is often set where it needs to be, but I spent as much time waiting to reset as I did trying new solutions. Cleaning up the movement might allow for tighter time windows, which could help reduce this. On a happier note, I enjoyed the bit at the end of the one level where you could catch a glimpse of some sort of enemy, the white block monster. Felt very Psychonauts with the nightmares.