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
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.
Really enjoyed it and have already wishlisted, can't wait!
Did however have an issue where picking up or dropping Magnus too close to an interactable object causing both Magnus being dropped/picked up and the object doing its thing.
Very cool, but it was short. It makes me worried about the full game being 2h long. overall very fun, but my disappointment of 10m of gameplay was just horrible. I do know I can get the full demo as a Patreon, but I'm sceptical about that.
- There should be (the option of) a rim highlight around intractable objects when you're within their radius. So that you know, e.g. if you're going to drop Magnus or flip that switch.
- Analogue movement speed. I know that you probably haven't designed your puzzles around it so it would be entirely cosmetic but going directly to 100% speed if using a stick just feels like something is missing.
Really clever puzzles, well introduced mechanics, refined and responsive movement, as expected from the legend himself, I can't wait to play the full game!!
psst. btw.. found a funny bug where if you release the magnet then jump immediately, you would jump much higher, maybe it can be kept or even Invisibly improved for speed running? just saying <3
Really nice work! Plays really well and looks and sounds pretty great.
- A few sounds end a little suddenly for me but I doubt it would matter to most people. - I think I cheesed the final puzzle. The drill didn't extend far enough for me to not squeeze past with the magnet from the left. Didn't feel like that was the correct solution, but an easy fix. - There's an element to the song that sounds like a doorbell and it made me double take every time!
Fun demo! It looks and feels great to play. I wrote down a list of bugs (MacOS) I encountered, as well as just some thoughts I had while playing.
Bugs:
Going back from the options menu by using the B button causes a soft-lock, showing just the main menu backdrop and not the menu itself.
Loading indicator icon is out of frame on MacBook Pro (16:10 aspect ratio). Although the indicator does display correctly.
After getting the first key the game froze (seems to be related to the animation unlocking)
Opening the pause menu and closing it made the controls stop working. Interestingly the button icons still update based on which input I last press.
Spamming the skip-cutscene button as the game starts resulted in a black screen
At this point I switched to my Windows PC to continue playing.
General feedback:
Giving Magnus’ a “voice” would help characterise him and make him more expressive. (Think Banjo Kazooie or Celeste)
Adding a crouch button would do nothing for gameplay, but it would give the player something to do while waiting for a big block to move, or a screw to screw.
I often found myself just pressing the first switch I case across without much thought. I imagine this behavior could be exploited to poke some fun at players who do this.
The audio is currently just ok, it does the job just fine, but it's missing a little something. Music is good though, fits the game well.
← Return to game
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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 :)
great
cute game. Enjoyed it. It worked really well on steam deck.
Clever puzzles. I like the use of the magnet. Hope to see more.
Really enjoyed it and have already wishlisted, can't wait!
Did however have an issue where picking up or dropping Magnus too close to an interactable object causing both Magnus being dropped/picked up and the object doing its thing.
I completed it in 23minutes :) Cute characters! I encountered no bugs. Thanks for the demo
This looks like a game I would enjoy on my Steam Deck. So please consider supporting Linux (ideally) or a Steam Deck Verified badge.
worked pretty well with my steam deck you can try.
Very cool, but it was short. It makes me worried about the full game being 2h long. overall very fun, but my disappointment of 10m of gameplay was just horrible. I do know I can get the full demo as a Patreon, but I'm sceptical about that.
That is how demos work, they're supposed to be short
Oh, right... I'm an idiot
Very nice demo.
I have two thoughts,
- There should be (the option of) a rim highlight around intractable objects when you're within their radius. So that you know, e.g. if you're going to drop Magnus or flip that switch.
- Analogue movement speed. I know that you probably haven't designed your puzzles around it so it would be entirely cosmetic but going directly to 100% speed if using a stick just feels like something is missing.
Really clever puzzles, well introduced mechanics, refined and responsive movement, as expected from the legend himself,
I can't wait to play the full game!!
psst. btw.. found a funny bug where if you release the magnet then jump immediately, you would jump much higher, maybe it can be kept or even Invisibly improved for speed running? just saying <3
people already flocking to this lmao
edit: in the tutorial part, interacting with the door froze the game, and i thought it crashed. must be optimization errors. i play on windows
edit²: WHY MUST I BUT IT ON STEAM JHW BUVFSDFOSDVBH
Really nice work! Plays really well and looks and sounds pretty great.
- A few sounds end a little suddenly for me but I doubt it would matter to most people.
- I think I cheesed the final puzzle. The drill didn't extend far enough for me to not squeeze past with the magnet from the left. Didn't feel like that was the correct solution, but an easy fix.
- There's an element to the song that sounds like a doorbell and it made me double take every time!
No bugs in my experience.
Fun demo! It looks and feels great to play. I wrote down a list of bugs (MacOS) I encountered, as well as just some thoughts I had while playing.
Bugs:
General feedback:
For some reason I can’t progress beyond this level. Am I missing something here? Playing using the mac build.
I’ve tried pressing e, jumping and pressing e. I hope this is just a bug 😅
Edit: Seems to be working now. Not sure what condition caused it to not work initially.
Thanks, I'll look into it. You can use "Skip Level" in the Stuck section for now
I'll make sure to try it out asap
Excited to try this out!