Mind Over Magnet Devlog - November 20th (Patreon)

Hello Patrons!

As discussed before, I'm currently focusing my time and effort on game development. But one way that I can reward you for continuing to support GMTK on Patreon is to provide some devlogs, updating you on what I've been up to.

So on Tuesday (Nov 14th), I released the new episode of Developing on YouTube. And then on Wednesday I got started on some important stuff from... The Plan!

Right now a new build is with a bunch of playtesters, so I can't change any level design stuff until I've got their playthrough footage. So while I'm waiting on that I decided to tackle some other stuff. Stuff that I've been putting off forever. Starting with the progression system.

I've had the code in there to save and load your progress for ages. I just needed to implement it properly.

So I'm not sure if this is the best way to do it, but the game basically just has a list with 100 bools (basically... true/false tickboxes). Then when you finish a level, it ticks the corresponding bool and saves that to a file. When you next start the game, it loads the file and knows which level you got to.

(I'm not making 100 levels, don't worry! That also covers some optional hidden items you can find, and also gives me some leeway in case I do end up adding a few more stages before release).

Now that the game saves properly, I can change the title screen button to read as "New Game" or "Continue" depending on whether you've got any saved progress. I also just gave the title screen a new lick of paint.

The progression system also needs a button you can press to delete your save data and start the game from scratch. It obviously can't just be a normal button, though - it needs a confirmation pop-up or something. 

However, right now my options menu is full of stand-ins and default Unity icons and draft images. I mean, look at the pictures on the tabs...

If I'm finishing the game, there's no point adding yet another "fix this later"-style button. I might as well overhaul the entire UI. So that's how I spent the rest of my week!

I started with the tab pictures. I'm pleased with those.

I went through each page, right to left. So accessibility was up first. That was one relatively easy as it's just a bunch of toggles. Most of these have been in since I did the character controller code. But "Simply Backgrounds" was a recent addition. You can see it in action in the video up top - it replaces the actual backgrounds, which can be visually noisy and animated, with a static and simple grid image. Should be good for those with low vision.

Next up, colour settings! These options have been in the game for a long time, but needed some new tweaks. For instance, you shouldn't be able to set both magnets to the same colour, so that needed some bespoke code to disable, say, the secondary blue button if the primary blue button is selected.

Here's a bonus look at how Unity visualises the path it will take when you move the arrow keys / controller when in the UI. Helpful! 

In general, it's actually a bit of a nightmare to support both keyboard/mouse and controller for a UI. You have to do lots of little tweaks and fiddling to make sure both work perfectly, and that it switches over seamlessly if you swap input type. Many headaches over that this week!

Keyboard remapping was also something I had implemented back when I did the character controller - the menu just needed a facelift. 

One thing I saw in playtesting was that people would get stuck on a puzzle using the first magnet (which can't be thrown, and can't change polarity) and then go into the options menu making sure they hadn't missed a button - only to see things like "enter aim mode" and "change polarity". Then they'd go back to the game and... huh? Those don't do anything? 

It's all a bit awkward and confusing, so now those labels are greyed out until you've made enough progress (thank you, progression system code!) to have seen magnets that can be thrown, or can change polarity. Less confusing, wahoo!

Very similar stuff for the controller remapping page.

The game now finally has volume sliders! One little accessibility option is a separate slider for "repetitive" sounds like the hum of a magnetic field or the crackle of a laser beam. These sounds can be constantly playing throughout a puzzle and if they get on your nerves or make it hard to think, you can turn them down / off.

And then the final page - system settings. The delete save data button is now in, with a these confirmation buttons. 

You can also toggle between full screen and window. And there's a "crop frame" button. Which... lemme explain. 

So in levels like above, the entire level fits in a 1600x900 pixel frame - and then stretches out to fill your screen. Which is cool... but now it's no longer pixel perfect. To go to, say, 1920x1080, the pixels have to be 1.2x bigger. You can't have 0.2 of a pixel.

So if you want that pixel perfection you can untick crop frame, and it will keep the level as 1600x900 and just have more of a border around it.

It's not very easy to explain in a short label for a toggle, so I think it might need a bit more work. (I suppose "pixel perfect" would be a good idea...)

So it's mostly been UI work this week! But I also did a little bit of artwork. The game will start in a pipe (that will emerge into world 1, a sewer). So above is an early version of that first pipe background - turns out it's really hard to suggest a rounded background from a 2D viewpoint - but the bricks definitely helped!

I'm taking some time off this week for family obligations, but in the small time I do have I'll be putting this options menu through rigorous testing. It's been a pain to make - mostly just very tedious and fiddly work. But once I'm 100% happy that it all works I'll never have to change it again!!!*

*Until hopefully I can make a Switch version, and I'll need to remove the keyboard page, remove the full screen toggle, and so on. That's a future Mark problem!

Cheers

Mark