Mind Over Magnet
A downloadable game for Windows
Escape a dangerous factory using the power of magnetism. You must team up with three different magnet friends and use their unique abilities to solve more than 60 tricky single-screen puzzles.
This game comes from Mark Brown, the creator of the YouTube channel Game Maker’s Toolkit. You can follow his game making journey on YouTube... and soon play the final result for yourself!
Features
- Solve more than 60 puzzles, in 6 different floors as you work your way up the factory.
- Use magnetism to move blocks, open doors, travel over gaps, and more.
- Meet a cast of cute magnet friends and borrow their handy problem-solving abilities.
- Scour the levels to find hidden bolts, and unlock… something! Probably! I'm still making the game!
Note: description and screenshots depict a game that is still in development. Features, visuals, and content is subject to change as development continues.
Note 2: The Mac version has some bugs - I'm looking in to it! Thanks for your patience!
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Been following the Dev Log for a while.
I'll be sure to pick it up.
Mind Over Magnet by Gamemaker's Toolkit Pt1
Lovely.
Really nice. I love the cute theme and styling, the thick lines of the artwork is just right, and the music especially is a perfect fit for meditative puzzling, really nailed that. Main thing that stands out to me at this point would be achieving a smooth difficulty curve, it seems to spike and dip a bit, and I think could generally increase a bit faster overall. My favorite puzzle in this demo's collection was the one where you have to drop Magnus down onto the switch, his reaction really seals it too. Overall, I am excited to pick up and play the full release (and hear your thoughts about the end of this development journey).
I love the timing aspect! I hope the story/lore becomes interesting as we uncover new secrets of the world. I can't wait for more levels.
despite the absolutely horrible performance I got I loved those two silly guys
Watch me play the @Gmtk Puzzle - Mind Over Magnet demo and see if I can solve the challenging puzzles within the game! Join me for some brain-teasing fun in this playthrough.
I've been watching all of the dev videos up to this point, and it's been super rewarding to watch your journey!
Playing the demo now, I can really feel the amount of work and iteration that's gone into it :) The polish and overall execution really make it feel great, from the little nut and bolt particles getting pulled up by the magnet, to the little comments from your magnet friend a la Mario Wonder. The puzzle design is really clean and nice, too!
Honestly, I don't usually like puzzle games that much but I enjoyed this one. Good work and can't wait for the full release.
Cool game
Full gameplay: https://youtu.be/yFyUsXsSdkI?feature=shared
Cute little fun Demo
The colors are so good that make me want to play this game! Great game!
Watched the video it was amazing
Awesome game! I ❤ puzzle games! Very looking forward to the full version! 😀
i also love this game😀
great game, looking forward to the full version! :-)
wow nice
Congratz on the release !!
This is a demo
been following this game closely on your YouTube channel since the start and LOVING that I can play it now! It feels great, though I did find a small bug: If you rebind Carry / Throw / Use away from E on keyboard controls (I rebound it to W), dialogue continues to use the E key
amazing game, lotta potential. i hope this game doesnt get rushed.
this was fun as hell. i love the puzzles and artstyle
That was a really fun demo! Puzzles weren't too hard, but I can see the potential in those mechanics. Love you, Mark. Wishlisted.
Fun game! really good puzzle game, just think outside the box!
The only thing I felt was missing was being able to see how far out those screw drill bits went out when you press them, cuz everytime I would activate them just to see how far out they went, but it would be nice to just be able to know from the start
I'm not a big fan of a puzzles but this one is a real nice polished demo! I really liked it! Hints and ability to skip a level is such a nice thing to have.
Probably the only bit of feedback that I can give is that
No one really needs that long of a cutscene at the beginning. When you show that the PC jumps out of the pile I would assume I can control it immediately after.
Also I would want to see the ability to start new game in-game, not by tinkering with the save file. I love that you encourage more intimate approach to the game... But you get the point :)
ayyy i really liked that. i like sharing my two cents as well so ima give some unsolicited advice lmao
particle effects look nice, alil bright tho. they draw attention a bit more than the character does tho, a tiny bit. in my opinion. especially when more zoomed in. maybe some more transparency might help with that, idk. sure i could just turn them off but i like them lol. i think they were pretty well done, honestly. i just dont like how my eye is drawn to da floor over the character itself yknow. but maybe thats noob-dev me just being more aware of particle effects lol
level names all shaky and sexy lookin but its way in the corner and theres alot that happens at that transition point that its like "wat what did it say? dang i missed it i was too busy lookin around" etc. the eye wants to go to them rule of thirds points so i found maself fighting between the center of the screen to see the supersonic transitions, and the character to see the animations, and the lid flyin, and the metallic bits scattering, and the screen zoomin, and the corner where the level name is, etc
maybe if the level transition and the level name happened at different times, or if the level name was in a different place on the screen. or better yet if the level name lasted longer on screen idk. obvi pretty irrelevant and unimportant if it's just level names but still. im no gen alpha 😅 i take a bit of time to take in all the information
music alil loud by default. same as the ambient fx. so i set the music and the ambience like a third of max while the others are max. alil bit better balance for me, i like the sfx to really stand out over the music, so idk if other people would as well. just gives the game a bit more tactility i suppose. dont want the jams drownin out the audio feedback from the inputs.
could come down to volume, but also if u like mixing and mastering music, maybe some of the frequency ends can be taken out of the music so its not all fighting for the same frequency space. orrrr, idk ur moral stance on lofi lol but lofi might not be a bad filter to try. just so the sounds stand out
when evrything wants ur attention, then nothin gets ya attention, ykwim? visual and audible heirarchies are very very important. timing, placement, volumes, brightness, etc
some ux and ui animations could def be integrated maybe. just to give it a bit more flow and a bit less flashy jumpcut jumpscariness. at least on the pause action, alil zoom-in maybe. or quick flyin from the left or somethingg with alil metallic sound as it slams into place in the center lmao etc. the rabbithole for the importance of ui animations and ux is hella deep tho
alsoo, when i enable an option, idk if i like the fact that enabling and disabling an option has the same clicky sound effect lol. if i turn an option on, i kinda want a sorta positive kind of moree affirming yessy sound. and if im disabling an option, maybe u can make the click a lil duller or something, lower pitch mayhaps. just some audio feedback to match the visual feedback. cuz i kinda look at things in passing but when they both the same click its like waitt did i enable this option or not lol idk. maybe a problem with my brain. i want it to sound like i turned it on, yknow. im not crazy am i lol
iv seen other people talk about this but the sounds dont rly sound like they exist in the same space yknow. audibly. idk if thats due to frequency pockets or differing reverb or something idk. maybe givin em all the same filter or fx chain might help with that
them waterfall sounds omgg so intrusive lol and not in a calming rain way. no offense i just think better when my brain isnt filled wit all sorts of sound. maybe if the water had anything to do with the puzzles then maybe u can draw attention to em like that but otherwise its alil distracting honestly. a more peaceful wooshing mayhaps, or differing volume or frequency domination idk. but maybe u want the player to feel unnerved and distracted because u this character who just like falls into some random place and u want the audience to be immersed with a relevant and applicable emotional response idk lol.
i understand the use of the action button to grab onto the hangy things, n maybe it is more efficient like that idk. it is pretty satisfying gameplay. especially on grabbing the ol magnet buddy. i suppose im used to old sonic games where u just jump at somethin like that and he automatically grabs onto it. the most intuitive gameplay doesnt always mean the best tho. sonic def grabs when i dont want him to grab sometimes lol. nice when its nice, but not nice when it isnt. somethin to think about maybe. im sure u probably already have tho. i also went to press B on an xbox controller to let go of the hangy thing but it didnt workk. same button to grab and to let go is probably better once ppl get used to it but its def not the most intuitive. tho ik B is reserved for something else. B to aim, not LT? cmonn man lol jk
obvi i can tell you know what atmospheric perspective is, which is greattt. idkk. (again, this is just me tryin hard to think of things to say cuz i wanna help out 😅) maybe the bg can be a bit more desaturated. my eyes are kinda fighting around the screen a bit, and a more deliberate visual heirarchy might help that. i like the custom backgrounds over the simples cuz theyr cool af, yet they could maybe benefit from even less contrast or less saturation maybe. i saw the screenshots of the more fiery red level and dang i bet that level must be hard to look at lol. no offense, just makes it harder to differentiate the foreground from the background when theyr both bright and saturated etc
im sure uv heard of likee squash and stretch or whatever its called. i dont remember if ud tried that kinda animation style prior. if not then maybe itd be somethin to at least play around with. at least to have the experience. ik u separate the wheel from the body a bit but maybe animations in the sprite pieces themselves would sorta help give the characters alil more life maybe. at least in the ol tire wheel idk what the wheel is made of lol but still. oo lil bouncy rubber sound for the wheel tire if its made of rubber oo. satisfying lmao.
puzzle design pretty good tho, i like challengin my brain. literally went "Ahhhhhhhhhh.." like at least 4 times lol. its crazy how simple the puzzles are in terms of mechanics and features, but its just the unintuitive order of operations which makes them difficult. fascinating stuff. played on windows. no bugs in the slightest. satisfying controls and gameplay
Can't say much, had a lot of fun playing this demo. Would like to see custom levels in the full game, but I will also buy the game without it.
I've got one point of criticizm, and that is that this game has nothing in the way of graphics or performance settings. The game runs fine as long as it's in windowed mode on my PC but it's not an ideal solution.
Very charming! A few notes:
- Lovely visuals, and the sounds are nice and non-intrusive, everything reads clearly. Great work
- Puzzle difficulty felt balanced, not too easy, not too hard for a first world, you learn the mechanics by yourself
- I was confused why a single level had nuts and bolt particles but none of the others even though they're non-interactable (did I just not notice them elsewhere? Were they supposed to be there for a particular reason?)
- the keys are correctly placed on a non-QWERTY keyboard (so no issue playing with them, left is left) but they display wrong (ex. my keyboard is AZERTY, so using the A keybind is me pushing the Q key, but it still displays as A)
If you have access to detecting physical vs value of the key, could be useful to match the display to the value of the key while keeping the physical key binds as they are. I've seen some Unity games pull it off so it should be possible. Thanks for making the keybinds physical + allowing rebind though, it's a pain every time the dev has a QWERTY keyboard and doesn't think of other possibilities (this is a solid 90% of the time, even a big budget Unity game like Genshin Impact had that issue) =w=;;
- I love the robot's little faces! Magnus and they don't have a ton of character yet though, it could be fun for them to interact a little more so the game feels less empty? Especially since the beginning puzzles are fairly easy, it wouldn't be too distracting. Get us attached? :3 (maybe idle conversations that can be toggled off for people who want to focus on gameplay?)
Enjoyed this demo very much :D
It looks great! I’ve been following you on youtube for a while now and it’s great to see this finally coming out to the public! Any plans for a Linux build? How about an arm64 Linux build in an AppImage I could play on my OGA? 😁️
Love it.
Love the demo. I suggest having an option to make the reset key reset levels instantly, so you don't have to hold it.
I really love the amount of polish this demo has - the little introduction at the start of each level was especially nice! Overall the puzzles felt very good to solve, although everything felt like it could've been moving just slightly faster since there's a lot of waiting around inside magnet beams.
really pretty demo! didn't notice any major issues.
the level 'Magnus Rides Again' felt out of place in terms of difficulty- by the time you get to it you've already run into more challenging levels with the same mechanic (requiring you to leave magnus in certain places so that you can run back and forth beneath the electromagnets).
I think he mentioned this particular level in one of his more recent devlogs. It's just to demonstrate a mechanic (the fact you can leave magnus to the side while you go elsewhere) so other levels later on make more sense
I do feel like that was demonstrated in other levels earlier on though, so this one may be a little out of place
The game has interesting mechanics, I hope it will become more popular.
Love the demo! I ran into an issue though where the Windows Version crashes with a external memory reference error when you try to create a new game.
Loved the demo! I really appreciate the accesibility options (particularly color-related ones).
Completed the demo. Game definitely looks and sounds good, which was to be expected, and you definitely have the elements of a fun little puzzler going on here.
For more detailed feedbacks, here are some notes I wrote down while playing the game. Starting with some more technical / UI things:
- I have a huge 4K screen and prefer to play games in 1440p windowed, so windowed resolution options would be appreciated. 1080p is a bit too small for comfort.
- After finishing the demo I wanted to go back to test some extra stuff but the main menu only had "continue" as an option which just threw me into the empty final room. Took me a while to find the "delete all save data" in the options. I imagine the final game will have a level select in the main menu or something, but I feel even for this demo you could do something to make replaying levels easier.
- I would generally recommend for any game to always have two slots of keyboard & mouse binds at minimum. This game could clearly benefit from it too, seeing as how you have some fixed secondary binds for some controls right now.
- While I think this game mostly gets away with it, I would generally recommend against using pure icon buttons like you currently have in the options menu. I had no idea what the last icon was supposed to represent until I navigated to it, after which I point I guess it's supposed to stand for "accessibility" somehow.
Then, onto gameplay UX details:
- I don't like that I have to press interact to grab onto chain lifts. Based on past platformer experience, I would expect the character to just automatically grab on as I jump on them. Similarly, I would expect to be able to drop straight down from the chain lifts by pressing down, instead of jump being the only way to get off of them.
- Similarly to above, I would expect my character to automatically grab onto the ceiling door handles when I jump onto them.
- It also feels weird having to press interact to exit a level. Most level-based games like this automatically finish the level when you simply touch the exit. So far I'm not seeing any reason why this game shouldn't do the same.
Finally, something a bit more tricky:
The general pace of the whole game felt annoyingly slow to me on several occasions. Like, I'm looking at a puzzle and figure out the solution or what I want to try next. Then, actually executing on it just felt like going through the motions for way too long because of how much I have to move around slowly to get stuff done. Or waiting for what feels like forever for all those drills or slowly rising magnet platforms to get in the right position.
I understand that this is a relatively complicated piece of feedback because most of the puzzles have timing-related elements to them, which means that you can't just crank up the player speed without also cranking up the speed of everything else as well. And that the current slow speed of everything probably makes executing on that timing relatively easy for those who aren't all that great at platforming. But perhaps the game could have a speed option / options that would let you crank the speed of the whole game up for those who don't mind the tighter execution requirement? Or perhaps the game could simply be faster by default and the accessibility section could have an option of slowing the game down ala Celeste for those who feel they need a larger window of time for platforming execution?
I imagine this is an area where you will have a lot of variance in the potential audience for the game, and since the focus of the game is primarily on the puzzles and less on the platforming execution (as per your devlogs), I feel that having options to cover your bases on the latter could work out quite well for the game.
One additional thing I noted down during a replay: when you're next to / near a switch of any kind, I think the game could visually highlight the relevant object(s) (or at least their icons) that the switch affects. As it is, it's generally faster to just toggle the switch and see what happens than it is to stop and visually scan over the level to see where the relevant icons are. If those icons were automatically highlighted in this situation, it would basically get rid of that time-consuming visual scanning as you could immediately home in on the highlighted bits to see what's going to be affected.
Very fun, loved the demo. Shame it was a bit short, completed it in around 10 min. Hopefully the full game will be longer.
that is how demos work v.v
Loved the demo! Can't wait to see more!
Oh, would you look at that, a new demo, I've been following the devlogs for this game for a while now :)